CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
“SENT LETTERS”

GIOVANNI CASTIGLIONE

Joshua comes into the living room after I sent him to get Scarlett from the pool house, but she wasn’t with him like I hoped she would be.

I know I said dinner was only in twenty minutes, but I thought she would’ve wanted to spend a little time with the three J’s seeing that she doesn’t really see them a lot.

Hell, they missed her.

Jeremiah too.

He beats himself up every single day for letting her get kidnapped the other day. He doesn’t express his emotions very often or very well some days, but I could see that the guilt of her being kidnapped under his watch was eating him up.

I didn’t blame him for what happened. Vito didn’t blame him for what happened. Scarlett definitely didn’t blame him for what happened… But he blamed himself because he took her to her house. He was there to protect her, but things escalated so quickly, she was taken right out from under his nose and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

It would take time for him to forgive himself.

Joshua makes his way to the couch and sits down.

I try to listen for any signs of her footsteps coming into the mansion too, but there was none. My heart sank. I just want to see her—all the time. I want to know where she is so I can keep an eye on her, but she walked on eggshells around my dad. I know she doesn’t want to enter the mansion if he’s in the proximity, but I especially told Joshua to tell her that he wasn’t here and that she can have a decent dinner with all of us.

So why wasn’t she here, laughing at a joke Jason was telling everybody?

“Scarlett is definitely something else.” Joshua says.

“Where is she, by the way?” I ask him. “I thought you went to go get her?”

“She’s doing Biology homework apparently.” He shrugs, tugging his shirt’s collar down. “But she said she’s going to join us soon. She just wants to finish up her homework first.”

I nod, feeling that same weird feeling I got when she didn’t respond to my messages a few weeks ago. I knew something was up even before I knew what truly happened.

I swallow it uneasiness down.

She’s safe.

She’s in the pool house, doing her homework.

• • •

Twenty minutes have passed and Scarlett still hasn’t made an appearance yet. Amelia announced that dinner was ready exactly three minutes ago, so we were all just waiting on Scarlett to make an appearance so that we could eat together.

The boys’ stomachs started to growl from how hungry they were.

“It’s been too long now.” I tell the boys. “Go to the dining room and eat. I’ll go and get Scarlett.” I get up from the couch, making my way down the hall to get to the patio.

I pass the kitchen, inhaling the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen.  Chicken, rice, vegetables, roasted potatoes… It smelled absolutely divine but as the weird feeling of uneasiness washed over me again, I couldn’t focus on anything else other than getting to Scarlett.

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

 She was very determined to learn how to use a gun today. She was even more determined to learn how to fight just a few weeks ago.

I know she said that she wanted to learn how to defend herself and to fight back, but something felt off. Something was definitely wrong.

I found myself running across the backyard to get to the pool house.

The lights were on inside from what I can see underneath the crack of the doorframe and the window, but the door was ajar.

My heart started to beat faster and faster.

I open the door to the pool house.

She wasn’t there. She wasn’t on her bed, busy doing her Biology homework. Her books were lying on her bed, untouched. Her comforter was wrinkled from where she sat, but she was nowhere in sight.

Her entire room smelled like her.

Coconuts and strawberries.

I swallow hard when I notice that there was a folded up piece of paper lying on her pillow.

Please.

Please don’t be a letter.

Please.

Don’t be a letter.

I remember chanting those words in my mind as I made my way to the bed, each step I took heavier than the next. I finally stop beside the bed, reaching out a shaky hand to pick the folded up piece of paper up from the pillow.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I started to unfold the paper, but when I opened my eyes again and I saw her handwriting, and the nickname she has for me written on the top of the paper, my worst nightmare became true.

It was a letter after all.

Dear Asstiglione,

I swallow even harder. I feel my heart being ripped out of my chest reading the two words on top of the letter. Dear Asstiglione. This isn’t good. I continue to read the letter with shaky hands.

It’s me, Scarlett.

Even through my panic, I chuckled.

Of course it was you, baby. You’re the only one who calls me Asstiglione.

I don’t even know how to write a letter, to be honest, so bare with me.

I wrote this letter to tell you how much I love you and Vito, and the three J’s, but mostly you, Asstiglione. You started to mean so much to me in such a little time span, even through everything we went through together.

But let’s get to the real reason I wrote this letter.

This, this is the part where I’m most likely going to get hurt. I clutch the letter tightly, feeling it slowly but surely start to rip at the edges with how hard I was holding the letter in between my shaky fingers.

That day you picked me up, at the lake, I wasn’t completely honest with you. Something did happen, but not what you think.

I discovered the truth to what happened to my brother and why he betrayed you, but that’s a story for another day, or more so, if I manage to survive and I can tell you the story someday myself.

There’s a possibility that my brother’s alive, Giovanni.

I sit down on the bed, frowning at the words written on the paper.

I thought it was just one of her many theories, but the possibility that he might be alive? She lied to me. It wasn’t a theory like she said it was the other day, here in the pool house. There was a part of her that knew that her brother was alive, that’s why she brought it up in the first place.

But one thing I know for sure is that you didn’t pull the trigger at all.

My theories were true.

My nightmares were clues after all.

You didn’t pull the trigger, Giovanni.

I’m not going to say who pulled the trigger either because I know you’re going to try to be the knight in shining armour and try to save me like you always do, but I can handle this myself.

I just have to do this myself.

Do what yourself? I thought.

Just know that I love you so much and that I am sorry for leaving like this. It was a sucky thing to do and words cannot express to how sorry I am, but I hope you can forgive me for always making you worry like this.

But my brother might be alive and I have to find out if he is.

If he’s not, you can expect a war.

One I will start and end by myself.

And this isn’t just because of my brother. I’m doing this for you too. I’m doing it for you, the three J’s and Vito. If I don’t, you all die.

You were right in the beginning when you said that I was in the middle of it all. It’s the truth. I really am in the middle of it all. I’m also the one who can put an end to all of this. You just have to trust me, Asstiglione.

Tell Vito and the three J’s that I love them so much.

And Asstiglione, I love you more than words can describe.

Now that I know that you didn’t pull the trigger, I can finally love you without feeling guilty. I can love you knowing that you never pulled the trigger.

I always loved you, even when there was a possibility that you were the one to pull the trigger.

Am I a bad person for loving you when I was supposed to hate you?

Let’s save that for later.

I already miss you, Asstiglione.

Love, Scarlett.

My hands were shaking uncontrollably by the time I finished reading the letter.

She left me, again.

Without a trace, again.

I knew there was something wrong after we left the woods where the lake was. I knew she was keeping something from me but I didn’t want to pry. But I should’ve pried because now she’s gone and I don’t have a clue where she was or what she was planning to do.

If he’s not, you can expect a war. One I will start and end by myself.

She’s walking into something she’s not ready for. But she thinks she is, that’s why she wanted to train with me so badly. She wanted to prepare herself for what’s to come. She knew what she was going to do all along.

She isn’t supposed to be the one who saves us.

It’s our job to save her.

Not hers.

“Giovanni, what’s—”

I look to the doorframe where Vito was currently standing with the letter shaking in my hands. “She left. She left me again.”

Vito comes into the pool house and snatches the letter from my hands before he reads it too. I watch as his eyes travel down the page, barely blinking because he was so focused on the letter.

“You didn’t pull the trigger.”

“That’s not the fucking point, Vito.” I tell him, raking my fingers through my hair before I started to tug at my roots. “She’s gone. She’s going to try and save us. It’s not her job to save us, Vito. It’s ours.”

Vito drops the letter to the bed, looking at me with determination in his eyes.

“So let’s go, big brother. Let’s go save the girl you love.”

“I don’t know where to look, brother. I have no clue where she went.” I put my head in my hands and try to think where she could’ve gone, but she never mentioned anything to me. “She’s gone without a trace, Vito. She’s gone.” I mumbled against my palms.

Vito grabs my shoulder harshly, letting both my hands fall back to my sides. “Pull yourself together, brother. We’re going to go to Eden first, maybe Scarlett is there.”

I nod although I already have a feeling that she isn’t there.

Eden has nothing do with any of this.

“She might not even be there, but it’s a start at least.” Vito says, already making his way out of the pool house, with me—being as desperate just to find her again and keep her close—close on his heels.

The three J’s find us in the foyer, seeing Vito hurrying to get the SUV’s keys.

“What’s wrong?” Joshua asks, giving me a worried look.

“Scarlett’s gone.” I answer him, focusing on Vito who grabbed the keys from the bowl on the fireplace before he joins us in the foyer again.

“What? Isn’t she just outside collecting the flower she needed for Biology?”

She lied to him. She lied to Joshua.

She made him believe that she was just going to do her Biology homework when she was actually plotting her escape.

She’s smarter than I thought she was.

“No. She wrote a letter, she’s gone.” Vito replies for me.

Jason curses under his breath, shaking his head. “Well, wherever you’re going, we’re coming with you guys. She’s our girl too.”

“We don’t know where she is yet, Jason.”

“Well, more eyes are better than just four sets.” He says, already grabbing his jacket from the couch’s armrest.

“So let us come with you.” Joshua says, already walking past Vito who had the SUV’s keys.

There was no room for argument anymore. I just follow them until we reach the SUV parked in the driveway.

We don’t know if she’s at Eden’s, but we’re determined to find her, whatever it takes.

I won’t let her do something stupid just because she wants to save us.

I won’t allow it.

• • •

SCARLETT DEL GATO

I was standing in front of Eden’s two-storeyed house.

The house was old, the paint already started to chip in some places and the porch swing is already worn out and rusty. But despite the house having a few flaws here and there, it was still beautiful.

The lights were on in the living room to my relief and someone’s feet dangled from the edge of the couch, it was a woman’s. Hopefully Eden’s.

A small garden with beautiful flowers was planted on the side, just beside the steps that lead to the front door and the smell of the flower’s aromas filled my nostrils as I made my way up the steps.

Not even the smell of the flowers could relax me for what I’m about to ask my best friend.

It was a start, and I was grasping at straws, but it was still a start.

I needed to find my brother.

I take in a deep breath, my hand reaching out to knock on the door but it pauses before my knuckles make contact with the wood.

I love you, Giovanni. I tell myself before I knock on the door.

I wait for a couple of seconds before I finally hear someone’s footsteps reaching the front door and it finally opens, Eden poking her head through the door.

“Scarlett? What the hell? Is something wrong?” She asks, opening the door for me to enter.

It was only when we were both seated on the couch when I turn to look at my best friend. “Eden, I’m going to ask you something but I need you to keep the questions at bay. This is important.” I tell her.

She frowns at first but after she nods understandingly. “Okay.”

“I need to know where Diablo lives. You were friends with him before he decided to take me on… so; I need you to tell me where he lives.”

I could tell she wanted to ask questions but she kept them at bay, just like I asked her to.

“He lives maybe twenty to thirty minutes away,” she says, “near the park we used to go to as kids. It’s like five minutes away from the park. If you keep going east, you will find the neighbourhood. It’s kind of hard to miss.”

I thank my best friend and move to get up from the couch, but she pulls me by the arm, making me sit down again.

“You are not going to go that easily.” She says, holding onto my arm tighter. “I need to know what you’re up to, Scarlett.”

“I can’t tell you.” I pry my arm out of her grasp. “I have to go, Eden. I’m sorry.” I get up from the couch and make my way out of her house without glancing back at her.

I got what I came here for and now I’m just hoping that she was telling me the truth. I hope she wasn’t lying to me about where the neighbourhood was, because if she did, I will never get my brother back.

If he’s alive.

I ignore the intrusive thoughts and climb into Joshua’s car, speeding down the road to get to the neighbourhood as fast as I could.

Time was running out.