Saviors (Completed)

44. He Was Taken

"Just wait a little longer, princess."

"How long is that?"

"I don't know, but not too long." He planted a sweet kiss on my forehead before he raised from the couch and looked down at me. "I promise that everything will be alright." He left with those words, heading for his secret room there wasn't much of a secret to me. Maybe he was painting the portrait of me?

Just as Anthony had left, another Martinez stepped into the room. Antonio walked over to stand before me. "Can I ask you something?" He asked, with a slight smile on his lips. He was a strong man, thinking about how he had to do this when his fiancé had broken up with him not long ago. Had he even told anyone else yet?

I nodded as an answer to his question. "Okay." He rubbed his hands against each other like he was applying hand cream or something. "When the jury was going out to vote, you know when we were in the heated argument about something your father had lost long ago, what did he tell you when you ran to him?"

I gulped, looking away. I couldn't tell him what my father had said or given me and especially not the content of the envelope, it was too risky. And if it really was Antonio who was my brother, I wouldn't be able to convince him to believe me. In the birth certificate there was the only proof that I had another brother there was named Mason, not that it was Antonio.

"I'm sorry if it was too much of me to ask."

"No, I just asked him about the son he said they had twenty-six years ago," I told, which was technically not wrong, I just left out some details.

"Yeah, about that, Liam and I looked into it and there is no trace of them having a child twenty-six year ago, no birth certificate or anything else written into the system. I just think he used it as an excuse for cutting down his sentence," Antonio told me, his smile slowly disappearing as he saw my sad look. "I'm sorry, but you don't have another brother."

He had gotten it wrong. I didn't look sad because I didn't have another brother, but because I had and he was maybe standing right in front of me. It would make sense if Antonio was my brother, he looked like Liam and my father. We shared the same eyes and hair. But still, how did he end up in the Martinez family and there was no trace of his birth whatsoever else were. How can you steal a baby and hide it so well?

Maybe my brother was really dead.

I only know one who can tell me right now.

My mother.

"Thanks for telling me, but I have to go," I said and stood from the couch.

Antonio gripped my arm before I could move any further. "Wait, didn't Anthony tell you to stay for a little longer?"

"I'm an adult, I can take care of myself," I snapped back coldly, not really wanting it to come out like that, but his grip loosened and I took the chance to rip myself free and storm towards the door where I quickly disappeared outside.

It didn't take long for me to come out to the road and begin walking towards my home. I figured it would be the only place my mom would be right now. I didn't question it and just kept walking toward my house.

I didn't know how long I walked for, but soon enough I was standing in front of the iron gate I knew so well and looked at our house I knew every corner off.

When my hand was reaching out toward the handle, thousands of thoughts ran through my head, slowing down the progress. The human mind was truly the scariest thing out of all. It could ruin you and stop anything you desired. It held fear, love, happiness, and sadness.

I took a deep breath, taking control and opening the gate and slowly making my way up to the front door.

As my hand rested on the cold door handle, thoughts came creeping again, backing up that my theory about the mind being a scary thing. There was a silence in my soul as the coldness shot up through me and the decision about doing this got registered. I felt the chill in my blood, the coldness there sat my brain on a break. Part of the feeling was the pain, but there was something else too, something I couldn't figure out. The pain I could endure, I had felt it many times throughout the years, but the other thing was different and it could make me turn around and run away at every moment.

It was like a void; a very dark one. A never-ending darkness there consumed everything on its way and took me with it. It told me that nothing was okay, that I shouldn't be here and that this was useless; that I was useless.

It was inner demons and I didn't have any angels to fight them off at this moment. I had to do it on my own.

Out of nothing, I threw my head back laughing. It was high and pitched, nothing like me at all, but I still did it. And I kept doing it. I kept laughing and smiling, feeling the dark void creep further and further away. I could be my own angel for a minute or two I just had to keep being positive. I would find my brother, even if he wasn't Antonio or even if he was dead.

I opened the door on full display and walked in, remembering to close the door after me. I didn't take off my shoes or anything I just walked into the kitchen and just as I had thought, my mom sat alone in the darkness and looked at a picture in front of her.

I shifted on the lights. "Mom?"

She lifted her head and looked over at me. Tears stained her pink cheeks and her eyes were big and puffy. Though she looked like I had done so many times, I didn't feel anything towards it. I just strolled over to the table and pulled out a chair to sit on.

"Nina," she whispered and looked away from me and down on the picture. "You know."

"About my brother? Yes," I said, folding my hands on the table like her. "His name is Mason, right?"

"Yes, he was so tiny," she told, trailing her finger over the picture. "He looked just like his father, a complete copy. You should have seen how proud your father was, though he was only twenty when Mason came. We didn't have much and before we knew it, he was gone."

I took a peek at the picture. It was a picture of my parents, they were young and sitting in a hospital with a little baby boy in their arms. He had brown hair and as my mom had said, looked like my father. They were all smiling, even the little boy. My father was more handsome and muscular, not the fat self he was today. His face was not pink and drained from the alcohol he had consumed tons of. My mother was beautiful in her own way, a lot like she was now, however, the boy in her arms was the one who caught my attention the most. That was my brother. That was Mason.

"What do you mean He's gone? Did he... did he die?" I asked and looked up at my mother who kept her eyes on the picture.

"Dead? No, he's not dead."

"Then, where is he?" I leaned forward.

She looked up and right into my eyes.

"They took him from us. Gabriella and Joseph Martinz took him from us!"