Chapter 1

 Author's POV

“Papa! The arepas are ready; come fast before I eat them for you,” Ana Sophia shouted to her father jokingly as she set up their small wooden table while her mother stood in the kitchen washing the dishes.

They were a small family, with Ana Sophia being their only beloved child. When Ane Sophia was done setting the table, she sat down, running her hands through her brown curly hair. Her skin was a warm caramel tone that shone in the sun; it complemented her honey-colored eyes, which she got from her father.

“Ana, go and wash your hands. Why would you touch your hair when you are about to eat?” Her mother chuckled mockingly as she sat down.

“My hair was in my face, Mama,” Sophia whined as she pushed her wooden chair back and went to wash her hands in the sink; then she went back to have her seat.

In a few minutes her father, Miguel Gonzalez, came down for dinner, his muscles showing through his long-sleeved beige shirt, his olive skin tanned from decades of police work under the Venezuelan sun, and his honey-colored eyes, which his daughter inherited from him.

He sat just beside her mother, Lucia, who watched him with a smile, her fair skin framed by her wavy chestnut hair, which complemented her hazel eyes. Seeing everyone was together, Ane Sophia immediately stretched both of her arms. Miguel and Lucia were already used to the drill, so they stretched out their hands and held Ana's hands.

“God, I thank you for this meal; bless it for us and let it be nourishing, amen,” she said with a smile on her face. Immediately she was done, she retracted both her hands and began wolfing down her meal.

Ana Sophia Gonzalez, the only daughter and child of the Catholic Gonzalez family, did not hate that fact, especially with all the attention she got from her parents on a daily basis. She was just eighteen, about to go to college. She wanted to study law like her mother, although her father wanted her to work in the police force so bad, but she did not want to grow huge muscles like her father.

The happy atmosphere in the Gonzalez household was interrupted by the sound of the harsh pounding on their front door.

Hearing this, Miguel signaled for Lucia and Ana Sophia to keep silent with his finger raised to his lips. He stood up and hurriedly walked towards a drawer in their kitchen and brought out his gun. 

“Go and hide, mi vida,” Lucia said, and Sophia nodded and rushed to the spare room downstairs, hiding just behind the door. She could still see everything that was happening through the small crack in the door.

Just as her father loaded his gun, those people managed to break through their front door and storm into their house. Her father immediately released fire, and two out of ten men were hit. Before her father could fire any more bullets, he was restrained together with her mother. She covered her mouth with both of her hands, her face clothed with horror. How did things turn out like this? But deep down she still had hope, hope in God and hope that her father had a hidden card up his sleeve. Her father had always been able to be one step ahead of the cartel, so he must have been prepared for this attack as well, right?

Her hope was cut short right in front of her by the sound of a gun shot; it was not from her father's gun, it was a very tanned Caucasian man with a strong Spanish accent.

“El jefe warned you multiple times to stop interfering in our missions, Miguel. Why are you just so stubborn? We gave you multiple chances,” the man said before he shot her dad in the head. 

The piercing scream of her mother echoed through her head, and she just kept on hearing it over and over again, her mouth desperately covering her mouth. She could not make a sound; she had to live for her parents.

She could not believe it; her father did not even have the chance to put up a fight; he just died like that.

“You should thank El Jefe; he decided to leave your foolish husband’s family, so you are safe for now, but if any of you dare to step on our toes again, you are gone for good,” the man said to her mom, then spat at her dead father lying in his pool of blood.

Those brutal men waited for their Caucasian leader to leave first, then they followed after him. She quickly memorized his face, his piercing blue eyes, and the large scar that started from his brows, went through his eyelids, and stopped just under his eyes, because she knew that the next time she would meet him would be his death day. 

Once Ane Sophia was sure that they were gone, she immediately opened the door and ran towards her father with unstoppable tears rushing down her eyes. 

“Papa, please wake up, Papa,” Ana Sophia pleaded, her lips quivering. Without a second thought, she ran towards her phone and called the police force; her heart broke further at the sight of her mother, who looked like she had just lost her soul.

Minutes later she stood outside her house in a daze as the paramedics carried her father's body away, their words echoing in her head.

“We are so sorry, but he is dead; there is nothing we can do.” It was silly of her to think that her father, who was brutally shot in the head, would be able to live; all her hope and faith died that day.

***

A month had passed after the death of Miguel Gonzalez, and Lucia lost half of her soul as well; the only thing that was keeping her afloat was her daughter. She had to protect what was left of Miguel.

All heaven came down when she received a phone call from Sophia's class teacher informing her that Sophia made the last-minute decision and rejected her offer to Oxford University, including her full scholarship.

Lucia felt like her heart stopped for a minute; the only way she could protect Ana Sophia was to send her out of the country. That was also Miguel's plan for Ana Sophia before he passed away. Why did Sophia need to reject such an offer that would save her life?

She sat down, livid, waiting for Sophia to come back from school.

“Good evening, Mama,” Ana Sophia greeted once she entered into the house, giving her mother a peck on her forehead.

“Why did you reject your offer to Oxford, mi vida?” Her mother asked tiredly, and Ana Sophia sighed; she wanted to tell her mother this news herself, yet the teacher went behind her back to inform Lucia.

She sat down and calmly told her mother.

“Mama, I can’t go to Oxford. You have been trying to act like everything is okay, as if Papa was not brutally murdered last month, but I can’t. My life can never be normal again, not after what I witnessed.” Sophia started.

“So what are you trying to tell me, Sophia?” Lucia asked with a feeling of dread in her heart.

“Mama, I applied to go to police university. I want to be a police officer like my father; that way I can find those who killed him and expose the…” Sophia could not even finish her sentence; she was interrupted by the sound of her mother's palms hitting her cheeks. Her ears began ringing; she could not believe it. Her mother had never hit her before.

“Mama?” she said with a teary look of unbelief.

“Don’t ever say that, Sophia. Don’t. You are not going to police school. Go and tell your teacher you want to go to Oxford. Go and tell him now.” Lucia stood up, forcefully dragging Ana Sophia up from the chair and began dragging her towards the door. In less than a minute ,Ana Sophia forefully set her self free from her mother’s strong grip.

“Mama, what is wrong with you!” Sophia shouted, tears streaming from her eyes.

“Did you not hear El Jafe’s warning? If he finds out any of us are tracking them down, he will kill Miguel’s entire family, including us. Why do you want to kill us, Sophia? Why is your father’s death not enough?” Lucia shouted violently, shaking Sophia.

“Mama, I have to avenge Dad. Dad cannot die for nothing. I have to finish what he started too,” Sophia said in a pleading tone.

“Nooo! I warned your dad over and over again to quit his investigation about the cartel, and did he listen? No!! Now look what is left of him, his lifeless body, and you are telling me you want to follow his path. How selfish can you be!” her mother screamed.

“Mama, how could you say that? I am doing this for us,” she explained.

“No! You are doing this for yourself,” her mother immediately objected.

“Mama, please…”

“No, mi vida, you are my life, you are my only daughter, you have Miguel’s blood in you, I cannot lose you too,” her mother said, her eyes red, tears streaming down with an equally red nose. She raised the same hand she used to slap Ana Sophia and stroked her hair lovingly, but with a sad heart, Ana Sophia softly moved her mother’s hands away.

“Mama, I am sorry, but I have already made up my mind,” Ana Sophia said. Hearing this, Lucia closed her eyes and took a couple steps back.

“If you sign up for police university, Sophia, I promise you, I will disown you,” Lucia said with a serious expression.

“Mum! You can’t be serious?”

“Sophia, I mean it.”

“Mama, please, please just let me do this. Don’t you want to avenge Papa? Mama, please don’t do this to me. If I don’t sign up, I will have no will to live, I will die .” Ane Sophia cried as she knelt down, desperately grabbing her mother's feet.

“Sophia, my word is final,” Lucia said, not bearing to look her daughter in the eye. Seeing how stubborn her mother was being, she had to painfully let her mother down.

“Mama, I’m sorry,” Sophia said, accepting her fate.

“By tomorrow morning, I want you gone from my house and from my life,” Lucia said as she moved away from Ana Sophia, her heart broken into a million pieces

“Mama,” Sophia begged, but she was ignored by Lucia, who walked away from her and went to her room.