Chapter 14%
I hadn’t slept soundly since that very night. I was still filled with a vague restlessness I couldn’t explain. Pain, disappointment and emptiness fused like a fog in my chest.
I knew I couldn’t be here any more. In a life that wasn’t mine. Next to a man whose heart may have gotten up and left years ago.
That night, I started it off.
I had hot coffee ready for the guards who never took their eyes off of me, with a friendly smile. They didn’t realize that I’d combined it with sleeping pills. So that she could make them sleep the night through, without a qualm.8
I scaled the back wall of the mansion with a ladder. Finally, I managed to escape.ll
I continued to make my way walking, drifting the sidewalk with nowhere to go. I could keep going only by instinct for choking and torment.
I believed that I could heal, I wrote, now that Nolan had finally been revealed for all his betrayals. Then came Vincent, and I used to think perhaps fate was giving me another try.
Tums out no. It all hurts just the same.8
I inhaled deeply and continued to put one foot in front of the other. Before I even knew what I was doing. I was standing in the middle of the street. I thought the silence was becoming increasingly uncomfortable already when a hom creaked in turning a flax delivery B Suddenly, my body froze. It was all so fast that I was thrown and hit the sidewalk. My vision went dark.
I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious.
By the time I drowsily blinked my eyes open, I was in the hospital.
My head was pounding when I attempted to sit up!
At one comer of the room two forms drew near. A woman and middle–aged man approached closer to me.
Thank the lord, three days and you finally woke up.“8
I was still working through what they had said and sometimes I also tried to remember the last thing that had occurred. They were silent for a moment and followed each other’s gaze. The middle–aged woman suddenly began to cry and hugged me, which made me more baffled
“Darling… I found you again after 15 years.
I froze.
My weak body was still, but my mind began to spin.
I glanced at her face, creased in a frown. “What do you mean?”
The women released me, peered into me, as if for some verification in my eyes of what she was beginning to suspect.
“Tm your mother, Scarlett
My head throbbed even more. My breath caught. My heart was pounding like it would explode out of my chest.
I shook my head slowly.
Thereupon this man, who had been standing close to her, came and took me up into his arms. He held me tight, shaking as though he was holding something he had lost long ago.
Again, I froze.)
“What is happening?” I whispered.
The man released his embrace. I glanced over at both of them, their faces still full of emotion and rejoice!
“What makes you think I’m your child?” and from the buzz in my voice, my voice was up a little octave, and I was a little bit nervous. “You must be mistaken. This has to be a mistake.”
They glanced at each other as the woman took “We’re not wrong, Scarlett,” she said sweetly.
my hand.X
“At the time of your accident, we quickly took you to the
daughter had, the one who disappeared fifteen years ago. While waiting for you to be treated, I requested that the doctor did a DNA test hospital. But you had a scar at the back of your neck, one just like the one my on you.”
The man picked up a folder from the table next to the bed. He handed it to me.
Shaking fingers, I opened it up.
A sheet of DNA test results.
Name: Scarlett Hayes.
Cutcome: 99.99% Diana and Samuel Collins biological offspring.
“How is this possible? I lived with my dad the whole time. So… he’s not my real father?”
The woman wiped the tears that ran down her face.
“Long ago when you were five years old.. you were stolen away. We looked for you, tirelessly, over the years. Then, we lost all traces.“%
“Your father will look into the man that raised you. We think he was in a black game once before. But right now, all that matters is you are alive. And we can be back together.”
3:59 PM c d
I gazed at them with a disordered mind. My body was still too weak to internalize all of this.il
I had been in my biological family’s home, the Collins family, for a few weeks now. It felt strange at first, but then slowly, it all became
normal.
My father is a good looking fellow and has that commanding presence. But he always looks at me. Even all the time, as unto this little child.
Leona Collins is my name. Not Scarlett, the name I was given at birth.
I have such a nice family here, even my mother always coming to me before sleep, she stokes my hair gently and says, “Whatever you were going through this whole time, while we were apart, Leona. It was always my wish that we might meet one day, and Destiny has allowed it.”
I really enjoy it here. I never thought I would have an older brother. His name is Julius. He’s 10 years older than I am.
From him, I first started to understand that my family is a mafia family.
But in an odd way, I was not surprised this time. Not after all I experienced with the Moretti family does this dark world surprise me. No, instead I feel like a part of me is sucked into it.
One day, in the large, heavily watched backyard, Julius was doing target practice. He pulled the trigger and the shot rang out as the bullet hit the target.
And accuracy was still sharp,” he muttered with satisfaction.
Then he looked at me for a moment.
“Join me, Leona. Til show you how to fire like this. Do you want to try?”
“Yes. I do.” I nodded eagerly then went over to him.
I shook when I first picked up the gun. But Julius got behind me anyway, grasped my hands, corrected my form.
“Relax. Don’t be possessed by the weapon. You’re the one in charge.“)
I breathed deeply, then let one right at the target.
It sounded jarring, but it made me smile just a little.8
I had been exercising daily since. Was it shooting, or some sort of self–defense training.
I even began sneaking onto low–level missions with Julius. Initially it was all about surveillance, then it became about escorting.” At times I was no more than a spy at important conferences.&
My parents cursed me, they didn’t approve of me butting my face in and going into their world.!!
“Leona, that world isn’t for you,” my mother said with concern.
“I just found you. I don’t want to lose you again, my father added.
However, I remained calm and simply said, “I appreciate your concern about me, but I’m already part of this family, right? If something goes wrong, I’m not just going to sit there and hide.”
My mom and dad were silent, their eyes wet with tears, and smiled. They then hugged me tightly between them.!!
