All For Us || Oscar Diaz

1: Made It Out

CHAPTER ONE

Detective Arturo Santiago had died a little over a week ago. It was during a sting operation taking a turn for the worse. Him and his partner were so close to catching the one of the biggest Italian cartels in New York. Fortunately, their mission was a success as they had wiped out the entire operation. But only at the expense of his life.

During their chase through Brooklyn, Detective Santiago took a bullet to the chest and abdomen. His wounds resulted to immense internal bleeding which made him lose so much blood. The paramedics came but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

How very timely that the rainy and gloomy weather matched the occasion. Regardless, many people showed up to his funeral. Other officers, colleagues, and friends around their barrio in Washington Heights. Everyone had made their speeches, Arturo's present Captain in the precinct even his former Sergeant and long time friend, Captain Cortez.

And then there Detective MariCarmen Garcia or otherwise known as Carmen, his wife and mother to their daughters, who could no longer control her sobs as she spoke about all the things they had done together on the force. She had met Arturo, or she'd like to call him Artie, back in the academy. He had been dating his now deceased wife back then. They'd been friends ever since.

Along the way Arturo and his deceased wife got married but always struggled to have children. Until one day they had a baby girl, whom they named Victoria. Unfortunately, Victoria's mother had died not long after she was born. At the same time, Carmen had given birth to a baby girl, whom she named Nina, a year later with a man she would never see again.

Along the early years of the two girls growing up, Artie and Carmen were brought back together at transfer to their new precinct under Sergeant Cortez. The three of them grew close as Artie and Carmen had pushed Cortez to take the Lieutenant's exams until he had become Captain himself.

It wasn't long until Artie and Carmen had started dating themselves, their own daughters had pushed them together as they became best friends. Eventually they got married and Victoria and Nina felt like they had been sisters ever since. But here they were now, huddled together around their mother who wouldn't stop crying.

Victoria Santiago and her step sister Nina Garcia watched as their father's casket was slowly lowered six feet into the ground. Victoria was doing her best to hold everything in as she tried being strong for the woman who raised her. It had hit her different knowing her father, her own blood and the man who raised her since the beginning was gone.

Nina was going through her own sense of pain as well. Arturo was the only man she could ever call a father since she never knew about her real father. Unlike the man who had been absent all her life, Arturo was there to raise her. He was there for all of her achievements and it pained her knowing that she did everything she could in school for the sake of her parents and her sister.

She was graduating in a few months and was a candidate for valedictorian or salutatorian at best. She'd been accepted to her dream school on a full scholarship. She owes it to her family to getting to where she wanted to be and it pained her knowing Arturo wouldn't be able to see all of that.

The three of them took a moment before proceeding back to their place for some sort of reception. Nina kept looking over to her sister to make sure she was alright because every now and then she would go into some sort of daze.

"You need to eat something," Nina gently nudged her sister. She pushed the small plate of food towards her sister only for Victoria to push it back to Nina

"Everything just makes me feel like throwing up," Victoria mumbled staring down at the food on the buffet table. She began to nibble on her nails, one of her worst habits honestly.