Red Room |18+|

♤ Target ♤

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~~~~~~ARI~~~~~~~

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If someone had told me that my life would become this fulfilling two years ago, I would have punched them square in the jaw. As I sit in my Favourite coffee shop with my good friend Viktoriya talking about my weekend ; I feel a sense of accomplishment and immense peace. It's been two years since Evie died, her memories still lurking in my mind but burnt down enough to accept the whispers of smoke. I've moved past the pain now, accepting the numbness that came with her death.

It was brutal and sudden, ripping away any thoughts of hope I had lingering in my body. The days went by in a blur after I left her mansion with so many unanswered questions about who I wanted to become after my freedom from the most abusive life I've ever lived. I remember storming into my mother's recovery room in the allocated hall of the mansion.

She had finally regained consciousness and she was already asking to see me. My life flashed before my eyes when I saw her sprawled across the bed and her breathing coming out faintly.

*******

"Ari Mi Hijo. Por favor, ven a mí. Estás muy gua.".   (Ari, My Son. Please, come to me. You look very handsome.) There is a faint crack in her voice as she opens up her hands and I step inside. Her warmth immediately envelops me and I fall into the comfort of it until I stiffen and remember why I was angry at her so I pull away and she frowns.

I look at the frown etched between her brows and roam my eyes over her soft features. The lines on her forehead and the corners of her lips show signs of aging. Her lips are curved upwards and she looks solemn.

My mother knows that very vivid memory of her putting two holes in my father's chest after a heated argument. The blood was so much that, I had to help her clean up and she disposed his body at God knows where. She stares at me and the guilt in her eyes shows me that it is also her vivid memory of me.

"Amore." She whispers as I stand a distance away from her. "Why?" I faintly ask and she sighs. Her eyes communicating defeat and regret. I didn't want to believe Anika's version of my mother even though I had already seen a glimpse of it. Was she really a murderer? A greedy woman who didn't give a fuck about my father? Her eyes meet mine and I wish I hadn't looked at those green orbs filled with so much of my past.

"Your father was the leader of the Mexican drug cartel. He had men all over Mexico City and across Southern America. He had started doing business with Yulian at a young age after Yulian relocated to Mexico to deal in drugs and increasing his wealth. They were inseparable or at least that is what Yulian made Gustavo believe. I was a broke college student who got involved with the wrong gang and I was tasked to find out about some gold bars that were going to be arriving in Mexico. My gang and I did some digging and we found out that Yulian and Gustavo were in charge of the heist. I went to the club as a dancer and got the attention of both men. The plan was to get one of them to trust me enough to send me to their house so I can get the location of the gold and intercept the trucks before Yulian and Gustavo got to it. Gustavo got my attention in the process of executing the plan and I had sex with him, even though I wasn't supposed to."

She looks up at me but I quickly look away and she sighs.

"I couldn't get the information I needed and it got my entire gang rowed up. Two weeks later we got intel that Yulian was planning an assassination against Gustavo after I spied on him. I told Gustavo and we eliminated a lot of Yuliana's men. I fell in love with your father in the process and both of us ended up stealing back our gold bars from Yulian. So many years went by, we had hidden it quite well and had gotten enough leverage on Yulian to stop him from coming after us. Along the line I gave birth to you and Lucia and after a few years my gang members were hunting me down. They exposed me to your father on that Christmas Eve day and I tried explaining it to him but Gustavo didn't listen. We struggled with the gun and I got a shot at him first."

Stunned would be an understatement for how I feel at this moment. I shake my head in disbelief as I walk out of her room, with more questions on my mind than answers.

***************
"Ari?" Viktoriya's voice comes in from across the table, taking me out of my thoughts and back to the conversation we were having. Ever since Anika died and Cara released her, she has been a part of my life. Normal life has finally been given to her as much as it was given to me and we've reveled in it ever since.

"Hello, earth to Ari?" I smile at her miserable attempt at joke and chuckle a little when she playfully hits my arm. We take sips of our coffee as the bell chimes indicating that someone has entered. I turn and Lucia smiles at me

"Hey, Hermano. Hey you." She slides into my booth and takes my mug to drink my coffee. Brat. I glare at her and she shrugs "I'm hungry."

"Then order yours."I spit back and she rolls her eyes. I hear her mumble "Jerk", before a waitress comes over to take her order. After Lucia's food comes, we start talking about her college education and how far she is going. She says she hates it but needs the degree and Viktoriya laughs at the frown on her face. The morning is perfect, my life is finally not riding on uncertainty like it used to. Darkness isn't my acquaintance anymore even though a little part of me still misses Evie.

As we talk, I glance out of the glass window and it flashes before my eyes. I could be mistaken about a lot of things but not her, not my princess. A cartoons by and she is gone. Like the wind she is, she disappears without a trace; even as I run out of the coffee shop to look for her. I hear Lucia's confused questions but I don't listen as the bells rings when I exit.

"She has to be around here somewhere." I whisper to myself as I search frantically around the place for her. "I'm not crazy, she was right here"  I say again as I stand in the middle of the busy street, a few people passing by me minding their own business as others gave me weird looks.

A hand comes up to my shoulder and touches me softly; I turn and I'm met with Lucia's smoky grey eyes that holds a lot of sympathy. An emotion I loathe, so I shrug her off me and walk back inside the coffee shop.

I thought I had moved past the pain of not having Evie close to me, and even though we were never showing any emotion, I knew it was more than just physical connection. A few minutes into our breakfast after the silence has become unbearable and awkward the bell chimes and I look over my shoulders as a boy of about ten years with dirty blonde runs to our direction and hands me a sealed envelope with a grin on his face.

"The pretty lady over there asked me to give you this." He says pointing to the direction I had seen Evie. "Did she tell you her name?" I ask and he . "Did she tell you her name?" I ask and he shakes his head, turning around and leaving. I look at Lucia who returns the look and Viky who just stares between us. Opening the envelope I glance at the window again and see nothing but the busy street of Manhattan.

*
At night.

These two words were written on the hard paper in the envelope when I flip it open. Confusion lines my brows and Lucia snatches it to read. She mirrors my expression and shows it to Viktoriya and she shrugs. "Maybe it's a prank?" Viky says and Lucia agrees with a head nod.

How did I even up with these two women? I think to myself.

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I walk into my bathroom after taking a shower. Being in the gym for over two hours comes with smelling like absolute garbage. As I dry my hair, my phone pings with a notification and I take it with one hand as my other hand brushes my teeth.

I look on my phone and squeeze my eyes to see the message. At first it doesn't register in my head, until I hear two gunshots and several others follow.

Warning : the subsequent chapters are about to get real. There will be a lot of revelations of Evie's life and the real state of her relationship with her parents.

There will be mention of a lot of emotional, physical, and psychological abuse mentioned. This is the only warning you will get.

There will be smut soon too. Haha. I know you all missed that. Horny ass

Thank you all for 7k reads. It's a pleasure writing for you all.

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