Page 106 of Promise to Break

Finally, we get to the house, and the feeling of dread grows bigger by the second. The first person I see outside is Pedro. He's cleaning his car like always. It means that it's noon now.

"Where's my mother?" The poor man jumps at the sound of my voice. He must not have heard me coming. But I don't care. I need to know she's okay. I don't give a fuck.

"She's in the house with the baby. Good to see you're back, Master Killian." I run to the house, leaving the asshole behind me. I need to see her for myself.

Too long. I was gone too long. All kinds of scenarios run through my mind. My mother beaten to a pulp, again. Her crying and not speaking for an entire week again. Her hand broken by accident, fucking again.

This place is too big for no reason. Maricela is right.

"She's such a good girl, Serena." It's my mother. I hear her. She's with the baby, and she sounds fine. She's okay.

You're too late, Killer. I'm sorry.

"Hey, Mom." I don't get to say the rest as I'm enveloped in her arms. She's strong for such a fragile thing. After all, that's the only way a woman like her could and would survive in this world with someone like my father. I let her familiar smell soothe me. She isn't catatonic, but that doesn't say much.

"Ti ha toccato?" I whisper.

"He didn't touch me. Nothing is wrong, mio carro." I don't believe her, but her blue eyes are full of life. She looks almost happy.

Serena sings a song in Spanish to the child in her arms. "My mini-me," as Maricela called her.

"Where is your sister?" I assume she's in the bathroom. This girl of mine tries to do whatever she can to be with Connie.

"She's gone."

"Where did she go?"

"Didn't your daddy tell you?"

Gone. Franco. What has he done to her?

"Where is she, Serena?"

"In Mexico by now, I imagine. It's her first job, I think. I'm so proud of her. She's so good with the camera, don't you think? She accepted the job with her teacher. Maverick, I think his name is. Such a handsome man. Young too. I think they're lovers, but she didn't want to tell me. She was very secretive."

Shock is not something I've ever felt before. Many people might think I've had many opportunities and occasions to experience it. I never did. Not when I saw my first body, not when I had to take a life for the first time, and not when I took care of my mother time and time again. I always knew where I was and what the situation in front of me was. Not now, however. Still, I know about the feeling enough to understand what it is. Sweaty hands? Check. Ringing in the ears? Check. Denial? Fucking check.

Maricela couldn't be with him, of all people.

"Amore, are you okay? Where are you going?"

I don't say a word. I didn't even know my feet were moving. They drag me to her room. I need to see for myself. My little girl wouldn't leave without any explanation. She has too much at stake.

Her all-pink room, which my brother decorated before her arrival, looks neat and tidy. Her books are gone, and there are no pictures in sight. Nothing.

I know she is gone. The little girl is messy. She's too much inside her own head to keep everything around her clean and tidy.

"Mio amore." Isabella's hand covers my bicep. I don't speak because I can't say much.

In Mexico. I need to go there. "How many days was I gone?"

"Nine days in total." The weariness in my mother's voice is clear. I scared her.

"Thanks, Mom. I'm hungry." I don't look at my mother, knowing what I have to do.

I need to find her. I don't wait as I go to my room. Nothing has changed here, but I don't have time for that. I need to find her and make her come back to me.

I open the drawer to retrieve my phone while I start to pack my shit. Little girl, if you think that Mexico is too far, you are vastly mistaken.

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