Alina

Alberto

When I got the call my heart sank. We all raced to the airport, just needing to be in New York.

None of us got a word from any of them after that and I feared the worst.

No one spoke. No one had to. We all thought the same thing. We all knew the same thing.

Alina was gone.

The bratva has been doing everything in their power to get to her. And now they've done it. My precious nipotina, taken by the enemy.

I'll search the whole world for that little girl.

Usually, our arrival at the penthouse is a happy occasion. None of us can wait for the doors to open and reunite with our family from across the world. It's become an even happier occasion when we'd see our little girl running to us as the doors slid open far too slowly for my liking.

When the doors slide open, there's no smiling little girl running into my arms. Just an empty marble-floored entryway. The vase of flowers on the glass console table usually has flowers in it; flowers Alina would choose from the market. If she found a flower she liked on a walk, she'd pick it up and add it to the bouquet when she got home. The vase has flowers that are starting to wilt, Alina has to choose some new ones soon.

I look around as we enter the living space, my family is nowhere to be found. Usually, they'd all be waiting there as one of us carried Alina back from the elevator to greet us.

"We're in here." My son's voice calls out. He sounds so broken, so dull.

As we enter the lounge, I notice my grandsons and daughter-in-law look just like my son sounded. Emilia and Mariana hug Bianca tightly as they begin crying again while my grandsons weakly greet each other.

"Office," Antonio says to me and Francesco.

Antonio sits behind his desk, grabs a picture frame, and just stares at it for a moment. I know which one he's looking at. It's a picture of Alina at her birthday party. She was so happy that day.
He looks up and all emotion is gone from his face. He's shut himself off from feeling anything; an old trick of his from a darker time.

"Tell me what happened."

"They first sent a scout to check out the area, see where everybody was. As far as they knew, only Bianca and Alina were home. One of our men shot him, the body went through the living room door. Roman took Allie to the safe room while Bianca called for backup before she joined them. Roman's location was still a secret so Bianca hid him in a cupboard before she and Allie were taken into the living room. All our guys were dead and the Ivanov brothers showed up. They," he hesitates and inhales deeply to calm himself. "They claimed she was their sister and they came to take her back. They knocked Bianca out before flying off. Roman came out after and carried her back to our room. Around five minutes later we arrived and realized that Alina was missing. I found the locket outside on the terrace."

"So this whole time, she was an Ivanov?" Francesco says, not believing what he had just heard.

"What we have come to believe is that Nikolai sent her to the States with her brothers to be raised in secret. She was kept at their complex upstate and went through whatever abuse they put her through that put her in that state we found her in."

"But didn't they send her to die in the first place? That was what Igor reported, correct?" I say.

"Yes."

"So when they saw her picture from her debut, they realized she wasn't dead and now they got her back. MOTHER FUCKERS! They sent her to die and now they want her back!"

"Francesco! Calm yourself!"

"I notified my head man in every state of her disappearance. All my allies in Latin and South America know as well. I've pulled a few favors with my guys in the FBI. They're on the case as well."