Heartless People

TWENTY-NINE

The marks humans leave are too often scars.
—John Green.

MICHAEL.

He was twelve hours old. Smaller than the distance between elbow and my wrist, and here he was, motherless. He was suffering like Lauren suffered as an infant. It had taken Clara over a decade to finally hold her to love her. And every second that Mila was gone, Ethan was forced to travel the same path his other mother had. Right now, he was oblivious to it all, as he slept in his bassinet, lost in his own
little world.

"Michael." Clara burst into the hospital nursery. "A nurse went to look for Mila so she could feed Ethan."

Shit. It was only a matter of time before the police would be brought in. With the police came the media, investigations, and people digging deeper into our lives.

"Does Lauren know?" I asked, pulling out my phone.

"The nurse already went to his superiors. Its only a matter of time." No sooner had the words left her lips, a silent red siren went off around the room. We blinked at the brightly flashing lights that were supposed to catch a nurses attention without waking the children.

"What do we do?" she whispered, walking over to Ethan.

The only thing we could. " We tell the truth. We left Mila to get some rest and when we came back, she was gone."

"The timeline won't match up, Michael. I went to check on her hours ago. Either we tell them we knew she was missing for hours or someone has to screw with the camera footage." It was a lose-lose situation because in the end, it would kick up more questions than any of us were ready to handle.

I couldn't leave Clara or Ethan alone to prep Lauren for the questions that would most likely be hurled her way. All I could do was stand in the middle of Ethans personal nursery as the red lights above us flashed non-stop.

"Lauren knows." Clara sighed, allowing Ethan to grab her finger. He knows his mother is gone. Just like Lauren did.

"Clara-"

"Lauren and I aren't close. Its my fault. I left her alone for years, and when I finally woke up, she wasn't a baby anymore and she avoided me. Not once has she come to me for advice. I know she
loves me, but its always been you. Her anger, her pain, her loneliness, are all because I wasn't there." She trembled in my arms as her tears soaked my shirt.

"Lauren loves you, and this is completely different. Mila didn't- Mila was taken, but she'll be back. We're talking about the first woman to take over the Italian Mafia. The moment she can, she will get back to
us and leave nothing but a wake of blood behind her. This will be over soon."  I hoped my words would be true. Every moment she wasn't here, Lauren would spiral. I knew this about my daughter; she couldn't
handle being abandoned again.

VERONICA

Nothing but a sea of blue was flooding the walls, drowning out the white coats that normally infested the hallways. Cops made me sick.

They were nothing but self-persevering, opportunistic leeches hiding behind shiny badges. The nurse had set us back and now the hospital was on its own lockdown, forcing us to stay in a private wing instead of searching for Mila. Lauren hadn't said a word since we took out the doctor. She sat like a man made out of marble, her head permanently attached to her hands.

"Mrs. Jauregui,"  a short balding man said. He was dripping in medals, which he undoubtedly wore for the cameras outside.

"May I ask who you are? I asked. My sister is both tired and devastated, as you can imagine."  I stepped beside my sister. She looked up at me, eyebrow raised.