A Few Days Later - Tuesday, December 15th. 2015, 7:17 PM
ANASTASIA'S POV:
Speechless.
Unable to speak, especially as the temporary result of shock or some other strong emotion.
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It was a few days later. My brothers had come over to our "mansion" as they called it for some one-on-one training with Layla and Jamie, who had recently taken on the challenge of them being the only two to train the Smith Brothers in hand-to-hand combat.
They had just finished for the night, and before they left, we had started a small conversation between the six of us: James, Matthew, Jackson, Mason, Nathan, and myself. It was slightly awkward, but for the most part the conversation flowed easily.
We kept the conversation relatively light, sitting in between two of the larger sofas in the living room, until I knew it would be a good time to pry a few slim answers out of my older brothers.
"James..."
"Yes, Anastasia?" he questioned, shock at the fact that I had willingly spoken to him about anything. I generally spoke to him through someone else.
I hesitated for a moment before deciding to bite the bullet, "Do you remember anything strange ever happening with mom and dad before they died?"
James sat there for a moment before he crossed his arms, raised his eyebrow, and questioned me, "Why the sudden interest, baby sister?"
"I'm just wondering..." I played it off.
Though there was a reason for my concern, not that I was ready to share that with my brothers just yet. It would be easier to ask instead of going on a wild goose chase for important information that was covered up in plain sight.
"I suppose there were the times growing up where a man would bang on the front door. Mom or dad would answer it and huge arguments would break out. Almost every time it was mom who answered the door, the guy would try to break his way in, but mom always stopped him. When I was younger she seemed like she had super strength, the guy was at least twice her weight and almost three heads taller, but he looked like dad, and was definitely more intimidating than dad."
I stayed silent, staring at James, in what probably looked to be a small amount of appreciation, before I spoke, "Thank you for telling me."
I was quiet for another moment before I continued speaking, "If you remember anything else that seemed weird or strange, any of you, please let me know."
"You got it, sissy." Nathan smiled reassuringly at me.
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It was a few minutes later, everyone had gone back to their original conversations, when Jackson spoke up after having been quiet, "Can I ask a personal question?"
I looked around the room quickly, before coming to the conclusion he was talking to me, "Yeah, why not." I shrugged.
"What happened to your second set of parents?"
I hesitated for a moment before answering, "Well, my adoptive mother and father were the previous leaders of the gang I now run, so he had quite the amount of threats. And one time, an attack simply slipped under the radar. We have no idea how, but with that attack not being on our radar, the opposing side gunned most of the family down. All our parents are gone, leaving us with only each other and the little twins."
"You said they knew our parents?" Mason then intervened, "Do you think our parents knew what they were doing?"
"They did, I'm sure of it." I replied immediately, "Once Alex and Miles died, I was allowed the right to look through everything they had once owned. I found a note, the note explained that once I turned seventeen I'd be sent to live with Alex and Miles by our parents, seeing as at the time they hadn't had any heirs. They'd train me for a bit, before I would become the leader of the gang, but plans change, just like people."
My brothers were quiet, thinking about what I had said, and suddenly James rose from his spot on the couch.
"Anastasia, I'd like to talk to you in private." he spoke awkwardly, while looking down at my seated, comfortably placed on the couch, body.
"Alright." I sighed heavily, heaving myself off the couch, "Let's go to my office, you won't get much more private than that."
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In my office, with the door closed behind us, I sat in my comfortable rolling chair, as James took a seat on the chair across from me, on the other side of the desk.
"What'd you need to tell me, James?" I asked, my eyes moving to the few articles of papers that were thrown carelessly across the desk.
I really needed to find time in order to clean my office.
"I've spent a lot of time reflecting since the incident a few weeks ago." James started off, "You saved them, you could have let them walk out, and die, especially after everything we've all done to you. But you didn't, and that forced me to think of things differently."
"What are you trying to say, James?"
"I-I was the oldest, I was the leader of the pack, everyone followed my lead." James admitted, "I should have protected you, whether you were the one to make that stupid phone call, or not."
James looked down at his lap sadly, his eyes glassing over with unshed tears, "I hope you know that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the damage I've done, even though it's all permanent."
He rose his head to make eye contact with me, "I'm sorry, Ana." he said before shaking his head sadly, "And those three words don't even begin to express the truth of how sorry I am for being so small-minded. You were a child, you were never the one at fault."
I stopped, my mouth opened slightly in surprise.
Walking into this room, sitting here with the one older brother I was sure despised me, not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine he'd apologize to me right here, right now.
I didn't have a moment to say anything or react, though, because in the next moment a loud scream broke free from down the hall-
"WWOOO HHOOO!"
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Hoping up from my chair, I slammed my office door open, and sprinted down the hall, gun drawn, as I kicked open Wyatt's tech room door.
Wyatt's tech room was still filled to the brim with coffee cups and instant food cups from earlier, he also has plastic water bottles everywhere. His tv was quietly playing in the background probably so he wasn't working in silence, because according to the boy himself, he can't ever focus when there's nothing but silence around him.
Scanning my surroundings, I quickly demand, "Freeze!"
"Ana!" Wyatt called out happily, before pausing and looking at me in confusion, "Why are you holding me at gun point?"
"Why'd you scream like you were being attacked?" I asked as I clicked the safety back on my gun, before I slide it back into the waistband of my pockets, after I realized his room was in fact clear of all dangers.
"Because-" Wyatt cut himself off, before suddenly screaming-
"I FOUND SOMETHING!!"
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Time seemed to stop, the world seemed to pause, and everything blurred together. Despite not knowing what Wyatt had found, it could easily be inferred that whatever he had found was important and could potentially change the outcome of this supposed war.
"What'd you find?" I asked him, nervousness was seeping through my voice.
"I found a few things, actually." Wyatt told me, as he walked back over to his computer, "Come look, Ana."
I followed Wyatt's lead and walked over to Wyatt's desk area, sitting on his left armrest of the chair he was currently sitting in.
Wyatt pointed to the screen, "It seems that the police and all the other mafia's who we had originally thought to be after us, aren't. It was another ploy created by whoever killed our parents and tried to kill you. This person, man or woman, has also tried hacking into our data and all of our files."
Wyatt looked over to me, his eyes searching mine, before he answered my unasked question-
'Had someone been able to access our database and get access to all of our files and information?'
"No, no one was able to get through, Ana." he answered, before complimenting his own hacking skills, "We do have one of the best hackers in the world at our disposal, after all."
"Alright, we get it you're one of the best." I rolled my eyes.
"Just to be on the safe side though, I've decided to spend some time adding in a few new layers on our existing firewall." Wyatt explained to me, before he scrolled the screen of the computer down some.
"Now take a look at this Ana." Wyatt spoke, his finger pointing at some of the words listed on the screen.
I looked at the words on the computer screen as Wyatt began talking again, "You're parents didn't only take part in Miles and Alexandria's gang, nor were they just extremely helpful figures. They both were actually born to different gang leader's and their families."
"And it looks like, given the records listed, that our parents stopped when mom was a few months along with James." I added as I looked at the information in front of me.
"Precisely." Wyatt nodded at my words, "They didn't like the gang style life for their children, and so they left. I can try looking into it further, given that that's the only information it says about your parents and their families."
"Yeah, if you could look into it further, I'd appreciate it, Wy." I smiled, although it was a bit forceful at the boy who I thought of as my brother, "But don't make it top priority, we have a war to worry about. That's first priority."
"I'll work on it, Ana."
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Four Days Later - Saturday, December 19th. 2015, 1:29 PM
Two busy weeks were spent running around as if I was a chicken with my head cut off. Christmas was rapidly approaching, and with that, it was far past time to buy Christmas presents. We decorated, placed a fake pine-tree in our living room and decorated it with fun hand-made ornaments, we wrapped Christmas gifts, and bought a few extra gifts for my brothers, as we were finally starting to get along.
Luke and Kayla were spending their time off of work with the little twins, Courtney and Dylan, taking them to play at the park in the snow for a few hours. Jamie and Layla, though they also had time off, were spending their time still training my biological brothers in hand-to-hand combat. Max was running quite the amount of errands for me, leaving me able to work on the endless amount of paperwork that always seems to build up.
Wyatt, on the other hand, was back on his computer after spending a few days off to recharge himself. He was looking into more information on my biological parents. He had been at his current task for less than a day- seven hours to be precise, and neither himself or myself thought he'd have found something new so soon.
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Roughly shoving the door to my office open, Wyatt walked in, his large sized tablet resting in his arms, "Ana-" he spoke, "Are you busy right now?"
"Not really." I yawned, stretching slightly, "What's up?"
Wyatt moved to sit down in the chair in front of my desk, and then he pressed a button on his tablet, before setting it down. A high-pitched long screech left the tablet, slowly dimming in volume until it was barely hearable.
"Sorry about that, Ana." Wyatt apologized, "Don't know if the place is bugged, so I created this interception sound wave app, that creates nothing but a screeching noise to any devices trying to listen in on a conversation."
"Don't apologize, Wyatt." I waved him off, "I was just surprised by the sudden shriek. Now, tell me- What'd you find out? What's going on, Wyatt?"
"The man who ordered the kill on our parents, the same one who sent that note, and later attacked you, I found the mole who's working for him, and I found out the boss' name too."
My eyes widened, only by a fraction.
Of course I had expected him to find the answers we were looking for, but after the information we had gathered a few days ago, I wasn't expecting another decently sized sum of information to pop up so soon.
"Who is it, Wyatt?" I asked, "Who's the mole?"
Everything was quiet for a moment, our breathing and the slight sound of the high pitched wail (that was still coming from Wyatt's tablet) being the only things heard.
"Antony Parkin." Wyatt spoke, "He's the traitor."
"I'll kill him." I growled out, as my fingers formed fists, and my face flared in anger.
My father, Miles, had brought him in when he was down on luck. Nothing had seemed to go right for Antony, and so my father paid his bills, bought him clothes and food, while Antony began working for my father as a manager in one of his hotels he owned.
My father helping that man ruined his life. My father helping that man helped aid in ending his own life.
"Who does Antony work for now?" I asked, closing my eyes as I took deep breaths in and out.
"Ana..." Wyatt sighed, hesitating before giving in, "He works for your uncle... your Uncle Casher..."
"U-ncle C-Casher?" I repeated dumbly, my voice cracking.
My uncle... Antony worked for my uncle. My uncle ordered the kills on my adoptive parents and my best friends parents.
Antony had risen through the ranks quite quickly, and he was almost an inner circle member. He would have had his certification test a few months after my parents died, but I was drowned in the paperwork of trying to become a legal adult at sixteen, getting custody of my younger siblings, keeping my grades up, and keeping all of my parents businesses afloat.
After everyone from the older inner circle had been assassinated, myself and my own inner circle had come to the conclusion of a traitor or mole, and so we isolated ourselves, trying not to make the same mistake as our parents.
Antony had known almost everything, yet he was the one nobody expected.
And as for my uncle-
My Uncle Casher had no reason to assassinate my adoptive parents or best friends parents. He had to have known that I was in Miles and Alexandria's care. He had to have known I was his niece.
He was openly declaring war back then, I was just too naive to see it.
I'm utterly speechless, I have no words.
We may have just gotten two questions, but it seems as if five-hundred more questions popped up.
I knew one thing for sure though.
Casher was a dead man walking. His days were now numbered.
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Author's Note -
Here's chapter twenty-four completed. We're now completely caught up with the original version of this book.
James and Ana have started the long journey of beginning to mend their relationship. Ana and Wyatt also found out who was responsible for Alexandria, Miles, Jake, and Javier's deaths. Did any of you guess that Casher would be the one who had killed her adoptive family?
Let me know what you think about this chapter. And make sure you all comment, vote (by clicking the star), and share this story with those who might like it.
Thanks for reading the chapter!
-michaelaloveswriting
Original Version Published: January 18th. 2020
Edited Version Published: June 29th. 2022