Chapter 119 Untitled Chapter

Chapter 119 Untitled Chapter
ANDREA

“Stay behind me,” Alessandro whispered, grabbing me before I could bolt inside and pushing me behind him. He was suddenly on high alert; he’d also withdraw his gun from his waistband.

We moved deeper into the house, and more lights came on, motion sensor, the air smelled wrong, thick and metallic, my nose crinkled, my heart thumped with so much fear as panic crawled up my throat.

My kids.

Something slammed against my ribcage, and I bolted forward beside Alessandro, my feet suddenly caught on something. Alessandro was quick to catch me before I fell.

And then I saw it, my eyes widened as I froze in place. Bodies pile together and blood, so much blood, on the marble floor, pool in a circle, and across the whole floor where the bodies were obviously dragged, droplets splatter along the wall.

“No,” I breathed. “No, no, no.”

The guards were all dead. There was no Kayla, no Meredith, and, more importantly, no Adamo or Alessia. I couldn’t process any of it; there was only one thought in my head. I bolted.

God, please not my kids! Not Alessia, not Adamo!

Alessandro shouted my name, but I was already sprinting up the stairs. The nursery door was wedged open by Kayla’s body; her eyes stared at the ceiling unseeing, a bullet hole right in her forehead.

Alessandro came up behind me. He quickly moved towards her, closing her eyes and carrying her out of the way. My body began to shake. I didn't even know I got my rubbery legs to move forward, and when I saw that both cribs were empty.

A sound ripped from my chest, anguish and broken, my throat burned as I screamed and sobbed, searching the room for my babies. My ears rang, and suddenly I couldn’t feel my legs.

“They’re gone, Alessandro,” I cried, turning around to grab him.

“They’re gone. Find my babies, Alessandro.” My vision tunneled. “I want my babies back.”

The room tilted, and Alessandro caught me before I hit the floor.

“Andrea. Andrea, look at me.” Darkness loomed, his voice sounded far away, and then everything faded.


Light flitted through my eyelids as my eyes fluttered open. My head pounded as I tried to sit up. “Careful,” Alessandro muttered as he helped me up. I was on the bed with him, sitting behind me.

He slipped from my back to sit in front of me, his right leg folded on the bed while the other firmly on the ground. One look at his hardened face, and the memories instantly came crashing down.

I grip his hands hard, “Alessandro, where are my babies? Did you find them?”

“Not yet, but I will find them,” he swore. “I have already sent men to look for them; whoever they are, we're going to find them.” His brows creased, his eyes darkened.

“Who would do this, Alessandro? What do they want with my babies?” I sob, my heart aching something awful. “It’s all my fault. I knew we shouldn’t have left. I’d felt it, Alessandro. This is my fault. What kind of mother leaves her children in danger?”

“Listen to me, Andrea,” Alessandro growled, cupping my face. “This is not your fault.”

“I left them, Alessandro, it's my fault,” I cried hysterically.

“We were gone for two hours, Andrea.”

“I left them!” crippling fear seized my chest, my lungs burning as I fought to breathe.

Alessandro's hand framed my face hard enough to anchor me momentarily.

“Breathe, Andrea,” he murmured.

I couldn’t.

“I can't ... Alessandro, I can’t breathe,” I wheeze, feeling a heaviness in my chest, pressing hard like a boulder.

“Breath with me, Andrea,” his deep, dominating voice grounded me as he inhaled and exhaled. I tried to mimic him. I inhaled once, twice, and on the third exhale, I broke into a sob.

Alessandro pulled me against him, holding me so tight it hurt. But I welcome the pain, it's better than the crushing weight of guilt and fear inside me.

“They are alive,” he said into my hair.

“You don’t know that, what if….” but I couldn’t even bear to finish that thought.

“I know, because they took Meredith, which means she’s also alive. She’ll keep them safe. This was obviously planned and executed when they knew we weren’t at home. But I swear to you, I’m going to find our children and I’m going to bring them back safely.” He dropped his voice to that icy coldness.

“Then I'm going to make the people who took them wish for death for every second of their remaining days on earth.”



The house was overflowing with men within the next couple of minutes.
With Alessandro, Alessio, Logan, Casio, and everyone in the Montgomery's family pulling strings from their connections.

Alessandro had taken to hunting down the people who took our kids and committed these atrocities in our home, killing poor Kayla and more than half a dozen innocent people.

Lara, Kate, and Moira had all come over to take care of the house and me. As for me, I was slowly unraveling, with each minute that my children were gone, I lost a little hope and a little sanity.

“Lock down every port, check every private airstrip,” Alessandro barked orders into his phone. “I want cameras from every street within five kilometers.”

He was right outside, pacing while he made call after call. I was sitting on the nursery floor, clutching the pink and blue blanket I'd taken from Alessia and Adamo’s cribs.

The police were here an hour ago; they’d kept asking question after question. If we have any suspects in mind, who do we think could have done this? Do we have any enemies? Like, who the fuck doesn't have enemies?

All the repetitive questions made me want to rip their throats out.

They'd ask if we'd receive any ransom call? And that question gave me a sliver of hope. Ransom means they want something, which means my children's lives are valuable, which means whoever took them might not harm them.

So I kept my phone on me at all times, hoping and praying that they would call so that I could get to hear my babies' voices. And I was ready to do whatever they wanted as long as I got my poor babies back.

Alessandro was still on the phone. “No, Logan, when you find them, bring those fuckers to me. I want them in my hands.”

He dropped the phone from his ear, he scrubbed his face, and it was then that I noticed the slight tremble in his hand. I’d never seen him like this before, never.

This was Ombra—the mafia mercenary who carried out executions without blinking.

“If anything happens to them,” he growled, voice hoarse. “Fuck, Andrea. I don't know what to do. I've never been this helpless in my entire life.”

He sat beside me for a sec, and I reached out and squeezed his hand. I know he's devastated by this just as much as I, but he'd kept his cool, consoling and comforting me, because that's who he was.

Doors slammed downstairs as more of his men came and went, and as though he was startled out of this rare show of vulnerability, he jerked up. Standing on his feet.

He walked out of the room just as Kate and Alice walked in. Alessandro didn't come home that night. Although the security around the house was fortified.

The next morning, when he came home, his shirt was soaked with blood, and his knuckles were bruised.

But there wasn't any news of the people who kidnapped my children. What's worse, there was no ransom call, no CCTV footage, and no trace to follow, which means someone probably helped them.

I hadn't moved from the nursery, still hugging my babies blankets and clothes I'd taken out of the laundry room. It still held a distinct hint of their smell. I don't remember the last time I slept, and if I'd eaten something, I don't remember doing it.

The blood downstairs had been scrubbed clean. But I could still smell the metallic scent of it, and I couldn’t stomach sitting in there.

Alessandro came through the door, wearing new clothes instead of the bloody ones he had on when he came in. It looked like he was about to go out again. But then the call we’ve all been waiting for finally came through.

My phone suddenly started ringing, and when I checked the caller ID, it said 'unknown caller.' My hands were trembling so badly that it took me three tries to answer the call.

Alessandro strides towards me slowly, while the other people quiet down. “Hello,” I choked out, my heart was hammering so loud.

“I have your two little brats and your sister-in-law,” a distorted, gruff voice said. A silent sob broke free as my hand tightened around the phone.

“Please let me see them, prove to me that they're alive,” I pleaded, tears spilling down my face. Dead silence greeted me.

Alessandro pried the phone gently from the death grip I had on it and put it on the loudspeaker.

I grabbed it out of his hand. “Hello? Hello?! Please say something, where are my babies! Hello?!!” I screamed my heart about to burst out of my chest, just then the voice came again.

This time they were laughing, cackling at the panic and distress in my voice.

“Good, I'm glad to see you care about your children, Andrea. Tell Alessandro we will call back with instructions. There was silence as they ended the call.

“Please, give me back my babies, I'll give you anything. I just want my babies, they are innocent,” I kept talking, trying to reason with them.

“Hello, hello! Can you hear me? Please my babies know absolutely nothing, give them back and take me! At least let me see them please!”

“They’re not listening to you Andrea,” he said quietly, hugging me to his chest, as I sobbed my shoulders shaking. He takes the phone from my hand just as it pinged with a new message.

I raised my head from Alessandro's chest to see his jaw grind so hard, as he watched something on the screen. My eyes flick from his face to the video playing out.

Adamo and Alessia!

Alessandro increased the volume and their voices as they cried for me, made me freeze in place, instantly my heartbeat thundered in my ears as I watched my babies crying loudly in nothing but their diapers.

The camera zoomed out and I felt my whole world tilted when I realized they were in a dog size cage. My heart slammed hard against my ribcage.

The floor rose up to meet me and there was nothing Alessandro or anyone could do as everything faded away.