Santiago was planning on renovating the house. He wanted more rooms now that he found out his sister was alive. He wanted her close if there was a threat or if she wanted to visit, she'd have a place just for her. Seeing he man he'd change into when he was with his sister was a humbling scene. He'd do anything for her.

I was just lying in bed, re-watching game of thrones when my phone rang. Surprised, I rolled over to see Lucia's face light up on my screen.

"Hello, is everything okay?" Alarmed, I turned off the T.V.

"Yes." Her voice sounded lazy, like she was bored. I relaxed back into my pillow. "Gabe left to meet with Santiago and I'm all alone in the hotel room. Well, apart from the guard but you know what I mean."

"Yes, I do." I was in the same predicament. "You know he'd really love it if you guys come live with us for a while. Just until Jude Capone was dead." I heard a sharp intake of breath, before she covered herself. From what I could decipher, she was abused but to how extent, I didn't know.

She told Santiago why Jude kept her alive, to draw her father in but they didn't know where the hell he was. Well, he was in Mexico but they don't need to know that.

"Want me to come over?" I sat up, used the remote to draw back the curtains. I hissed back like a vampire when the sun hit my eyes.

"No, I need to get out of this building. I need to feel the ground under my feet, can I come over?"

"Of course." I jumped up, feeling excited to see her. She had a twisted dark sense of humour which I loved. It didn't make me feel awkward when I spouted out something morbid. "This is your home, Lucia. You are more than welcome to live here, Santiago and I.

"Ew, no. I don't want to walk in on you two doing the dirty." She made a vomit noise that made me laugh.

"Come over." I didn't tell her that Santiago and I were in conversations with his construction manager to expand the Villa. He wanted to turn it in to a mansion. He already had acers of land and because he lived alone, he didn't need a bigger house. When I moved in, we turned the adjacent room into a his and hers closet. We kept the windows, placed a floor to ceiling mirror in the middle of them and my vanity on the right with makeup lights like in the back stages of fashion shows. He's lined the walls around it with shelves just for my makeup.

Running a fashion life style blog wasn't easy because there were so much products. YouTube was very demanding but I had the luxury -literally- to take it slow. I didn't need to launch products after products to earn money. I've grown accustomed to using Santiago's and whatever I eared from meet and greets and from these beauty conventions, I added to my own stash, upon his intense persistence.

In the beginning, I'd been using my own money to buy make up, ignoring his comments about using his money to buy it instead. So, he'd hired someone via his secretary, bought everything there was for me from Lancome to Huda Beauty. He didn't know what the fuck he was paying for, he'd just bought bags after bags in, from his Range Rover and said "...here, fucking use this."

A smile crept up on my face while I showered thinking of his expression. He was so pissed that I did my very best to not laugh at him. He was so cute some times that I forgot that he was a killer. A Mafia Leader.

"Wait, you were an escort?" She quips.

"Er.." I was mortified. What will she think of me.

"AHH! THAT'S AMAZING. OH MY GOSH. THAT'S PERFECT." She grabs me by the shoulder and shakes me out of my stunned phase. I was not expecting that reaction.

"You're not... disgusted?" My heart was hammering in my chest. I never cared about what other girls thought of me but I cared very much about her opinions. I wanted her to like me because I really liked her. Not just because she was Tiago's sister but because she reminded of me. A survivor.

"NO! THIS IS perfect." She was beaming with glee. "I've ALWAYS wanted to have my own escort service. To give women their right to choose and make it fair instead of what's out there. You know what I mean?"

I stared at her with glassy eyes, as she spoke in even tone, without any mockery in her voice. She was dead serious.

"How?" I barely managed to whisper. I couldn't explain the feeling that was brewing inside me.

"The lady Mason Capone hired to take care of me was his Escort. She raised me, she took care of me. She... she died trying to run away with me. If people really turned Escorts out to be these... outlaws or money hungry sluts, then she wouldn't have given her life for me." She kept her eyes dry but I mine were fluttering.

I grabbed her, pulled her into a hug. She kept saying "ew, ew, ew." but hugged me back. When I pulled away, she scrunched up on side of her nose, raising her lip in a cute snarl.

"I don't do affections." She swatted me away and I couldn't help but laugh. She was a funny girl who had the potential of being this carefree person who preached about love and life and the beauty in the world but all of that was ripped away by her captor. An ache rose inside me. I wanted to meet the girl prior to her abduction. I wanted to meet the Lucia from Santiago's memory that he held so dearly to his heart.

She sometimes looked like there was nothing behind her eyes. No emotions. Like she was a lifeless doll.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" I went back to making lunch for us.

"Like Santiago looks at me, all wooey gooey eyed." She shivered in disgust and I laughed again. I finally understood what Santiago saw when he stared at her. Like he couldn't believe she was alive, like he couldn't believe that she survived. I was starting to feel like that too, the protectiveness, the feeling of never wanting her free spirit to be captured again. I felt those feeling a life time ago.

When my parents were alive.

But that responsibility weighed me down into deep waters, suffocating me, pressuring me. This one, Lucia, I was willing to accept as my own. It felt like a privilege to take that weightless responsibility on my shoulders because I knew Santiago would be carrying most of that weight too.

Suddenly, I realised, I had someone to share every aspect of my life with. I didn't have anyone to share my burden with back then but I did now. Santiago.

"Fine." I said. I wanted to take on the burden of a business. "But we can't just build a new one. The thing you wanted to do, Miss Caroline, my ex-boss, is already doing that. We speak to her about expanding it but I don't want to step on her turf." I explained. I respected Miss Caroline and so did the girls. She protected them and she held all the secrets of the men so they protected her. We wouldn't make it past a day.

She was in deep thought for a while. We finished making our sandwiches and we on the kitchen Island eating in comfortable silence.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked when it stretched too far.

"I was wondering if we were going to move to Miami but I guess this is it now, isn't it?"

"If you want-"

"No." She said sadly.

If she needed to move, to heal from what she went through all these years, then we'll move. I had to speak to Santiago about it, immediately. If she needed to move, to start her own business, then we needed to get it done for her.

"It's all gone now." She finished her sandwich and I finished mine. "Let's go outside, enjoy the view."

"That's a lovely view. The pent house in at the hotel has similar view down town but prefer the Ocean. I loved Malibu."

"We can move there if-" She shook her head.

"I can move there with Gabe. YOU, guys stay here." We sat down on the lounge chairs under the umbrellas, watching the view over the infinity pool.

"You know he won't allow that. He's having a hard time with you down town even though he knows you're safe." She looked at me, then looked down, thinking about something.

"Is he having nightmares?" She hit the nail on the mark. When I didn't deny it, she nodded. "I guess I really need to talk to him."

"You know he will never push you."

"I know." She took a sip from her Fanta. "I don't want to talk about it because it will hurt him."

"What about you? It will hurt you too." I spoke softly. Her big bambi eyes looked bleak.

"I've learned to live with it. I survived. Daniella, the woman who gave her life for me, she taught me how to survive. He doesn't need to know what I went through." My heart churned in pain. The hollowness in her voice told me everything I needed to know.

Santiago didn't want to admit what he knew deep down. What we both knew. No one would just kidnap a child and keep her for this long if there weren't any personal gain from it.

"Did you have a hard life?" She suddenly asked. The clouds came over the sun, giving us a break from the bright light.

"I know what you're trying to ask but no. It wasn't like that. I went into the line of work by myself. But my life before that was manually hard. My parents were immigrants from Cuba, they worked really hard and I had to take care of the household when I was old enough. which was around 13. Taking my brother to and from school, dinner, everything. But after they died, I was stuck paying their debts and my college tuitions for a year. I was working 3 jobs by the end, trying to make ends meet and nothing was working."

"How did you meet the women you were working for?"

"A girl in my dorm room had a private room, she always had nice things and we all thought it was parents but one evening, I saw her getting into a very fancy car with an older gentleman and she was wearing red bottoms. I mean, who can afford a Christian louboutin as a student. I asked her about it, at first she didn't want to tell me but she didn't say it was her parents. So, I persisted, I needed the money and I was desperate. She introduced me to Miss Caroline and she only went on dates."

"Sugar baby." She smirked, making me smile.

"Yes, I was like that at first. Miss Caroline gave me that option but I had six figure worth of debt, tuition and parents, it wasn't enough." Realisation overcame her.

"So you chose to go all the way." It was a statement rather than a question.

"Yes." She moved, left her drink on the small round table next to her lounge and came to sit on mine. I folded my legs immediately, allowing her the space.

"Do you hate your parents?" She was wearing white shorts and a red and white razor back t-shirt. She was somewhat of a tom boy where as I was a full on girly-girl. I was wearing an olive colour, off the shoulder, loose dress.

"I used to. I hated that they didn't know what they were doing and dumped all these responsibility on me when they were working. I couldn't get a scholarship because I was so busy taking care of the family and putting dinner on the table, I didn't have time to do extracurricular activities." I told her, hating the residual resentment I still felt sometimes.

"Yeah." She pulled her hair back, tied it with the hair tie from her wrist. I moved the umbrella so her back was covered when the sun came on. "It's funny how children has to pay for their parents crime."

"I mean, I understand why they left. They wanted a better future for us. Well, I'm married to the man of my dreams and we live like this." I gestured towards the city beneath our feet.

"But to get here, the journey that we all take, is it worth it?" Her eyes searched for something in mine. An explanation to what she's been through to get here was justified? That a child being raped for, I don't know how many years, being in captive over a decade, was that all justified now that she's here?

"No." I told her the truth. "For you, it wasn't worth it. For me, it was a choice. I could have kept working like a zombie and dropped out to pay everything off but I made that choice. You didn't make any choice."

Disappointed, she looked back to the ground. She looked like a kicked puppy. Shoulders and head down in shame. My brother used to look like that when he got a B instead of an A in his tests. A 7 year old who thought that he failed his parents due to their disappointment of the result. This, however, was million times worse. This girl tugged at my protective heart strings. I failed in protecting my brother but I'll be damned if I failed her. My sister-in-law.

Jumping forward, I captured her in my arms, pulled her under my chin and stroked her short hair.

"Please don't hate Santiago." My eyes watered over, hurt clogged my throat. He already felt guilty for not saving her, the nightmares were plaguing him like a disease but I wouldn't blame her for having some resentment after what she went through.

"How could you tell?" Her voice waivered, I could her the tears in her eyes.

"Oh sweetheart, I've seen the dead eyes before. Seen it in the girls who didn't have a choice for their first time." She didn't heave, just lifted her hand and wiped her tears away from her eyes before they fell. Mine were flowing down my cheek but I didn't care.

"They weren't kept away for 14 years. Their choice won't help you. You have to find what works for you." Pulling away, I cupped her face to make her look at me. The darkness I saw in her brown eyes was haunting.

"What if I can't. What then?"

I dropped my hands, not knowing what to say to comfort the poor kid. Even though she was 24, she hasn't been accustomed to the outside world yet. She was still a baby to the world.

"You can't find it by hiding away. You have to find it by taking back control, by doing something you've never done before, by meeting new people, by-"

"By killing Jude." She looked my dead in the eyes when she said that. Something hit me thing.

"Are you afraid that he'll kidnap you again?" I asked, stunned.

"Yeah. I don't like celebrating my birthday because I feel like if we do, history will repeat itself. I panic for a semi second when Gabe gives me a gift thinking it will lead to karmic cycle. I will die this time if this happens again." She looked down again and I hated the shame she felt. She had nothing to be ashamed of.

"Santiago won't let that happen to you." I tucked her hair behind her ear. Either she didn't hear me or believe me. "He will give his life for you Lucia. He's made a shrine for his family that he'd lost. He suffered a lone thinking you were all dead. I know you suffered too, much greater than him and there's no excuse for rationalisation when so much pain is involved. When the people who were supposed to protect you, failed. I know it will be hard to trust him again, hard to believe him when he says he's going to kill Jude but..."

I knew I had to do it.

"...He helped me find the person who ran over my family. He let me kill him..." That got her attention. "...I'll tell you the whole story some other time but you need to know. He will not fail you again. He will not be able to live with that."

That was the hard fact. If she died, again, I knew I'd lose my husband too.

"I killed the man who was responsible for Daniella's death." The way she spoke in a matter of fact manner about killing the woman who was hired to take care of her, should have scared me. But it didn't. I was a killer myself. So was the man I loved and the man she loved. This was our life. She killed the person who took the escort who became a surrogate mother to her.

An eye for an eye.

Simple.

"You know what's funny?" I gave her a rueful smiled. "My parents left Cuba so I didn't have to live a life where killing was a normal act."

She huffed out a laugh.

"I always thought if my family weren't who they were, I would have been fine but let's face it. It's not like normal kids doesn't get kidnapped." She started to get out of her head slightly, the bleakness was semi gone.

"There's nothing normal about what happened to you. I think you should start seeing my therapist." I offered.

"You have a therapist?" She raised an eyebrow.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "This is L.A. baby, everyone has a shrink." I leaned back against the lounge.

"Gabe's recommended that before but what will happen, it's not like I'll go back in time and be able to undo it." She shrugged.

"No but you will be able to move forward and not look back if you don't want to. You might start enjoying life and see the beauty in every mundane things."

She scrunched up her nose.

"Ew."

"For real..." I continued. "You're an amazing artist, why don't you start with that. Santiago will buy you whatever gallery you want to your creations in. Start small..." I sat cross legs, put another pillow on my lap. "... The therapist is paid a lot to keep quiet, morally she is supposed to report crap but her child is going to an elite high school and will get a full ride to any College he wants to. So, trust me, anything you want to tell her, she probably has heard it before."

She put her head on the pillow and I stroked her hair back, like a child.

"Yeah okay. I'm not busy." She shrugged making me laugh.

She was still afraid of being kidnapped. She needed to get out of the country, she needed to experience life. She was free but her mind wasn't still free from the past. How could she, that was her reality for so long, this is all foreign to her.

I, myself, felt somewhat guilty after meeting her, getting to know her. We never looked for her. Santiago was so convinced that she was dead that no one had questioned anything.

While Tiago and I went on vacations or went on dinner, she would be locked in a room or where ever she was kept. She'd opened up to me but not by much. She didn't admit anything verbally but what needed to be said was done.

Hopefully, my shrink could help her, like she helped me.

Her eyes closed and her even breathed was enough indication that she was fully asleep. I wondered if she had nightmare like Tiago. He was getting dark shadows under his eyes from the lack of sleep from the night mares. I personally couldn't sleep in this light but she seemed to like it.

So, I picked up my phone and texted a picture of her soundly sleeping to Santiago.

Me: She's fine. Taking a nap, now. Tell Gabe so he doesn't freak out when she doesn't reply his texts. Also, we should talk tonight in private. (kiss faces)

Opening Instagram, I started checking my notification instead of thinking about keeping Lucia safe because Santiago had that covered. I knew she was safe, no matter how much scared she was. No one was going to take her away again.