Giovanni“We’ve searched these five areas over the last four months and found nothing.” One of William’s men points at the list of French’s property. We’ve been searching for Sylvester for the last four months. On the list, twelve are crossed out and only two remain, yet we still have not found him or any clue of where he could be.“ We’ll start searching his Mount Vista property tomorrow and then we’ll search the property in Utah.”“How long will that take?” I ask.“About two weeks for each.”“Okay.” I ease back into the chair and rub my temple. This is harder than I thought it would be.“You okay, man?” William asks after dismissing Mike from the room.“It’s been four months and we haven’t fo

GiovanniThirty minutes. It’s been thirty minutes since I found her empty car and I have been on edge. Wondering where she is? Fuck! I should have stopped her when she tried to leave or follow her myself. But none of that matters. All that matters is finding her.“Cap, We’re here,” William says.I look up the modest house that supposed to be French San Antonio home. Fucking French. I know I should have killed him the first time he laid his hands on her. If anything happens to her or my children. I clench my jaw and inhale deeply as I look at the one-story house.“Are you sure this is it?” He nods.“Our boys trailed him back here after leaving the party.” I nod, pull my gun from my pocket, and open the door.“Any security.”

“Slut! I should have killed you a long time ago,” she screams as she lunges, grabbing me by my bun, but before she can pull it, I hit her in the eye once again. She cries out in pain and stumbles back. Before she has time to recover from that blow. She drags me to the ground with her and punches me in the stomach. I wince from the pain but quickly recover. She’s trying to hurt my babies. Rage fills me as I slam her head into the ground. Then I punch her as she screams and begs me to stop. I’m not even sure what’s happening anymore, all of this rage is coursing through my body like a wildfire burning down everything in its path: every memory of every punch, slap, or kick she’s thrown my way gives me more strength to keep hitting her. The first drop of blood trickles out of her nose, causing me to pause and pulling me back to my senses. What? I look at my bruised fist and her face. The anger burning in me makes me want to put her on the ground, but I can’t give in to it or I’ll become ju

GioThey hold each other, both crying as I stand back and watch; providing them the space to become reacquainted. I know how much this means to Fenice, having him back with her after all this time. I know losing him and her mother had taken apart her heart that I could never fill, no matter how hard I tried or how hard I loved her. That was a space only a parent could fill, so I was always afraid that part of her heart would remain hollow. But with him here, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.“Sweetheart,” her father says, but Fenice doesn’t budge. She keeps holding him as if she is afraid he will disappear if she lets him go.“Sweetie.”“I missed you so much.” she finally says through sobs.“I thought of you every single day. There was never a moment I didn’t think of my sweet little girl. I’m sorry. I should have tried harder. I should have done mo—” He stops when Fenice pulls away.“It wasn’t your fault, dad. None of it was and none of it matters.” She smiles as tears roll do

Brandi 6 months later Tes holds my hand as we make our way up the staircase towards the courthouse. Today is Theodore’s sentencing after being found guilty of kidnapping and accessory to murder and rape. It’s been a hard three weeks recounting all the things Theodore witnessed Colin do to me, but finally, after thirteen years of thinking I’ll never get justice, today it will be over once he gets the maximum sentence. “Are you okay?” Tes asks as we stop before the door to wait for dad and Jillian. They are still seeing each other. It was strange at first, but I like them together. I nod. “He was convicted, but I’m still worried about sentencing. What if he only gets five years?” “The jury recommended a twenty-year minimum.” “I know, but Theodore was a big shot in this town. What if they let him off easy?” I had learned a long time that the law isn’t always equal for those with money and influence. “The world is watching. It would be hard for them to give him a slap on the wrist,