A Second Chance | ✓

𝟦𝟦 | 𝖲𝗁𝖾 𝖲𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽𝗇'𝗍 𝖡𝖾 𝖠 𝖯𝗋𝗈𝖻𝗅𝖾𝗆

❝ 𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚊 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚟𝚘𝚛 𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚟𝚎 ❞

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"Oh, hey! You two are back!" I see Cassandra and Ryan making their way into the living room. They left after breakfast this morning to this red bridge they go to think and when they want to be alone.

They introduced me to their secret spot a few months after they met me. It's a secluded yet beautiful spot. I only go there when they invite me to go with them but other than that, I never go there because I feel like the red bridge is a way for my best friends to be closer to their parents. I would honestly feel like I'm intruding if I were to go there alone with Cass or Ryan.

"How are you two feeling?"

"Relieved. As if a big weight has been lifted off of our shoulders." Ryan responds.

"Though we still couldn't believe that our parents were assassins like us."

"It kind of makes sense why you two are assassins. I mean in a way, y'all are following in your parents footsteps. But what surprised me was finding out that your parents weren't just your everyday assassins. They were The Shadows. I mean they were such notorious people." I tell them. "What will y'all do with the money they left for you both?"

"Well in their journals it said they were big on helping people and donating to charity." Cassandra says.

"Really? I didn't know that."

It's the truth. When I found the journals, I was about to read it but I'm thankful I didn't because I later realized it was their parents journals.

"Yeah. So we're going to use some of the money to donate to the homeless, charities, all that fun stuff."

"Then Cass and I decided we will use the other part of their money to build our parents a memorial and maybe give them a tombstone. They at least deserve that because we don't even know where their bodies are at. It'll give us some bit of closure." Ryan adds.

"I love that." I say with a soft smile. I remember back when I first met them, they were very hesitant about opening up to me about their parents. They told me they were in the foster system for a few years before they both decided to run away from that place.

Then how they were surviving on their own until they started underground fighting. But little by little they opened up to me how one day their parents never came back home to them.

As we got older, they kept coming up with theories that they could have been taken and they could still be alive but being held hostage.

Sadly only a part of those theories was true. Ryder and Diana Arden were taken away and held hostage in Albania for who knows how long. It upsets me to think how Cassandra and Ryan must have felt that night when cops came knocking on the door.

I think either Ryder or Diana must have dropped or not or something that said they had kids at a certain address. Cops must have found it and came looking for them. At least that's the idea I came up with.

If it wasn't that then I have no clue how cops came knocking on the door, knowing there were kids there.

"Hey," I feel someone's hand touch my shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts. I turn my head to see Elijah behind me. "I would never do this this just as you two are getting back," He must mean Cass and Ryan, "but I called a quick meeting. It won't last longer than ten to fifteen minutes."

"It's no problem, we'll meet you there." Cass responds.

As soon as Elijah leaves the living room, the three of us follow behind him to another meeting room since the original one is currently under construction. Elijah says it holds memories he wishes to forget so he wants to renovate it. Once we step foot in the room, we go ahead and find our seats.

"So, to keep this short and simple . . . we all know how we only caught William and not Veronica right?" Elijah begins.

"Yeah." We respond, nodding our heads.

"Well Samuel did some digging in the surveillance cameras because it wasn't adding up how we were able to catch him but not her."

"Pretty much, I believe that William was distracting us so Veronica could escape and she's gone off the grid." Samuel says.

"I killed his right hand and if they were in a relationship or something, wouldn't she just be on the run? Considering that's who she spent most of her time with and they weren't married so she can't take over." I say.

"Imagine the leftover Albanians men fighting each other to see who will take over." Aria adds.

"Without an heir, the mafia really isn't . . . what's the word-"

"Valid?" Estrella finishes for Elijah.

"She shouldn't be a problem." Luciano adds. "I'm sure she'll just go into hiding."

If Veronica knows what's best, she'll stay off the grid and stay the hell away from us.

· • —– · • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • · —– • ·

I was going to make this chapter longer by adding a third person pov about what Veronica is up to but I decided against it at the last minute and thought it would be best to later reveal what happened to her in book three 🤫

Other than that I'd say this was a successful spring break because I updated with a total of 10 chapters :)

We are getting so close to the end!

— cristal g.