Ashes to Ashes (Book Two of The Kazuya Series) (✔️)

二十一 (Twenty-One)

(Elle's POV)

Yelling.

My brother, my dad, Izumi, Kintaro, and everyone else was yelling. Even my grandparents were yelling.

Except me.

Except Koan.

Koan slipped from the man that held him and stepped right up against me as I started to cry.

"We can run. We can run away." I cried, grabbing him at his sides. I was more than willing to live a life running if it meant I had him. Not seeing him, not being near him, not knowing how he was...I couldn't do that. I wasn't built for that.

"I won't have you living a life on the run." He whispered.

"You can't go to prison. You didn't do this. None of you did." I cried.

"Take my ring so they don't." He whispered after kissing my forehead.

"Koan, no. I wo-"

"Take. It. Elle." He said, leaving no room for argument or refusal.

I reached up and unclasped the chain around his neck and then put it around my own. I also grabbed his wallet and lighter out of his pockets too.

"What do I do? What do we do?" I asked as the man that cuffed him roughly grabbed his arm.

"Have the service. Do it for your mom. We'll be fine." He said quietly.

"Koan...without you...I can't...I'm not able to..."

"For a short time." He said. "Just for a short time."

Then they took him and the others.

Colten wrapped his arms around me as I broke down at the sight of them dragging Koan out. Colten cried at them dragging Renzo out.

"They didn't do this. Dad, they would never do something like this." I cried.

"I know, Elle."

"There must be something you can do."

"They're the FBI, Elle. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry."

"Let's get through this and then we'll go back home and figure out what to do." Izumi said, gently placing her hand on my shoulder. "By then, Kintaro may have called someone he knows."

"If they're even granted a phone call." Colten scoffed.

People started arriving shortly after that. After the fifteenth person saying they were sorry for our loss and asking where my new husband was, I lost it. I had to get out of there. Izumi, Colten, and my dad all yelled at me as I took off running towards the exit, but I didn't stop. Not until I got to the car. Once inside the car, I let out a bloodcurdling scream as I gripped the steering wheel tightly and the tears started up again.

I lost my mom.

Now I've lost my husband too.

I held Koan's ring in my hand as I thought about what I was supposed to do now, about what he would do.
That's when my phone started to ring.

Although...

It wasn't my phone. It was Koan's.

I opened my purse to see that his phone was inside. I hadn't put it there and I didn't know that he did.

"Hello?" I answered, not recognizing the caller.

"Arielle Kazuya?"

"Y-Yes."