'Are we almost there yet?!' Killian groans, almost throwing up again.

Last night he ate some shit from the worst joint you could order at. I told them not to eat it, but they didn't want to listen.

So this is what he gets in return.

Nikolai doesn't seem to have trouble, but I heard his stomach a few hours ago. As if there was a war going on in there.

But it might've been Killian as well.

Anyways, both of them are grumpy today and I know it's because of the food.

'At least another hour, but what are we going to tell them.' Nikolai asks, looking at me. 'What do you mean?'

'I think he wants to know what our next move is going to be, regarding finding your friend.' Killian groans, rubbing his stomach as if it will help.

'You need to drink more,' I say, looking at Killian, before turning back to Nico, 'and I think Rio will decide what happens next, right?'

Their eyes widen in shock, and even I feel a little wrong for saying it, but I said I'll let him handle it.

'You're letting him work on this shit?' Nico asks surprised. 'I promised him I wouldn't bother him with questions, so yes.'

'And you're sure she's your best friend?' He asks a grin forming on his face. 'Yes.' I say, knowing how stupid it sounds.

But he wanted me to stay out of it as much as possible, so I'm not going to lie to them about that part.

'Is there something wrong with that?' I ask, knowing that there is. It's strange that I don't help with the search for my best friend. 'A lot if you ask me.'

Nico's eyes go over me again, making me wish I could go blind for just a few seconds. 'Can you please stop looking at me like that?' I ask for the millionth time since this trip.

'I have no idea what you're talking about, Aurora.' What? My heart starts racing and I suddenly feel sick to my stomach. How does he-

'You look at her as if you want to fuck her, Nico.' Killian says, groaning as soon as he's done speaking. 'And it's clearly making her feel uncomfortable, so please stop.'

Nikolai glares at his friend, creating an entire plan to murder him in his head, and simply mumbles something under his breath as he walks to the back of the plane, annoyedly taking a seat there.

'Ignore him,' Killian says, moving to the seat next to me, 'Are you okay?'

His eyes move to my hands on my lap and when I follow his gaze, I realize that I'm scratching myself a little too hard.

'Yeah, just-' I can't find the right words and I don't get why it bothered me so much. 'You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.'

If I could explain what was bothering me so much about Nikolai calling me Aurora, then I would've talked to Killian about it.

But I have no clue what the fuck is wrong with me, apart from the chills going down my back and the bile forming in my throat.

'Thank you, Killian.' He smiles and places his hand on mine, before groaning again.

As if his pain comes in waves.

'Do you need to take another pill?' He nods and reaches for the bag of pills I gave him when I came back from the store this morning.

I watch as Killian grabs a new bottle of water and gulps it down with a bunch of pills, and drops back down into his seat across from me.

For the rest of the flight, we talk about little stuff. And Nico stays in the back of the plane, moping because of his little argument with Killian.

As soon as we land and the doors open, we all head out. 'No way!' Killian chimes, finally feeling less pained. He almost trips over his feet, because he's excited.

When I follow him towards two parked motorcycles, I frown. 'Where's the car?' According to Brandon, they got us a car to drive to the house.

Not two motorcycles.

'What's wrong, Aurora-' 'Don't do that.' I turn around to look at Nikolai, instead of having him behind me. 'Please stop that and just call me Neveah.'

He frowns for a second, looking me up and down, before reading my eyes again, and nods. 'Noted.'

He heads to the blue motorcycle and climbs on top of it, feeling every inch as if his life depends on it.

'You're going with Nico.' Killian says, almost kissing the other motorcycle, which is dark green. 'No.'

They both look at me and sigh. 'Just get on so we can go.'

'I am not going on a motorcycle with Nikolai.' They look at each other before staring at me again, neither of them saying a single word.

'Can't I go with you?' I ask, looking at Killian.

Nikolai just makes me uncomfortable. And I don't want to hold onto him to get to the house.

I just don't.

'If I crash because of my stomach, I would like to die alone.' He chimes, starting his motor. 'I could drive?' Even though I have no clue how to ride a motorcycle.

'I doubt you even know how to ride this thing, so no thank you.'

Nico rolls closer to me and smiles widely, knowing that Killian could drive off any second and that I'm stuck with him.

'I'll see you at the house.' Killian says, before indeed driving off. Asshole...

'Come on Neveah, I won't bite.' I roll my eyes and take one more look around.

There's nothing else except for the plane that brought us here and some people walking around to get everything ready for another flight.

'Neveah, we don't have all day.' Nico says, getting a little impatient with me. 'Shut up and don't even think about doing something crazy.' I say as I head over to him and climb on the back.

It feels... strange.

And I kind of want to jump off already.

But Nico starts the motor and smiles at me through the little side mirrors. 'Hold on to me or you'll fall.'

'I'm holding on enough.' Barely, but enough.

I can see his lips curl up as he takes a deep breath. 'If you say so.'

He races out of here and I feel like I'm flying through the air for a second, still barely touching him. Because I don't want to touch him.

Even if that means falling.

He somehow moves one of his arms back and keeps me somewhat in place. 'Hold. On. Neveah.'

I groan, but move a little closer and hold onto him a bit tighter. Just a little bit, so that he can remove his hand from my leg.

Which he does. But slow. Way too slow.

I recognize the big fences surrounding the house near Paris as we race past them, towards the huge gate.

They're almost closing and we barely make it in time, making Nico chuckle as I yell at him to go faster.

Apparently, it's very funny how I could end up between the gate.

Everyone is standing on the little patio at the front of the house, everyone but Rio and Vincent. And Kai. He's standing by the door, looking at us from a distance. But the look in his eyes seems pained? And suddenly, I get flashbacks from the first time we came here.

I thought Celine had something with Tiago back then.

And I remember her running down the steps to hug them.

Just as she's trying right now, just with a huge belly, because of her baby.

But Brandon is faster and almost makes me fall off the motor because he jumps into my arms and starts rambling about how much he missed me.

'I missed you too!' I exclaim when he finally stops talking and lets go of me.

'Neveah!' Victoria runs over to me and jumps as high as she can, ending at my waist, and hugs me tightly. I lift her up and kiss her a billion times, before putting her down again

Celine finally made it over to us as well and smiles as she tries to wrap her arms around me. I try hugging her back as much as I can, without crushing her belly.

'Neveah, thank god you're okay!' She whispers, almost squeezing me to death, 'We have so much to catch up on.' Oh?

'Holy shit.' Killian says, making everyone look at him strangely. 'Sometimes I forget how much money you guys have.' He continues, taking in the house.

The same reaction we had when we first came here.

'You haven't even seen half of it.' Marco chimes, heading over to us as well. He hugs me tightly and smiles at me, before telling me how everything has been for them.

It's a short and simple summary of useless information. But in the end, I get to know that Rio isn't his happiest right now.

'Where is the bastard anyway?' Nico asks, sounding grumpy again. I roll my eyes before looking at him, while Marco chuckles and walks over to him. 'He's busy.'

'He made us risk our lives for him and he can't even come to welcome us back?' Nico continues to complain as he looks at all of us.

'If you-' I'm cut off by someone clearing his throat behind all of us. No one else than Rio himself, of course. 'If you want to, you can cry about it.'

'And where's Vincent?' Killian asks as he looks between all the others. 'Yes, where is he?' Nico asks, sounding annoyed again.

'He's working on something for me.' Rio says, looking at his phone again. 'Even on this special day?' Special day?

I know Nico can be quite full of himself, but calling today a special day because of his return is not something I thought he would do.

'He's inside.' Rio says, stepping to the side just in time for them to rush inside, probably to speak to Vincent.

Brandon and Celine pull me inside as well, barely giving me any time to respond before they push me into one of the bedrooms, with Victoria running after us.

Everything is so different now.

This room used to be our room, but now there are two beds.

I take it all in, making the others look at me strangely. 'You okay?'

'Yeah, it's just weird.' I mumble, taking a seat on the couch which is basically the only thing that hasn't changed.

They even changed the floor and the walls. It's a little darker than it was before, but everything else is the same color, just... different.

'Rio thought you would want to share a room with Victoria.' Oh... 'It's fine, it's just- This is where we met, remember?' I ask, looking at Celine.

She nods and smiles at me, before taking a seat next to me.

'But how have you been? How's the baby? How was Victoria, did she behave?' Celine and Brandon chuckle while Victoria grabs something from the desk on the other side of the room and runs back into the hall.

'We're doing good, the baby is fine and Victoria has been the sweetest kid ever.' Celine says, placing her hand on mine.

'But Celine has something she wants to tell you.' Brandon chimes as he heads into the bathroom. I look at Celine and smile brightly, really wanting to know what she has to tell me.

I'm curious now.

'Well...' She says, her gaze focused on our hands, and her cheeks quickly turning pink. Oh no... 'What did you do?'

'Nothing!' She instantly shouts, looking into my eyes. 'She certainly did something.' Brandon says as he walks back into the bedroom with a hair straightener in his hand. 'Neveah, can I do your hair?'

Uhm... 'Sure,' I mumble, before looking at Celine again, 'Tell me!'

'I went on a date with Vincent!' My eyes widen and I can't help but gasp at the news she just dropped on me. 'What do you mean you went on a date with Vincent?!'

Brandon chuckles and moves some stuff around, until basically dragging me towards another chair.

I take a seat but keep my eyes on Celine, waiting for a further explanation.

'Details please!' She moves closer to us and smiles at me. 'Well, it happened the second day, when Rio, Marco, and Brandon arrived.'

'Did he ask you?' She nods and looks away dreamily, so it must've been something special. 'Where did you guys go?'

'Just a small restaurant in town, it was amazing, the food was so delicious!' I can't believe how happy she sounds.

She deserves every second of it.

'How did it go? Did you have fun?' I wonder how her neck doesn't hurt from nodding yet, but she nods again, and she seems so happy. 'Yes. He was just so cute and he asked if I was interested in going on a date, and he was kind so I wanted to see where it would go.'

'And?' Brandon starts brushing my hair and I ignore all the tangles because I've been too lazy to brush my hair ever since the party. 'He said he would love to go on another date with me and I told him I would really like that too.'

I don't think I've ever seen Celine as red as she is right now, but she's literally glowing.

'I'm so happy for you, Celine, you really deserve it.' She places her hand on mine again and squeezes it gently, with a smile on her face. 'Thank you Neveah, I can't wait for all of this to be over.'

'You two could go on double dates when all of this is over.' I look at Brandon with a frown, before he forces my head straight again. 'Excuse me?'

'You heard me, Neveah.' He says a little bossily. I roll my eyes and shake my head, groaning as he pulls my hair a little. 'Brandon-' 'You are not breaking up with Leon.'

'I think that's for her to decide.' Celine mumbles, making Brandon glare at her for a second before he brushes through my hair one more time. 'Thank you, Celine.'

'But I hope you do consider staying with him.' She says, smiling sheepishly at me. Brandon chuckles as he starts straightening the first strands of my hair, using all the products needed to make sure my already dead hair doesn't die more than this.

'It's not that simple.' Brandon almost drops everything, for a second forgetting that he could easily burn himself or me, and sighs deeply. 'It actually is.'

'No. It's not.' I say, wanting to stop talking about this subject. 'Why not?' 'He broke a promise and he knew about the consequences, now enough about me. Tell me more about your date with Vincent please.'

They look at each other, before looking back at me and sighing. 'Fine, so tonight we're all going out for dinner since it's his birthday and he asked me what I was going to wear-' Wait, what? 'Back up, it's his birthday and we're going out for dinner?'

'Rio forced us to take him out for his birthday, as some repayment or something, so we decided to go along with it.' Rio told them to take time off and... Wow... 'Wait, it's his birthday today? Why did nobody tell me this?' They both shrug, completely in sync.

Celine starts talking again, but my mind trails off after she says she's going to wear a black dress tonight.

That's probably what Nico meant with "even on this special day".

And that's probably why Brandon wanted to do my hair as well.

But I can't go. Not with all the shit I have to go through for Elite.

'Are you even listening?' Brandon asks, unplugging the straightener, and heading back to the bathroom. 'No, sorry. I dozed off. Tell me again.'

'We're going to a fancy restaurant and a bar later since they want to drink and shit.' Celine groans, a little annoyed.

She can't drink.

Not that she would be able to drink a lot, I mean she'd probably be down after two drinks.

'I would love to go, especially now that Rio allowed us to, but I can't.' They both frown at me as a yawn escapes my lips.

Where it came from, I have no clue, but right now is not the time to sleep.

'Since when are you- Wait, why can't you go?' Brandon asks, putting my just straightened hair in a perfect model without ruining any of it. 'I have to go through a bunch of emails for Rio's hotels and he asked me to fix some stuff.'

Brandon looks at Celine, who seems impressed, and smiles at me. 'I heard you two got along a bit better after Russia.'

'A little unsure about that part, but we... Manage.' I reply honestly because we haven't seen each other in a few days.

And I don't think that what happened in Russia is a recurring thing.

'Look, I would love to go, but I have to get through those files. Otherwise, Rio will kill me.' Brandon sighs deeply and jumps onto the couch as I head for the bed.

'So I'm going to be drinking alone tonight?' He asks, dramatically throwing his head back and groaning as if he's going to die because of it. 'You can always drink with the others?' 'They're not as fun!' He answers dramatically.

'Or you could stay sober, just like me?' Celine chimes, putting on her brightest smile.

He stares her dead in the eye and shakes his head. 'Or Neveah could come along as well.'

'I'm not going.' They both sigh deeply and look me dead in the eye as if they're ready to murder me if I continue saying no. 'You can work for Rio later, I doubt he would-' 'He will mind, trust me. I still have to go through a billion emails and make a few calls to check some things. Plus, I'm tired anyway, so I'm not going.'

'Boring.' Brandon sings, jumping next to me on the bed, 'There's no food in the house.'

'I'll order something.'

They look at each other, before both heading to the door.

'We'll leave you to work then, please don't overdo.' They say in unison, before slamming the door shut.

I don't do overwork...

I barely finish what I need to in time.

So Rio must really have no one else who can keep his hotels in check to come to me.

I sigh and look at the bag calling my name in the corner of the room.

Rio gave me enough money to buy a laptop and all I need to help him with this shit. So I bought all the necessities yesterday. And some extra's, such as two new notebooks to write the daily things in.

As much as I hated writing everything that happened every day, it grew on me. And I already filled the notebook Tiago left me, so I decided to buy another one just in case.

The other one is for something else that I want to prepare for when Cataleya gets back.

If there's even stuff to fill it with...

I quickly grab the laptop and all the papers I printed yesterday, before dropping everything on my bed.

Most of it is related to wrong food orders or missed meetings, some even some complaints that haven't been sent to the right people.

Only a few things that really stood out, three things I have to talk to Rio about.

But that can happen later, right now I have to go through all those emails.

I wait for the laptop to start up and type in my code.

It takes two seconds for the screen to flash all the tabs I didn't close off properly, and I sigh deeply when I see the red numbers.

509 unread emails...

'Let's do this shit.' I groan to myself, wishing that I could go out with the others.

But at the same time, I'm happy I can't. Because for once, I don't want to be surrounded by people.

The door opens and Victoria runs inside, closing the door behind her, before running to a pile of clothes.

I take my eyes off the screen for a second and follow her as she rushes to the bathroom and starts singing.

'Brushing my teeth, brushing my teeth, I'm going to brush my teeth!' I chuckle as I climb out of bed and head to the bathroom.

She's already wearing her pajama and is indeed brushing her teeth.

'Are you also going to sleep?' Sleep? I am tired, but it's barely- I look at the clock in the bedroom and almost laugh because of it.

It's already past eight, meaning I've been going through emails for three hours straight. And I'm not done yet...

'I just might,' I mumble, heading back to the bathroom to watch the cutest kid ever, 'did the others leave yet?'

She nods before spitting in the sink and washing her face. 'About an hour ago, didn't they say bye?'

I shake my head and watch as she rushes back into the bedroom. She has so much energy...

'Miss Celine said that she left a letter for you in the living room.' She yawns, before climbing on her bed. A letter?

'Can you stay with me?' She asks when I head to my dresser. 'Yes, of course.'

I actually wanted to see if there really isn't anything to eat, but I'll go and look later- after she falls asleep.

'You're not leaving again, right?' Instead of heading to my own bed, I walk over to hers, which is way too big for a six-year-old. 'I don't think so, but if I have to I will.'

She sighs deeply and rolls over so she can look at me. 'Why?' I take a seat on the bed and watch as she moves closer to me, just like she did the first night, 'Did something happen?'

Victoria shakes her head before placing it on my lap and pulling me closer to her. 'I just don't want you to go.'

My heart flutters for a second and I can't help but smile as I move closer to her as well, trying to get her as comfortable as I can.

She reminds me of when I was little.

I used to say something similar when I was little. Reminding me of my dad, he sometimes had to leave for work as well.

Shit. Now is not the time to cry.

Especially if I have so much work to do.

'I'll try my best to stay close, okay?' I rub her back and make sure she's not cold by pulling the covers up.

'Okay.' She mumbles, her eyes slowly closing.

I continue to rub her back until I notice her breathing slowing as well and move back to my bed as silently as I can.

Back to work... I have at least two hundred more emails to go.

Names, dates, places, minutes, all of it becomes blurry as I go on. But for some reason, I can't stop.

After a while, I hear my stomach rumble. It's probably because I haven't eaten anything in the past five hours.

So I finally decide to stop for today and head to the kitchen.

Brandon was right, there's no food left. Apart from a single apple that looks like it has been lying in the fruit bowl for over a month, yet isn't rotting just yet.

I decide to lay down for a bit, and as I head to the living room, I notice a plastic bag on one of the tables there.

With a note:

𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓝𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓪𝓱

Oh? I grab the bag and look inside, realizing it's food.

Someone ordered food for me. A burger and some fries from a local joint, to be precise.

It must've been Brandon or Celine because they knew I would stay at the house without any food.

I take a seat on the couch and eat the food, without turning on the tv.

It's weird that I'm eating in complete silence, I know, but for some reason, it feels... Peaceful.

When I'm done eating, I clean everything up and decide to search for the letter Celine had left for me in the living room. Because so far, I haven't seen it yet.

After searching for it for over thirty minutes, I finally find it on one of the shelves in the corner of the room. Why did she put it there?

𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘩 𝘈𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩

Is written on the envelope. Besides that, the address, but no address of the person who sent it, or a name for that matter.

But I recognize the handwriting immediately.

No fucking way.

With some newfound energy inside of me, I rip the envelope open, almost cutting my fingers, and unfold the paper inside.

𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘩,

Cataleya... I know it's her. It's her handwriting. How?

𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦. 𝘖𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘰, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.

She's safe... She's training?

𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘮. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵.

She said that he wasn't as bad as she thought... So she sent this letter before the party? How long has it been here?

𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘐𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘰𝘢𝘩, 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

Isabelle and Noah? The fact that she thinks they're kind to her, makes my heart sting for a second. Not because she's making new friends without me, but because she's making friends with the enemy.

I wish I could send her something back, but I have no clue where she sent this letter from. Shit.

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘓𝘦𝘰𝘯, 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵!

Or so they say... It's a little late for that Ley...

𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩, 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘦𝘺𝘢

I almost drop the letter as I reread it at least five times, before jumping to my feet.

Rio needs to see this.

The only problem is, I have no clue where he is... 'Rio!' I shout at the top of my lungs as I ready myself to run through the entire house to show him this.

'Rio!' No response. Of course not.

As I make my way to the hallway, I bump into Rio, who's looking at me curiously. 'What's with the shouting, it's late-'

'I wanted to talk to you.' I shove the letter in his hands and smile, 'She sent this before the party.'

He frowns before reading over it and I notice his eyes widen at the end. 'And how do we not know this is fake?'

'Because that's her handwriting, I know it is.' He looks at me for a second, before letting his eyes roam over the letter again. 'Where did it come from?'

'There's no information on the envelope, so I have no idea.' A sigh leaves his lips as he scans the letter again.

A sigh so deep that it sends a wave of defeat through me. A sigh that screams: It's taking too long.

'We'll get her back.' I say, trying to lighten the mood.

We have to.

Even though I have no clue if they made any progress over the past few days, I know we will get her back.

'Come with me.' He says, his tone suddenly hard and emotionless again, turning around to head to his office. What?

'Of course... Why ask me to come with you if you can just demand it? Asshole.'

Either he doesn't care or he didn't hear, but I honestly think he doesn't care.

I enter his familiar office, still fascinated by the design. Everything is so dark and so old, yet so young, clean and bright.

Typical Rio.

'Take a seat.' Rio is already sitting in his chair, empty boxes that matched the shop where my burger was from are lying on the corner of his desk.

No way.

'You ordered me food?' I ask as I hesitantly take a seat in one of the leather chairs across from the desk he's sitting behind.

'Is that so strange North?' Without hesitation, I nod. Because it is. 'Really?'

'Yes, really.'

He looks me dead in the eye, his eyes filling with annoyance. Something that, for the first time since he met me, has been there the second he looked at me.

'You work for me now,' I- I guess I do... 'and I don't need workers dying of hunger.'

'Dying is a little dramatic, don't you think?' He leans back in his chair and looks at me in silence.

For some reason, this silence is killing me.

I mean, we've sat in silence before, simply because we can't stand to talk to each other.

Until two nights ago, when he, no, when we both freaked out because we saw Cataleya at that party.

'Thank you.' I blurt out, trying to get rid of the awkward silence. 'It's no big deal, North.'

I nod and look around, taking in his office instead of looking at him.

It's all still the same, the books are still in the same order, I think, and everything looks untouched. As if no one ever uses it, yet it is clean and there's barely a speck of dust in the air.

'North?' As much as I hate the way he calls me North, I can't help but look at him when he does. 'Yes?'

'How far are you with the hotel stuff?' That's why he told me to come in here. He wanted a summary of what I found. 'Right. Wait here.'

If I want to tell him about what I've found, I could show him. So I rush to the bedroom, quickly grabbing my laptop, before looking at Victoria who's still sleeping peacefully, and running back to Rio's office.

He's standing at the little cabinet where he stores his drinks and grabs a bottle and a glass, before looking at me again.

'Who did you put in charge before me?' I ask, placing my laptop on his desk. 'So you run off whenever I ask you something, noted.' Rio says sarcastically before he looks at my screen, 'Marco, why?'

He sits back down and waits for me to continue.

'The hotels needed raw salmon for the sushi, but instead, he ordered the salmon rolls from some sushi company.' A frown appears as he takes in my words.

Since he doesn't have shit to say about this much, I continue: 'There have been twenty complaints about the taste so far, since you have a chef who makes the sushi fresh, and the sushi has barely been served for three days.'

'Cabrón' He mumbles, pouring himself a glass. I take a seat across from him and sigh. 'I know Marco was stupid for ordering the wrong things, but he's not a dumbass.'

'You understand Spanish?' He asks curiously, looking at me instead of my laptop. 'Cabrón isn't that hard to understand, but I do understand some Spanish, yes.'

'How?' The fact that he for once genuinely seems curious, is weird. 'Ariana always yelled at us in Spanish if she was angry, and trust me, she was angry a lot. So I basically know every Spanish swear word in the Spanish dictionary.'

A chuckle fills the room and I can't help but look at Rio strangely.

For a second, just a second, my heart stops. Because there's no fucking way I just made Rafael Curzio laugh.

'Was that- Did you just laugh because of something I said?' His lips slowly go back into that angry state, which is neutral for him, and I sigh deeply. 'Don't get too full of yourself, it was barely a chuckle.'

'I'll take it.' He looks at me for a second, trying to hide the fact that he wants to smile. Or I could just be imagining things.

'Anything else you want to update me on?' I nod and point at my laptop, watching as he scrolls down a bit and reads all the things I found.

'Now I know I'm not the best when it comes to spending money, but you lost a lot of it in the past month.'

'We're you able to find out why?' He asks, raising a brow as he keeps his eyes on the screen and continues to read it. This guy can multitask...

'Well, you're ordering at big companies instead of locals who sell the same products for way less money.' He nods and writes it down on a piece of paper, before hovering the pen above the paper, probably waiting for me to continue.

'I found this local farmer in Saint-Mard, he's willing to-' 'And you want to do this with every hotel?' He averts his gaze towards me and frowns again, 'You want to change it for every hotel? In every country?'

'It would give us a better image and it would cost way less.' Exactly what he wants. I think.

'Wouldn't that cost a lot of time?' I nod. 'Time which we don't really have, North.'

'I could do it, I don't mind.' I need to keep myself busy if I want to leave all the other stuff to Rio anyway. He frowns again, looking at me as if I'm talking the biggest bullshit he's ever heard.

And it might be, but I'm willing to try.

'Let's first get the other things back on track, what else?' He asks, looking at my laptop again. 'Micheal Williams hosted a party in your name, and you didn't make an appearance.'

He finally pours some of the liquor in his glass and looks back at me. 'When?'

'Last month...'

'Joder.' He mumbles before downing it all in one go. 'Marco really-' 'It was a surprise party.'

'What?' Rio asks, confusion clear in his eyes. Even though it's not that hard to understand.

'Williams wanted to throw you a surprise party, so his emails were a little vague. After the party, which you did not go to, he send a couple more emails, but they ended up in spam, which you have not opened since 2012 apparently.'

Rio leans forward, resting his elbows on the desk before he starts rubbing his temples.

'He's not very pleased, because he wanted you to know that he would love to work with you on your hotel in London, but I guess that ship has sailed.'

Just now I realize that there are a bunch of papers scattered all over his desk as well.

Steel.

'Can you arrange a meeting with him?' I turn my laptop so I can look at all the shit I wrote down. 'I have a way to contact him, but I don't know if he'll answer.'

'Try.' I nod and pull the laptop onto my lap, before watching him pour another drink. 'And tell him that we would love for the meeting to be in London, we need to go there anyway.' He mumbles, making me frown.

'Why?' He downs the drink, before pouring yet another glass.

I seriously wonder why he's not drinking straight from the bottle.

'Because that's where they are.'

'Do you know that for sure?'

'Yes, North. I know that for sure. I just don't know where exactly.' He sighs, before placing his glass on the desk, instead of drinking it all in one shot. 'So what? You want to go to this meeting with Williams and look for Leya after that?'

He shakes his head and starts rubbing his temples again. 'We're going over there, act like we're there for the meeting, while you will actually go to the meeting and I'll see what I can find.'

'You want me? To go to that meeting in your stead?' He nods and looks at me with a sly look on his face. 'Why?'

'Because I don't even care about any of this, it's just for the image.' I roll my eyes and close my laptop, before placing it on his desk again.

'Fine with me, but if it ends up like shit, don't come for me.'

He rolls his eyes and finishes his glass, before placing it on the desk again. 'Now about England, they say she's with Hunter and his friends, staying at his uncle's place.' Uncle?

'There's another Steel?' He nods and moves a piece of paper across the desk. 'Do you even know who's the boss there yet?'

'We've known for a while now, North.' I almost drop the paper as that shit kicks in. They've known. They just haven't told me. 'Oh.'

'Martin Steel, also known as Skull.' I look at the paper he just showed me and realize that these are pictures I'm familiar with. I just don't know where I remember them from.

'He's the one who was on that murdering spree a few months ago. He's also the one who send those men after Celine.' Skull...

Everything clicks when Rio adds those last two things.

'He's the guy we were searching for a few months ago.' Rio nods and hands me another piece of paper. 'He's on a business trip in Dubai now, but he could come back any day now.'

'So we know where she is?' My heart starts racing as I wait for him to answer. He takes too long, so I take my eyes off the paper and look at him.

He's looking troubled again. 'We know who she's with.' Another Steel.

'And some other people, one of them,' Another piece of paper, with a picture of a blond girl and a dark-haired boy printed on it, 'Noah Duncan, second in command to Hunter, and Isabelle Laurel Norman, best friend of Hunter, who was supposed to be dead apparently. The exact same people she was talking about in the letter.'

She has gorgeous blue eyes and hair that eight-year-old me would kill for. Long, blond and straight. And the dude has a dreamy face, perfect to be a model if I must say, and I recognize him immediately. That's the guy she came to the party with.

'Kai says he recognizes them.' Kai.

All this time I forget that he's still here.

Wait- Celine went on a date with Vincent... Does he know about that?

'What else did he say?' I ask, curious to what he knows about this new girl. 'He says that they would get along just fine.'

Something about the way he said that, makes me uneasy.

He said it in such a bitter, ugly way. As if he's not happy that there's at least someone she can talk to there.

It's the same type of anger I felt a few minutes ago. But when I hear it coming from him, I feel stupid for feeling angry towards her. She's just trying to survive...

'What's your deal?' The bitterness in his eyes disappears as he looks at me again. 'What do you mean?'

'You sound like you want to kill them because Kai says they might get along just fine.' And they are apparently.

According to the letter they are.

I look at Isabelle's picture again and take in her beauty. She's absolutely stunning.

She looks like Brooke Steel.

'I don't want her getting too comfortable there.' He says, making it sound like some kind of order she's supposed to hear from wherever it is she is right now.

'Too bad.' I say, handing him the papers. 'And, you should be happy she's comfortable instead of miserable because she would never forgive you if she would be.'

His eyes widen and the annoyance turns into anger. 'She will forgive me.'

Noted...

I tilt my head a little and look into his eyes, trying to see if there's any way I can press him about this, without angering him too much.

'How are you so sure of that?'

'Because I'll do anything to make her forgive me.' He mumbles, feeling a little ashamed that he's saying it out loud. 'And how are you-'

Suddenly he jumps to his feet, glaring at me. Shit.

'North, don't.' He says, grabbing the bag with empty boxes, 'Don't push my buttons right now.'

'Noted.' I say as I get up, grab my things, and head to my bedroom.

I close the door and take a deep breath, before taking a look at the preciously sleeping Victoria.

Before changing into my pajama and brushing my teeth, I quickly grab the notebook and write down the date:

ᴊᴜɴᴇ 17ᴛʜ 2019

----

A/N: Another chapter!!! It's taking them a long time to get her back, I KNOW, but I'm still unsure if they'll meet again if I'm being honest.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know in the comments what you liked the most and don't forget to vote!

Have a wonderful day and I hope to see you guys in the next chapter!