Mafia's collateral

Nothing but despair

>>Seraphina

The male police officer stepped forward, his hand on my shoulder as he gently but firmly restrained me.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," He said sternly, his voice tinged with sympathy. "But I have to ask you to step back." He blocked my path as Ariel began to drag Eris to her car.

Eris wasn't having it. She bit Ariel's hand making her scream and let her grip loosened. The moment Ariel's hand was off of Eris, she ran. And she ran towards me.

"Sera!!"

Unfortunately, she didn't get far. A few steps towards me and Ariel grabbed her with her other hand and yanked her back. She had grabbed the collar, so when she yanked her backwards, the round collar choked Eris.

"Hey!!" I yelled at her, "What are you doing??!" I was filled with negative emotions, "She's a kid!! You can't do that to her!!"

"God knows how you raised her," Ariel let Eris go and she started coughing as she fell to the floor, "She's such an unruly kid."

"She's a kid," I tried to move towards her but I was stopped again, "A kid who doesn't want to go with a stranger!" I looked at the officers, "Did you even check if she's actually the mother of the kid? Huh?" I was desperate. I knew she was the mother. She ran away from our house the day she found out she was pregnant.

And she found out she was pregnant when she was already three months along. Even I could tell she was pregnant, but she kept denying it. I don't know why she was in denial, maybe because she didn't want the kid.

No, that must have been it. She didn't want Eris, that's why she threw her away too.

"We did check," The female officer said,

"What?"

"I got a sample of her hair when we met in the hospital," The male officer said, "She is indeed the mother of the girl." He sighed, "That's why you should stop crying. There is no way you can win this."

"B-but," I looked back at them.

"Look, she can take it to court as well," The female officer said, "And you'll lose there too."

A deep, gnawing sense of loss that threatened to consume me whole. Eris was more than just my sister—she was my everything. The thought of her being taken away from me filled me with a profound sense of emptiness, as though a part of me had been torn away along with her.

Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I watched helplessly, "No, please,"

"Sera!!" Eris fought Ariel, "I'm not going with you!! Leave me!!"

"Look!" I begged, "She doesn't want to go with her!!" I clasped my hands together, "Please, please, don't do this!!"

Tears blurred my vision as I watched helplessly, my chest constricted with a pain that was almost unbearable. Eris looked back at me, her eyes filled with confusion and fear, her tiny hand reaching out towards me as if pleading for help while Ariel tried to push her into the car.

NO! NO! NO! NO!

I tried to push through the officers who were blocking my path and run to her but the officer grabbed me, "Don't even think about it."

"No,"

"Sera!!" Eris kept resisting, "Sera!!!"

A suffocating panic gripped my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs and leaving me gasping for breath. It felt like the world was closing in on me, crushing me beneath its weight as I struggled to make sense of what was happening.