Madeleine Abducted

234 Pages·2013·1.05 MB·English

by  Willis M S

MADELEINE ABDUCTED
(Estate Series – Book 1)
By M.S. Willis
This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or
dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters
and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Madeleine Abducted: Copyright © 2013 by M.S. Willis All rights
reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned,
distributed in any printed or electronic form or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 978-0-9894479-5-9
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/mswillisbooks
OTHER BOOKS BY M.S. WILLIS
Control Series
Book One – Control
Book Two – Conflict
Book Three – Conquer
Coming in 2014
Because of Ellison
Hope Restrained (Estate Series #2)
Captured (Control #4)
Changed (Control #5)
Table of Contents

PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Epilogue
Madeleine Abducted is dedicated to the poor fool who currently occupies my old
desk. Good luck to you.
Prologue
This is a story that is not meant for the faint of heart. If you are looking for
inspiration, if you are looking for light, if you are looking for something that will
help you sleep and dream, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Within these pages you will find a tale typically left unsaid in polite
society because of the formidable fear and striking sorrow its events evoke. It is
a story about abduction, enslavement, and the moment when a life is delivered
into darkness.
There is no neat and tidy ending, no white knight that rides in and delivers
freedom, nor salvation — there is no escape. Like life, stories don’t always end
with elegant edges.
A weak woman at one time, she fell victim to evil, disappeared on a fated
night never to return to the world again … but not for the reasons you might
think.
Her name is Madeleine Clark, and when she was abducted, she was not
only dragged into hell ….
She took over.
Chapter One
Madeleine stared out over a sea of shadowed faces. From where she stood,
the conversations between the audience members were nothing more than gentle
murmurs adding white noise to the barely lit concert hall. Her stomach knotted
as she paced the long white corridor between the stage and the rear practice
room; her eyes flickered out through the small, square windows to the audience
below. Other musicians passed her as they moved about, waiting to take their
places on stage. Discordant sounds and brief glimpses of shuffling sheet music
escaped the practice room door each time a musician passed through. Her head
pounded and her chest constricted as she felt the time grow closer to her
performance.
Deep breaths, Maddy … you can do this ….
Her long, black gown flowed around her feet like liquid onyx, shimmering
in cadence with her steps, swallowing her small stature. She pulled at the high
neckline and longed for the comfortable t-shirts she normally wore. The
rhythmic click of her heels reminded her of a metronome keeping time with the
beat of her heart. Her breath was irregular; her skin was sticky with nervous
perspiration. Surprise overtook her when, suddenly, a friendly voice invaded her
panic.
“I should probably remove that bow from your hands before you snap it in
two.” Jeremy’s mouth curved up into a genial grin, his warm brown eyes looked
down on her with a glint of humor.
She wrung her hands across the smooth wood of the bow; her fingers
covered by rosin dust from the horsehair. Releasing her tight hold on the thin
bow, she politely smiled in response to his jest. Jeremy reached down to take it
from her hands and said, “Maddy, you’ll be extraordinary. You have nothing to
worry about.” Continuing, he laughed. “You can’t hide behind the walls of a
studio forever, people want to see you play.”
That was the problem. Although Madeleine didn’t mind people hearing her
music, but she did not like being seen; preferring instead the protection of her
studio or home, where she could remain invisible to the eyes of the world. Her
voice came out in a mousy whisper, fear evident in her tone, “But I’ll feel so
naked … so exposed …. ”
Her hands moved over themselves, the trapped blood looking pink within
the pale white of her taut skin. Jeremy placed his hand over hers and said, “If I
could remove your hands to protect them as well, I would.”
Madeleine looked up into Jeremy’s face. He was a close friend, one of her
only friends. He understood her introversion and didn’t hold her lack of social
skills against her. If not for her need to remain emotionally distant, she may have
considered Jeremy for more than friendship. He was handsome in the most
classical sense of the term: dark chestnut brown hair; eyes a shade of warm
mahogany; and she knew he was tall, but at 5'2", most people were tall
compared to her. Jeremy’s body was long and lean, his upper body and arms
toned from the decades he’d spent mastering the violin. Standing before her in a
coattail tuxedo, he exuded masculine elegance and refinement. He was friendly
to a fault, a person she could rely upon to understand her and guard her secrets.
“Besides,” he said, beaming a grand smile, “you’ve played publicly before.
This should be no different.”
But it was different. Tonight was her first solo performance using her own
music, not something from a popular composer. This music came from within
her, revealing her innermost thoughts and desires in the form of melodies and
sounds. If the audience could decipher the hidden meaning of those notes, they
would discover the true person within her.
“Yes,” she said, “but when I played before, I was unseen, buried within the
orchestra.” She turned to look out over the audience and continued, “Tonight,
I’ll be the focus. Tonight, there’s nowhere for me to hide.”
His hand came up to softly brush along her cheek. He moved to stand next
to her, his eyes also taking in the sea of people. “Nonsense, Maddy. With your
size, that cello covers most of you,” he teased. “Or you could just close your
eyes and hide within the music. It’s beautiful. It makes you beautiful. You
should be proud, not shy.”
The practice room door swung open as the stage director walked into the
hallway, the light trill of a flute escaping as he passed through the door. “Fifteen
more minutes before showtime,” he said. “I’ll need the two of you to return to
the backroom. You’ll be going on stage last.”
Jeremy nodded to the director before he reached down to gently take
Maddy’s hand. She could feel his breath brush across her cheek as he leaned
down to whisper, “When you take the stage, Maddy, just know that I am there