"They aren't in New York Boss, we'll keep looking," says Damon.

I hang up the phone to be alerted by my hacker, André.

"Boss! Come here quick. Upstairs," he says through the speaker of his walkie talkie.

My men had just left for New York around ten hours ago. André was my best hacker so I kept him here to decode Valentina's bracelet.

I walk up the stairs of the mansion and reach the hallways where my children's bedrooms are.

"What is it André? And why are you holding your gun?" I ask, annoyed.

He sighs. "I heard a scream. It came from Marina's room. Lorenzo and her aren't there anymore. The guards were shot and tied up. The other three kids are still in their beds, asleep."

"What do you mean the twins are gone!?"

"B-Boss. I mean I think they either went out or they were taken Sir."

"What do you mean 'you think?' They know I'd say yes to them going out. Who would've tried to take them," I ordered.

"Feliciano is trying to figure that out now."

• • •

The night was full of tossing and turning. My kids aren't supposed to be tangled in this business, only myself. I couldn't even protect them.

The next morning I went back to my office and found an email from the one and only mother-fücker: Sergei Sharapov.

Hope you learn your lesson. By the time you read this you will have 48 hours to oblige my orders or your precious daughters and son will be killed. Yes, that includes little Valentina as well. Best be going

-S.S.

Then, around noontime, Andre called me into his workspace.

"This better be good Andre," I say tiredly.

"It's the bracelet. It just started to show up on the tracker. It wasn't the Russians. There was a Morse code message that read: help us -Val. It was your daughter and they are near Moscow Sir."

"She's must be a smart kid if she was able to pull this off," he continues.

"Yes. Smarter than my best hacker," I say annoyed, "Now let's get going!"

It's been about day since Sergei said he was going to kill us. He's kept us locked in the back room of this hideout. His allies are still here and getting prepared for war. I have no idea what time it is or how long we've been in here. Marina won't stop pacing around the room and Lorenzo keeps bouncing his right leg.

I can tell that they've never been in this type of situation before. I've been living a lie my whole life so I guess I'm immune to this stress.

"I'm going insane in here! Why aren't you?" Marina yells as she grips on her hair.

Her makeup is a mess and her dress is all wrinkled. I hate seeing my sister like this yet I've only known her for two days.

"I'm kinda used to it. That's all," I state simply.

I get a sympathetic look from the twins. "Will you ever tell us what happened to you?"

I really do trust them a lot and maybe it could pass the time. "Okay,"

"My life has been awful for as long as I can remember. I was always moving to new towns and states. I never made friends until this year.

When I was about nine the people who took me became abusive. They called themselves Barbara and Anderson Simpson. They told me my name was Aubrey Valentina Simpson and I never questioned it. I never realized they had a Russian accent when I was little. It seemed normal and eventually they became great at hiding their identities.

They would hurt me everyday and make me do all the cooking and cleaning while they wasted their days drinking and partying. It was like that for almost 10 years.

My only escape was school. That's why I knew how to hack because I took extra classes. I could have graduated early but I missed so many days of school due to moving and being too hurt to get up. I became depressed and suicidal at one point.

But then I found this picture of Mom, Dad, and you two. I was just a newborn in the photos but I eventually put all the pieces together and I tried to be happier. I made friends: Maia and Brandon; and I tried to find you all. Of course it was sunshine and rainbows because I still had to deal with Barbara and Anderson, who are actually Zach and Natasha Petrov. They work for Sergei Sharapova. And then they learned that I knew all their lies, made me think everything was my fault again and brought me here."

I wipe the tear that fell from my eyes and looked up to them. They had tears in their eyes and gave me a comforting hug. I've never felt someone hug me so warmly in my entire life. They were so genuine, they were my family.

We pull apart and a minute later we hear the scariest sound.

Gunshots.

———

Thanks for reading. Sorry that it took a week to update I had to catch up on a lot of work.

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And thanks for all the support and 4K reads!

-layla