Life Without Them (On Hold)

Chapter 15: He Strikes

"Don't worry!? These are our kids, Silas! Our kids! That maniac just went after children. He is far more demented than he was when we were 16."

"You think I don't know that Sang!?" he explodes. "God! That's the whole reason we left in the first place! He had a knife to your throat, Sang! There was nothing any of us could do! He could've killed you, and there was nothing we could do! You and the twins wouldn't even be here if that sadistikó kátharma (sadistic bastard) decided to go through with it!"

The twins start crying before he can even get through his last sentence.

Silas starts to bang on the steering wheel in his frustration, causing the kids to cry even harder. Me? I just sit there, because there is absolutely nothing I can do to reassure any of them. And I hate it. I hate this feeling. This, this helplessness. It sucks and I don't like it.

We pull up to our building a few minutes later, and Silas pulls into the underground parking garage. We get the kids out of their seats, trying to console them, but having absolutely no idea what to say. We don't lie to our kids, and we don't know if we'll make it through this unscathed. All we can do is hope. Hope that the boys can catch this sadistic son of a bitch and that our lives will go back to normal.

When we get to the apartment, the kids still haven't calmed down, and I'm about ten seconds away from a breakdown myself. When we walk inside, North and Luke are arguing in the kitchen, Owen and Sean are playing chess, and Kota and Victor are doing something on the laptops in front of them. They all stop to look at us and the wailing children in our arms.

Sean is the first one to us, and is immediately checking over the children while Silas locks the door. They're all around us by the time I tell them what happened.

"Volto. He approached the kids when we were in the park."

"Did he hurt them?" Owen asks.

"What did he say?" that's Kota.

"Just wait till I get my hands on that son of a—"

"North!"

And that would be Victor stopping North, although, I have to agree with him. That SOB is in for a world of hurt when we get our hands on him.

"Silas, let me have Cole. I'm going to put them to bed," I say to him.

"Sang, wait," Owen stops me. "If the children saw him, we might be able to have Gabriel make a sketch."

"Well then get him here," I tell him, juggling the twins in my arms. "Right now, I'm going to try and get our kids to stop crying."

"Princess, let me help," Victor steps in closer. "Let me take Morgan, we'll go in the guest room."

"Fine," I heave, passing over a still crying Morgan.

You can tell how much this is affecting him. The fire in his eyes is an inferno of rage as he takes her, following me down the hallway. When we get in the guest room, Victor takes a seat at the keyboard he set up in here, with Morgan in his lap. He begins to play as I bounce Cole on my lap and take a seat on the bed, listening to his beautiful melody. I don't recognize the song, but the kids start to calm down the more he plays. By the time he's finished, Cole is asleep in my lap, and Morgan is snuggled into her father's neck.

"That was beautiful, Victor," I say in awe. "Was that an original?"

"Yeah," he answers as he hugs Morgan to him. "I just finished it the other day."

"What's it called?" Morgan's sleepy voice asks.

"It's called 'Magical Love', or sonnet #112, for you and your brother. The eleventh and twelfth members of our family."

"I like it," she smiles.

"Me too," I respond.

"Sang?" Kota calls from the doorway. "Gabe's here."

I give him a nod as Victor and I stand and walk out the door.

"How are they?" is the first thing out of Gabriel's mouth when we enter the living room.

"They're better," I answer him. "But Cole's sleeping, so maybe Morgan can help out."

"Can you remember the man, Morgan?" Gabriel asks with his sketchpad at the ready.

"I think so," she says lowly. "He had short hair, and green eyes."

Gabriel has Morgan sit down with him, describing the man from the park. The boys and I all sit around them, with Nathan joining us. We all watch as Gabriel sketches as if his life depended on it, asking Morgan questions to make sure he gets every detail right.

After he's done, Morgan nods and says, "Yes, that's him."

Nathan and Kota's eyes are blown wide as the look at the man in the sketch. Kota slowly starts to shake his head.

"No, that can't be Volto."

"Kota?" I question. "Do you know who that is?"

"It's not possible," Nathan murmurs.

"Who is this?" I ask.

"That's..." Kota stops. I watch as his adam's apple bobs with the force of his gulp. "That's my father."

**Hii everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Total cliffy, I know, I called it, but I'm not even done with the next chapter yet so you'll all have to wait. *insert evil laugh here* I'm going on vacation next week and won't be updating. *waits for moans of abandonment to die down and pitchforks to be put away* I'll still be writing so yay! Anyway, the next update for this story will be April, 12th. Thanks for reading!**