Suzane hung up on me, but I was already taking myself and leaving anyway. If I still had to pick up Mikaela to only then be free to stay with Colton, at least I would do that as soon as possible. I didn't used to stay late at the company, and I didn't know how Suzane handled the situation so well, because the place looked macabre with the sound of the elevator going down and the rooms empty. I was tense, feeling that at any moment something would come up to attack me. But I arrived safely in the lobby, waved and wished good night to Suzane's security guards, and received some tired answers as I got into the car and left in search of Mikaela.The school where she taught was in one of the heavy bars of Boston. My car, although it was nothing like Suzane's Porsche or Ferrari, was flashy enough for me to close the windows and drive in a hurry. Mikaela wasn't outside, as I thought she would be. So I honked a few times, but she didn't leave school. I sighed. All I needed was to have to go i

"Mika, listen to me" I tried to move my arms to get to her, but I failed. Mikaela moved to me on her own. Her face was so close that I could smell the blood in her hair. "These men won't just kidnap you. I need you to try to escape. Fight to the end. Don't let them take you without resistance. They will never let you survive. Especially for being a Johnson. Mika, listen to me, your father has no power against the Brotherhood. He couldn't even prevent this from happening, he won't be able to find you. Please run away and don't look back. They have already had countless possibilities of killing me and never did. I have to stay alive. They need some Maxwell in power. They just want to destroy me and now they know they can do it by using you. Don't stay to help me under any circumstances. I'm asking with my heart. Run away. At the first opportunity you have. They're going to take a long time to get me out of the car, so run away as soon as possible. Do you think you can go through the win

"If I said, I would be lying, girl," said the man in a tone of regret. So he completed it with something, but my panic and the noise of the tools of the firefighters who were trying to rescue me left me momentarily deaf. So he repeated it. "It's not certain that I say this to a civilian, but considering that you must already have some good contacts with the police... The truth is that the city is being evacuated little by little. The survivors, those who have not been fully affected and have had their homes marked, are being taken to more distant cities. Some are remaining in bases protected by the army. Some countries have received calls for help, few have answered, but they will still take a long time. The biggest concern is with tonight. No one believes you're safe. I know decorated police officers who are hiding on farms so they don't have to face what this Brotherhood promises to do in the city.”"Isn't this characterized as desertion? "I questioned in an incredulous tone. "For G

For a long time I thought that Jonathan had chosen to raise a new family out of need, but now I saw that it was out of power. And as much as they hit the key that they were a family, they weren't. They were just pawns who liked to be used. Just puppets for a play that Jonathan liked to play. They just didn't understand that they were disposable. That my brother never had the ability to love someone; maybe not even himself. And now these people turned against me, as if I were the cause of their misfortunes. But it was even better for them to hate me than to reach those I loved.Mikaela was just one of the ones I valued the most in that life. There was still my mother, weakened by the idea that my brother had returned and then left again. Suzane, Hunter, your sentimental babies. Colton and his smart way of having me in the palms of his hands. And they all already knew about the existence of the Brotherhood and what they could do against their lives. And they knew they should stay united

My friend sighed, dropping herself on the chair. She tilted her neck back and softened her arms. It looked like an undead, and that would have made me laugh for hours if it was in one of my normal days, but that was not the case. It was comical, but nothing funny. And Suzane seemed to collapse as if the whole world was falling on her only at that moment. I didn't doubt that was the case. She was holding the whole bar of a company attacked by the Brotherhood, dead employees, missing sister, hospitalized friend, husband being called by the police for clarification, and a country in chaos. And we both felt the same weight of that guilt. She wished for Jonathan's death, but still wondered about the past. Maybe someday I didn't want him to come back too to find out what would actually have happened."I'm exhausted," she said, taking her hands close to her stomach. "I'm with a husband who needs to go to the police on a daily basis, or will be arrested for somehow helping in the Brotherhood'