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“Oh my God,” I breathed, feeling my chest constrict. Feeling like my surroundings were spinning around me.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes…

“What's happened?!” Donte asked, mind-blown.

I tried my best to get myself together, taking deep breaths in and out as I processed everything I just read.

“You know when you saved Hazel from that rapist?” I mumbled. “And you said you've been trying to get to the bottom of who's been ordering the hits on everybody?”

“Yeah?” Donte murmured.

“And that you saw Alfonze Michael as a brother?”

“Yeah.” Donte furrowed his eyebrows. “Where are you getting at with this?”

“All of the other people involved in the mass murders are deceased, but Philip was holding Alfonze Michael as leverage in case the hitman tried to cross him.”

Donte jolted back, startled at this information. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost, and somebody had just walked over his grave.

“He's got the address of where he's holding Alfonze on this piece of paper,” I breathed.

“No fucking way?!” Donte denied. “This whole time…” He trailed off his sentence, taking his head into his hands. Looking completely and utterly torn. “I thought Alfonze was dead. I can't believe he's alive!”

“You know what this means?” I whispered.

“Yes,” Donte confirmed.

“If we find Alfonze, and ask him who was behind it all…” I mourned.

“We'll find the serial murderer,” Donte stated matter-of-factly, blood roaring in his ears. “The real person behind the murders. The person who's the reason I was fucking framed.”

I nodded weakly, my heart pounding with anticipation. Unable to believe that we were finally going to get to the bottom of this, once and for all, after going round in circles for such a long time.

“Let's go to Alfonze,” I breathed.

Donte nodded, taking my hand in his, as we made our way out of base, and back to the car out in the junkyard. Before I knew it, we were on the Highway again, driving at a high-speed, making our way to Buttholm Road, where the piece of paper stated that Alfonze Michael was staying.

“Hey Sapphire?” Donte breathed suddenly as we drove. “Did you know that this piece of paper was double-sided?”

“No,” I shrugged, not knowing what to think of this. “Why? What's on the other side?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to read it now,” Donte groaned.

He turned the piece of paper around, scanning it with his eyes…

And then he dropped it in shock, looking like somebody had just shot him ten times through the chest.

Looking like there was a dagger twisting his heart.

“What?” I cried out, feeling waves of terror pulse through my body. “What is it?!”

Donte didn’t say a word. He went stone-white in shock.

What the fuck was going on?

“Donte, you're scaring me,” I pleaded, taking rapid deep breaths in and out, doing my best to stop myself from having a panic attack. Doing my best to stop myself from feeling like the walls were closing in on me…

“Sapphire…” Donte whispered. “I think you should see this.”

I pushed down the brakes on the car, allowing it to come to a halt. I turned around to face Donte properly, giving him my full attention, my eyes burning into his.

“What is it?” I mumbled.

“He wasn't lying about your mother, Sapphire,” Donte breathed. “Your mother is alive.”

I couldn’t believe my fucking ears.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…

“On the piece of paper, it says that he admitted her to a care home in Miami,” Donte went on, his heart pounding against his chest. “Further away from here, so that you wouldn't find her. Her full costs of living and care were being provided for her by himself, and he was going to return her to you… After you successfully completed the mission.”

“Oh my God!” I wept.

“It even has an address written for her,” Donte murmured, continuing to scan the paper with his eyes.

Oh my God...

My Mama was alive…

This whole time, I thought that she was dead…

My Mama was fucking alive!

54

maya

Before Donte and I made our way to the house in which Alfonze Michael was being held, we made our way to the care home my Mama had been admitted to, in Miami. I needed to see her. After how much I'd cried, how much I'd gone out of my mind...