Bonnie looked at her suspiciously.
"Well then, I'll tell you what I want first. And then I'll give you some advice, followed by information about what you want, Adam."
"Please."
"All right. I want you to promise that you won't stand in the way of my relationship with Adam under any circumstances, and that you'll never demand that he stay only with you, as a condition of having a life and a family together."
"Bonnie, I have no interest..."
"I know you don't yet, Anna." Bonnie interrupted her. "But can you promise me that?"
"Of course. I promise."
"Well then, here's my advice; do what Adam is demanding, now. Set your conditions. Negotiate with him, while he's willing to give in, and find a way to go with him to the United States."
"What kind of advice is that? Maw Maw didn't give me any information, Bonnie! I can't do that. I can't abandon my children and my husband to go back with Adam. My life is different now, and there's no room for him."
"Then your children and your mother-in-law will die." Bonnie noted quietly, and looked at her wrist, where her silver watch shone, and turned to Anna. "You have half an hour to decide, Anna. Would you rather see everyone dead, just so you don't break your pride and go back with Adam to your country? Decide what's most important to you. Anna, are you selfish? Would you rather your children were dead if they weren't with you? Wouldn't a mother abandon her children safely at their father's side to save their lives?"
"You said you'd tell me Adam's plans." Anna said sharply, but her anger was at herself. Bonnie put it in a way she hadn't thought of, but it was very sensible.
Bonnie smiled with such joy that Anna thought she was going to tell her something good.
"There's a bomb in the house, and in all the cars. They're triggered remotely. If they try to leave the mansion, they'll burn to death. It doesn't matter which way. And I don't think I need to tell you that Adam has placed snipers around the mansion, around this house, around everyone you know and call friends. Even the parents of your children's friends. They're all at gunpoint. It's as if your whole family, and your friends, had a target on their backs. There's no way you're going to make it out alive from everything he's engineered, but that doesn't stop you from trying. Adam isn't lying or exaggerating, Anna. He's willing to kill. And in the end, you go home with him. You can come back knowing that you could have prevented the death of everyone you love, alone in the world, without joy, and probably so bitter that Adam will abandon you in the green house, or you can accept Adam's proposal."
Anna felt her heart freeze.
"Are you the one who's going to set off the bomb?"
"Don't be silly. Adam wouldn't leave something like this in the hands of someone who was in here and could easily stop the attack. He hired people to do it."
"How do I know that what you're saying is the truth?"
Bonnie uncrossed her arms and reached into her dresser drawer for a laptop and turned it on. She fiddled with it for a few minutes and then looked at Anna.
"Come and look."
Anna approached and was shocked by what she was seeing. Maxwell's mother and his three children, plus the mansion's servants, the security guards and the Costas, were all surrendered, inside the living room, with guns pointed at them. Everyone was bound and gagged, including their children. Anna felt tears run down her face. And she saw Bonnie pick up her cell phone and make a call.
While she waited for her call to be answered, she held out her cell phone so that Anna could hear the call, but her attention was focused on the men pointing guns at her children. One of the men, who was pointing a gun at her family, answered the phone.
"Adam told you to talk to Anna so that she could be sure that what she's seeing on my computer screen is real. Please turn to the camera." Bonnie said, and handed the cell phone to Anna, who saw the man approaching the camera. He was wearing a hoodie.
"Let me talk to one of them." Anna asked, knowing that there was no way Adam could predict who she would choose to talk to.
"Who?"
"Tayme's nanny, my daughter."
The hooded man gave an order, and she saw her daughter's nanny raise her hand and approach. There was a lot of fear in her eyes. Which made Anna regret not having thought of fleeing, even before she had her children. It was all true. It was really happening. Her father was to blame for the situation. She heard the nanny's voice.
"Mrs. Lens?" The nanny asked.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No, ma'am. But the children took a long time to calm down. They screamed all night..." She was interrupted by the hooded man, who took the cell phone from her hand and turned it off, pointing his middle finger at the camera.
Bonnie took her cell phone back and turned off her laptop. Then she stared at Anna with a debauched look on her face.
"He doesn't even need the bombs. But he's going to use them anyway." She said, and Anna hurried out of the room. Now it would be less than twenty minutes before they carried out the execution order. She went into the kitchen, where she scribbled a few things on a piece of paper towel, and went straight into the living room.
"Are you threatening Ian's life, too?" Maxwell asked Adam, looking furious, when Anna entered the room.
"What are you saying Anna?" Maxwell asked, feeling his heart clench.
Anna pointed a finger at Adam.
"Our children are at gunpoint, Max. He's going to kill our children!"
Adam looked at her, and was sure that Bonnie had done what he asked. He could see it in the tears on her face.
"If I'm going to die, what do I need a son for?" Adam answered the question Maxwell asked, before Anna's desperate entrance, sarcastically.