Lena Martins

Chapter Thirty one

"The scars we carry often tell stories we're not ready to share, but they also reveal the strength it took to survive."

MARIANO'S POV

Immediately after telling my father about Sacha's kidnapping , we set off with a small team of agents. Luckily, he had been foresighted enough the day before to insist I give Sacha the bracelet. He had an intuition something like this might happen.

A chip had been implanted in the bracelet, allowing us to locate them.

Once in the van , we listened to the conversation between Nick and Sacha through the microphone she had on her . We were more than pleasently surprised to hear how well Sacha was handling the situation.

She wasn't going to break .

We knew he was torturing her—cries , screams, then nothing. He must have destroyed the mic with all the blows he was giving her.

Not hearing her voice made me nervous.

Fortunately for us, Nick hadn't gone far, but I felt like everything was moving too slowly. My father tried to reassure me, but the more time passed, the more anxious I became.

I was two seconds away from saying fuck and going in myself and fucking kill the son of a bitch .

It was past 3 AM .

We quickly approached the warehouse.

A gunshot rang out. I felt like the world stopped.

Then there was another shot, then another, and another and another .

My father and I immediately locked eyes.
We forced open the door and found Sacha on the floor, blood on her hands and splattered on her face, crying hysterically with a Glock in her hands, while Nick lay dead on the ground with a bullet between his eyes and an astonishing number of bullets in the rest of his body. Alongside him was the lifeless body of a young girl.

A child .

My father gave instructions to the agents while my attention was solely focused on Sacha.
She was in a traumatic state, sobbing and trembling like a leaf.

I immediately ran to her and took her in my arms, not caring that she was covered in blood.
At first, she didn't react, but then she put her arms around me.
She clung to me as if I might disappear at any moment.

I tried to comfort her by telling her it was all over and that everything would be okay, but it was useless. I fell silent and stayed with her.

Once the agents had finished, I carried Sacha in my arms and took her to the van with me. I let her lie down to be as comfortable as possible.
Her head was resting on my knees.

I took her back to my place because it was unthinkable to let her go home in her state .

After bringing her to the bathroom, I left and returned with all the necessary supplies.

"Sacha, I'll let you take your shower. Do what you need to do, and when you're done, call me. I'll be here to take care of you, okay?"

As I was about to turn and leave, I felt her hand on my wrist.

"Stay..."

"No, Sacha, I can't..."

"Please, Mariano..."

"Sacha..."

"Mariano."

I sighed and agreed.

"Okay, I'll stay."