Chapter 4 Rooted in Pain

How dare you!" My Palm burned from the impact of me striking his face. Anger coursed through my veins. He groaned, his jaw tightened in obvious annoyance. He took my kids. They are mine.

“Still have that temper"

“Where are my kids?!" I asked him. My mind was not thinking straight. Panic seized me so fast. He took them. He knows. He knows. He knows.

“That’s funny, I thought they were mine?" I panicked from his words. I looked away at his intense stare, burning into my soul like he knows everything I hid from him.

“Give. Me. My. Children!" I kept repeating like clockwork. Ignoring him like my life depended on it. Which it did.

My eyes searched past him to see if I could get any sign of the kids.

Liam didn’t even move.

“Answer me first,” he said quietly. His body shifting to move. His height that was blocking me shifted closer to me.

I turned sharply. “I don’t owe you answers. I’m taking my kids and leaving.”

“Are they mine?”

The question landed heavy. My stomach fell and I moved back. " Wh..wh...what do you mean?" My fingers curled into fists at my sides. I shook my head slightly, as if refusing to even let the words form.

"They aren't yours" I said with no conviction in my voice. I didn't even believe myself. So does he.

“Move,” I demanded. Hoping my voice came out strong. But it sounded just as weak as I felt. “Now.”

Liam’s jaw clenched. His eyes darkened, something breaking and hardening at the same time.

“They’re mine,” he said. It was a conclusion. He know he knows he knows.

“No,” I snapped immediately. My eyes shifting to look at the hallway "You can't just assume...”

“You can't deny it,” he cut in. His voice devoid of any emotion. But I can see the hurt and disappointment in his eyes “I already did the test”

"How dare you..."

"Don't even bother" he cut me off

I looked away. Guilt crawled up my spine, bitter and suffocating. I can’t do this.

“I said move,” I repeated, my voice shaking despite my effort to be strong. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

Liam took a step back. A million emotions crossed his face. In different phase. It went from disappointment to hurt and then finally settled on anger. His jaw clenched hard.

“Get out.” it came out quiet.

My head snapped up. “What?”

“Get out,” he repeated, anger finally bleeding through. “You’re not taking them anywhere.”

Rage flared hot and blinding.

“You have no right to keep them from me."

“I do. I do way more than you. You took them from me and now you want to keep them from me. In your dreams" he said coldly.

I turned away from him, running past him. But he caught me before I could run far. His hand circled round my waist. Holding me place as I kicked and tried to get myself away from him. Shouting down the hall. “Lucia! Lyla!”

“Don’t you dare.” Liam warned.

I ignored him.

“Lucia! Lyla!” Panic edged into my voice now. “Come to Mommy!”

“You’re not leaving with them,” he said louder. “Not today. Never again"

I spun, my eyes were blazing with the amount of emotions running through my body. “You think I’ll walk away?”

“I mean you already did,” he snapped.

“You’re a terrible mother, and a damn well were a terrible wife” Liam said, voice shaking with fury. "You hid them from ME. You ran away with my family!.”

“You have no idea what it took,” I screamed. “You have no idea what I went through! I did it ...” A sob broke through even though I tried to hold it together.

“Then you shouldn't have left”he screamed back at me

“No! I don't owe you anything” my voice broke.

“You do owe me an explanation. You owe me everything. You left that day and you think I don't get an explanation. I thought you were dead"

I sucked in a breath, forcing myself to steady.

“I won’t deny it,” she said quietly. “I’m not perfect. I made mistakes. But those girls are my life. Everything I did, every monster I became, was for them.”

My eyes burned.

“And I did it alone.”

Silence fell heavy.

Liam’s face twisted, pain cutting deep beneath the anger.

“And whose fault was that?”

The words landed like a final blow.

Before I could answer, my phone vibrated violently in my pocket.

I froze.

Gia was calling from her burner phone. The phone line that she uses for emergency.

My blood ran cold as I answered.

“They found you,” Gia’s voice came through, tense and rushed. “they found where you live. You need to move. Now.”

I did not hesitate.

“I have to go,” I said breathlessly, already backing away.

“Luciana...”

I was already gone.

I drove recklessly. I have never ran as much traffic lights as I have done this evening. Tires screamed against asphalt as I sped towards the house, heart pounding violently in my chest.

“Alyssa,” I called, pressing the phone to my ear. “Pick up.”

No answer. I tried again.

Nothing.

My stomach dropped.

When I reached the house, the sight stopped me cold.

The front door was shattered. Windows were blown out. Smoke curled into the air. Time seemed to stop. When I look at the home I thought was going to be my escape be destroyed in minutes. With Alyssa in the middle of it all, blood pooling beneath her

“Alyssa!” I screamed.

I joined her on the floor and checked her pulse. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt a weak pilse. She was just unconscious, blood soaking into the carpet. She was alive, I touched all her body looking for the injury, and after finding nothing but a huge bump at the back of her head. I let out a huge sigh of relief. The blood wasn't hers.

Bodies were scattered around the room. Men I didn’t recognize. All dead. All shot cleanly through the head by a professional. Alyssa really was good.

I

“I’m here,” I whispered. “Stay with me.”

A soft sound of footsteps was behind me.

My instincts screamed and was quick. I grabbed my dagger and yanked the gun from Alyssa’s limp hand, spinning just as a figure lunged.

I dodged narrowly, firing without aiming.

The man moved impossibly fast. He was military trained. His moves were too much of my father's Syndicate soldiers. The same ones that trained me.

We crashed into each other, bodies slamming into walls. He struck hard and precise and I fought back with everything I had. He punched and threw me around and I made sure I defended myself with everything I had. I tried to end it quick as I normally did but he had a counter attack for every move I made. Until he finally caught up to me. Holding me by the throat.

His hand closed around me throat. My air vanished. My vision blurred. Darkness was creeping in. Stars danced around the edges of my vision.

And then, bang. The pressure on my neck released. The man collapsed.

I gasped, rapidly dragging in air, I was just close to death. Pushing the body away. I moved far from the body.

Blood pooled beneath him confused so I looked up.

Liam stood there. Like a regal lord, born from crime.

Gun smoking and his eyes wild. Panic in his eyes as he scanned my body.

Shock rooted me in place.

He just killed someone.