Heartless People |Book 2|

Chapter 34

"The marks humans leave are too often scars."

—John Green

MARCO

He was twelve hours old. Smaller than the distance between elbow and my wrist, and here he was, motherless. He was suffering like Lisa suffered as an infant. It had taken Evelyn over a decade to finally hold her...to love her. And every second Jen that was gone, Ethan was forced to travel the same path his mom had. Right now, he was oblivious to it all, as he slept in his bassinet, lost in his own little world.

"Marco." Evelyn burst into the hospital nursery. "A nurse went to look for Jen so she could feed Ethan."

"Shit." It was only a matter of time before the police would be brought in. With the police came the media, investigations, and people digging deeper into our lives.

"Does Lisa know?" I asked, pulling out my phone.

"The nurse already went to his superiors. It's only a matter of time." No sooner had the words left her lips, a silent red siren went off around the room. We blinked at the brightly flashing lights that were supposed to catch a nurse's attention without waking the children.

"What do we do?" she whispered, walking over to Ethan.

The only thing we could. "We tell the truth. We left Jen to get some rest and when we came back, she was gone."

"The timeline won't match up, Marco. I went to check on her hours ago. Either we tell them we knew she was missing for hours or someone has to screw with the camera footage." It was a lose-lose situation because in the end, it would kick up more questions than any of us were ready to handle.

I couldn't leave her or Ethan alone to prep Lisa for the questions that would most likely be hurled her way. All I could do was stand in the middle of Ethan's personal nursery as the red lights above us flashed non-stop.

"He knows." She sighed, allowing him to grab her finger. "He knows his mother is gone. Just like Lisa did."

"Evelyn..."

"Lisa and I aren't close. It's my fault. I left her alone for years, and when I finally woke up, she wasn't a baby anymore and she avoided me. Not once has she come to me for advice. I know she loves me, but it's always been you. Her anger, her pain, her loneliness, are all because I wasn't there." She trembled in my arms as her tears soaked my shirt.

"Lisa loves you, and this is completely different. Jen didn't...Jen was taken, but she'll be back. We're talking about the first woman to take over the Mafia. The moment she can, she will get back to us and leave nothing but a wake of blood behind her. This will be over soon." I hoped my words would be true. Every moment she wasn't here, Lisa would spiral. I knew this about Lisa; she couldn't handle being abandoned again.

NICKHUN

Nothing but a sea of blue was flooding the walls, drowning out the white coats that normally infested the hallways. Cops made me sick. They were nothing but self-persevering, opportunistic leeches hiding behind shiny badges. The nurse had set us back and now the hospital was on its own lockdown, forcing us to stay in a private wing instead of searching for Jen. Lisa hadn't said a word since we took out the doctor. She sat like a man made out of marble, her head permanently attached to her hands.

"Ms. Manoban," a short balding man said. He was dripping in medals, which he undoubtedly wore for the cameras outside.

"May I ask who you are?" I asked. "Lisa is both tired and devastated, as you can imagine." I stepped beside Lisa. She looked up at me, eyebrow raised.

"Ms. Manoban, I am Superintendent Wendell Homer. I wanted to personally come down and tell you that we will do everything in our power—"

"Let me stop you here. We're Manobans, we are used to people kissing our asses for personal benefit. So, save your words for the press hounds outside and find my sister-in-law." As if they could. The Chicago PD were a running joke across the country.