Avery Romano

Mason nodded his head stiffly, which made me smiled lightly at his response. At least I will have nothing to worry about. My gaze shifted to Vince, who was still solemnly sitting at one side. I opened my mouth, wanting to speak to him for the last time, but yet I couldn't find the right words to say.

What do I tell him when all I left was only a few more minutes of my life? That I like him? That's crazy and selfish at the same time, knowing that the chances of surviving this was almost mission impossible. Even till the very last moment, I chose to swallow the words and said nothing to him. He should not be held back just because of my last words. That's right, Avery. Don't say anything unnecessary and give him false hope. 

The rest of them who were in the background said nothing. But yet a part of me was hoping to hear something from them. Just anything will do. At least a 'are you okay?' would have made my day better. I waited, and waited, but all of them chose to keep quiet. 

My eyes caught onto Alexander, hoping that he would say something. But he turned around and left the screen soon after, crushing every last bit of my hope. They still hate me, even knowing that I won't be making out of this alive. My heart sank, as my gaze fell to the ground. What exactly was I hoping for? 

"Avery," his voice caused me to snap my head up and he continued,"You will be okay." Vince's gaze was staring right into the screen, as if he was physically right in front of me. A soft and sad smile found its way to my face, as I looked at him for the last time, before Felix Parker took over the phone. 

"I believe I've given plenty of time for your last words, oh and right, I've prepared another wonderful gift for all of you. It will probably reach you by tomorrow. I hope all of you will enjoy that gift." He threw his head back and laughed out loud, while my ears picked up the noisy scrambling background noise from the other side.

Uncle Ezra's face appeared on the screen, his eyes screamed anger and he spat out angrily,"I wonder who will have the last laugh when we get our hands on you, Felix Parker." That lunatic finally stopped laughing and scoffed at his words,"We can clearly see who's having the last laugh right now, Ezra. Enough of the talk, let me send her off first. We can continue the rest later." 

In a swift motion, he whipped out a knife from the back of his pocket and stabbed right into my stomach. My eyes widened at the sudden action and a sharp pain spread through my whole body. He pulled out the knife and was going to stab me again but I held onto his hand, trying to pry the knife away. Chaos broke out on the other side of the screen but I had no time for that. 

Using all my arm strength, I was still no match to him and he managed to plunge the knife into my stomach once again. A sick smile appeared on his face as he watched my blood spread across my dirty clothes, and dripped onto the ground. 

I could feel my strength was seeping away as each second passed and I was trying hard to control my heavy breathing. Placing my hand and applying pressure on the wound, blood continued seeping out. 

"Avery! Avy! Look at me, please, look at me." I struggled to ignore the pain and did as what the voice had instructed. My eyes focused on Mateo, who took over the screen. 

"You're going to be fine, just hold on. Okay?" Words couldn't form from my mouth as the pain escalated. Felix Parker took over the phone and chuckled evilly,"That's not the end, Romano. I will blow up this place and make sure that none of you can recover her dead body." With that, he smashed the phone on the ground. 

He turned around to face me as he traced his fingers along my cheek,"Have fun on your way to hell, Avery Romano." He kicked the chair that I was sitting on and I immediately landed on the ground with a loud thud, still clutching on to my bleeding abdomen. 

My eyelids were getting heavier with each second, as I watched his men poured liquid around the room and realisation occurred in my head. Gasoline. He was going to burn this place down. 

He threw the lighted lighter in his hands and I watched the fire grew bigger as I slowly slipped into the world of darkness.

Everything has finally came to an end.

Mateo Romano

I was livid. Beyond livid. How dare that motherfucker challenge us? The image of him plunging the knife into Avery replayed in my head like a broken tape. 

Lucas managed to get the location and we were now split into groups to head there. We have to save Avery. No matter what she did in the past, she was still our sister at the end of the day. 

The place was about an hour's drive from our house. Eli was worried that Avery's bleeding may not be able to last for more than an hour but we all hoped for the best. Lorenzo was the one driving us and he could take around 40 minutes to reach there with his driving skills. 

We were the first to reach there followed by Uncle Ezra's car and Axel's car. The sight ahead of us made us stop in our track.

The building was in flames. 

Mason dashed out of Axel's car and wanted to run into the burning building but was held back by Gabriel. He thrashed in his grip and shouted,"Let me go! She's still inside! Why the fuck are you holding me back? We have to save her!" 

Uncle Ezra was on the call and yelled angrily into the phone,"If you motherfuckers aren't getting here in the next 30 seconds, I will fucking kill every single one of you." 

The rest of our men appeared in a big black van and they started running about to put out the huge fire. It took us 20 minutes to put out the fire and Mason was the first to run in. The building was in a total wreck and was burnt to a black crisp. 

As much as the situation looked unfavourable, all of us continued searching, for any trace of Avery in the building. 

One of our men came running towards us and said,"Sir, I'm sorry to say, but it is not possible for someone to be alive in this fire." Alexander suddenly moved forward and swung a punch at him, and growled lowly,"Don't you fucking dare to give up on the search. Keep on searching, until you find her."

My fists clenched hard, with bile rising up in my throat. I refused to believe that she was gone either. But the situation in front of me says otherwise. 

Avery was dead.

updated! I hope this chapter was not disappointing! do tell me on how to improve on this chapter if any of you have better ideas! 

finally a weekend for me to relax and carry on with my updates HEHEHEH 

Happy reading! -17/9/2022