7. THE HANA

ALESSANDRO

Finally. She is crying. I wondered if I traumatised too much. She is crying. That’s a good sign. I can’t have her all traumatised before I achieve my mission.

“Did you seriously keep the girl in your room and start spying on her when she was in the said room?”

I sighed and turned around to find Marco, looking at my phone.

I turned it off by pressing the power button and tossed it on the couch.

“Is everything ready?” I asked him.

Marco was my second in command. He is the Enforcer, sometimes a soldier, sometimes acts as a strategist, and at times like this, an absolute nuisance.

“She is young.” He added as an afterthought.

There was a second pause. Then—

“Is that why you brought her here instead of keeping her at Raven?”

I ignored him like I always do.

Words are a waste of time, especially when it was with Marco I am talking to.

He is a good strategist. A loyal man. But he has a big mouth, and he hardly ever stops using it.

I heard a crunch, “This is good.” He says.

I turned around to find him eating the sandwich I had made for my younger brother, Matias.

He stopped mid-chew. “Did you make her a sandwich?”

Now, he was coughing, sputtering, laughing, choking—all at the same time.

“First, you brought her to your house, kept her in your room. Then you give her your clothes. Then you make her a sandwich. Should I start planning the wedding? Oh, wait. Is that why you kidnapped her from her engagement party? To get married? Nice strategy. But she is too young for you.” He grinned. “Give her to me."

I narrow my eyes. I didn’t bother telling him that we are not waving a white flag with the Matrix—not by kidnapping their princess.

He continued talking and eating.

“I can’t believe she is the girl who slept her way through Whiltred. She looked too prim and proper.”

I looked up at my bedroom.

She is so young. There is no way Colton would let her daughter out, especially someone who looks like a doll.

“She is not safe at Raven.” That was the only reason I gave him.

Marco scoffed, “You are talking as if she is a virgin mafia princess. Flash news—she is not.” Marco waved his hand in the air.

“Anyway, does your new bestie know that you are keeping her sister as a hostage?” He asked me.

I raised a lone brow.

“Hana.” He explained.

One word. One name. That caught Matias’s attention, who just happened to come down just in time to catch that wod.

The first thing he did was slump on the couch and take my phone. “Hana as a sister?” He asked us.

The kid has developed a crush on Hana ever since he accidentally met her in a park. And the biggest coincidence is that Hana is Luna’s half-sister.

Marco smirked.

I shook my head, giving him a silent warning.

“Yeah, kid. She is in your brother’s room.”

Matias unlocked my phone, and the first thing he saw was the footage of a girl in my room.

He wasted no time in bolting.

 

LUNA

“Who are you? Why are you here? Why are you wearing my brother’s clothes?”

A much younger boy was looking at me with wide eyes. His eyes are hazel, unlike Sandro’s.

He is standing at the door, which I hadn’t noticed was unlocked.

I should be more alert.

He must be Matias.

Gosh, he was so young. Probably twelve or thirteen. My father tried to kidnap him, use him for his selfish needs.

No wonder his brother wanted to take revenge.

But what is my fault? I did nothing wrong. I was so close to touching the edge of freedom, so close to tasting it for the first time, only for it to be snatched away from me cruelly.

I will never forgive Alessandro for that. Now that my brain has stopped freezing, my stomach got its fill, and everything is clearer.

I wonder how scared Matias was when my father’s men attempted to kidnap him.

I heard footsteps in the distance. The kid became alert. He immediately stepped inside the room and locked the door from inside.

Smart Kid.

He climbed onto the bed and crawled closer to me.

“I heard you are Hana’s sister. Are you?”

Hana.

Just that name and my body got my energy back. My heart got the hope, and my brain is reeling with the possible escape plans.

“Do you know Hana?” I asked him.

My own voice felt strange to me, and I realised I hadn’t talked since the attack, since I had seen Remi lying in the pool of his blood.

Matias gasped. “You can talk?”

I nodded, “Do you know Hana?”

“She is my friend.” He told me. “And I am her favourite. More than her boyfriend.”

And her boyfriend was the one who rejected me, the one with whom my father initially wanted to marry me off.

Hana is my half-sister, whom I never got to meet.

Matias knew her. Alessandro knew her.

Someone pounded on the door. Matias and I ignored it completely.

“She saved me from the bad guys, too.” He told me.

“Does she come here?” I asked him.

The pounding became hard.

We both stared at the door in horror.

“It’s Sandro,” Matias told me. “Do you know basketball?”

“Err—yes?”

His eyes lit up, “Then, can we play?”

The pounding stopped.

Silence.

Then, the handle turned.

Locked.

For exactly one heartbeat, nothing happened.

Next, the door burst inward with a deafening crack, slamming against the wall.

Splinters scattered across the floor.

Alessandro stood in the doorway.

His gaze didn't find me first.

It found Matias. A single sweep from head to toe.

Checking, searching, and making sure he was unharmed as if I were the bad guy here.

Only then did those amber eyes settle on me.

Cold.

Unreadable.

"What did I tell you?" he asked.

Not loudly.

Somehow, that was worse.

Matias slid off the bed.

"It wasn't her fault," he said quickly. "I came in."

"Out."

One word.

Matias hesitated.

"Now."

The boy sighed dramatically before brushing past Alessandro. As he reached the doorway, Alessandro rested a hand briefly on the back of his neck, checking him one last time before letting him go.

Only after Matias disappeared down the hallway did Alessandro look at me again.

I stood my ground.

Or at least I tried to.

He crossed the room in three long strides.

I instinctively stepped back.

The wall met my back before he did.

His hand closed firmly around my wrist.

Not painfully.

Not gently either.

There was no room to resist.

He was pulling me toward the door.

I dug my heels into the floor.

It earned me exactly nothing.

He didn't slow down.

Didn't argue.

Didn't threaten.

He simply kept walking, dragging me behind him with the quiet certainty of a man who had never expected to be disobeyed.

The hallway blurred as I stumbled after him, trying to keep up with his ridiculously long legs.

He stopped outside another bedroom, pushed the door open, and released my wrist just long enough to guide me inside.

"You will stay here."

His voice was flat. "You are not to go near my brother again."

The door shut.

The lock clicked.

Once.

And I kept thinking, how I haven’t finished my sandwich, how I didn’t get to clean my hands, and how my feet are hurting because I am not wearing any shoes.

I kept thinking how it’s not fair, how any of it is not fair at all, and how I could kill him if I get a chance.

But I had to stay here. If Hana is ten per cent of what I heard about her from my father, I should be here.

If I contacted her, I might get out of this house, this mob world and I might get the freedom I am craving for.

But, right now, I need more water.