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“Cait. My God. I’m so sorry,” he rasped, his chest heaving with the effort it took to speak. I wanted to tell him it was alright. I wanted to ease his pain even just a little bit… but my parents were gone. They were gone, and it was probably because of him. So I kept my mouth shut.
Brianna rushed to him, burying herself in her father’s side.
“What happened?” Aidan demanded. I thought he might go and join his sister, but he stayed beside me.
“Your mother needed to take Quinn to school because the regular driver needed to take the morning off, but she had a meeting with Cait’s mom, so Cady said he’d drive them and-” He broke off, gasping in breaths as tears misted his eyes.
Aidan shifted closer to me, and I had no idea if it was a conscious move or not. Usually I would have backed away, but now… well his warmth nearby was oddly comforting.
“What?”
Cullen didn’t seem to be able to answer, so he turned to Pete, one of his men who was standing at the edge of the room with his son, Carrick.
Pete cleared his throat, stepping forward to speak for Cullen. “The car was attacked. Italians. That’s all we know so far, although from how we found the… bodies-” his eyes flickered to me, his cheeks coloring. “-it looked like they tried to stop them from taking Molly and Quinn… but.”
“But they couldn’t. And now they’re dead,” I finished flatly.
Everyone’s eyes landed on me, waiting for me to scream or cry or break down.
My parents were not good people. They were criminals. But they were still my parents. They still made it home to make dinner every night. They still sat at the dining table to help me with my homework. They decorated the Christmas tree every year with me and made snowmen in the back yard. They held my hand when I was scared.
And now they were gone.
I backed out of the room. I needed to get out of there.
Their eyes followed me until I was out of sight, and then I raced out of the house.
My parents were gone.
I was alone.
CHAPTER FOUR
Aidan
In the days after my mother and sister disappeared, the house seemed to exist in a strange sort of suspended animation.
Everyone was in their own little bubbles, simply existing. Not a single person trulylivedin this house anymore.
Our men had no luck finding them, so my father eventually agreed to let the police take over the investigation. Not that it would matter. If it was the Italians who had them, our sworn enemies, then it was a body recovery expedition, not a rescue mission.
Deep down, I knew half of my family were dead, yet I couldn’t grieve. Not yet. Not until I had a body to grieve over. My sister on the other hand, had completely fallen apart. She clung to our father like a child, and when she wasn’t attached to him, she was holed up in her room sobbing inconsolably as maids tried to get her to eat and drink.
Half of my family may have been gone, but I still had the rest.
Cait had no one.
Everyone was so wrapped up in keeping Bree and my father alive, that no one even thought to check in on Cait, which became apparent when the police turned up at our door looking for her.
“She’s a ward of the state until someone claims her. CPS wants to take her in to foster care.”
Guilt nearly swallowed me whole. She’d lost everyone because of my family, and now she was completely on her own. I didn’t even know where she was.
They said they’d gone by her house, but no one had answered.
I sent the cops away and checked with the maids, no one had seen her. All of the upstairs rooms were empty so I knew she wasn’t hiding away here somewhere.
How could we have been so stupid as to just let her go?
