Lost Gem

Chapter 20 (Shopping trip)

Anastasia looks up at Stefano and frowns a little. He wants to take her out for shopping and then her appointment with a 'psychiatrist' is fixed in the afternoon.

Allesandro claims that meeting this special person will help her.

She wanted to refuse badly but after seeing his face, she accepts mostly due to the fear of angering him.

Stefano and her makes their way through the entrance of the mall. He looks down at her and rolls his eyes after seeing a frown on her face and her being lost in thought.

Something that she always do.

He grabs her hand, effectively snapping her out of her thoughts. A surprised jump is all he gets in answer and she looks up at him curiously.

After seeing him already looking down at her face, she immediately faces down on the floor with wide eyes.

"I would say that this thing you do is absolutely cute but it's getting annoying now." He rolls his eyes for the second time today.

"Anywhere particular you would like to go?" He asks her.

Anastasia blinks at his question. She just wants to go to school or maybe stay hidden from everyone of her 'family'.

"This is getting too irritating." Stefano  huffs quietly and drags her into the first store his eyes falls on.

Only question that tugs in her mind is that there is no other person present in the mall leaving the workers in shops.

Almost like judging the question mark on her head, Stefano tells her.

"I booked the whole mall. Technically, it is one of our family's shared property. So it wasn't the difficult thing to do."

A little nod he gets in answer indicating that she heard him well and clear. He seems caring enough to do that but it never clicks in her mind.

Just like that three hours went by.

"Now we only need to purchase electronics." 'We' kind of sounds ironic. Well, he's the only one shopping stuff after stuff for her. Nothing seems to interest her and she barely nods at anything he asks her. It was always a nod of approval and he is not going to lie but it's ticking him off.

As they were about to enter the store, his phone starts to ring.

His eyes widens after seeing Hunter O' Crimson calling him.

Why the hell is he calling me out from all people?

"Stay here. I will be back in a moment." He leads Anastasia to one of the bench outside of one of store.

"Don't move from here."

Saying this, he urgently excuses himself.

Anastasia looks around for a second before burying her gaze on the ground.

With a faint worrisome look on Stefano's face, he hangs up the call. The whole Crimson state and family is under attacked. According to Hunter, it is likely that the group responsible will target Stefano's family too. But it seems like he is missing out a few bits.

That's when it clicks in Stefano's mind that the youngest member of Crimson family is close to his little sister.

Just as he was about thinking about calling his older brothers or perhaps his father, a sound of loud gunshot reaches his ears.

"Fuck! You have gotta be kidding me!" Cursing, he rushes towards the sitting area where his sister is.

Anastasia jumps in fear at the loud sound of gunshot. She's still recovering from shock as suddenly her older brother is standing in front of her with a pissed off look on his face.