Prologue
PROLOGUE
Tesiera and her father Roman were walking home from an outing at the park on a pleasant Wednesday evening. The weather was delightfully warm, and they reveled in the gentle breeze around them.
“Did you have fun today, sweetie?” Roman asked, happiness coursing through him. She beamed with excitement.
“Yes! Thank you, Daddy,” she beamed. Roman’s heart ached with love at her radiant grin.
Roman lifted his daughter onto his hip, and remembered she wasn’t his little girl anymore. The eight-year-old was becoming quite heavy to carry, and he groaned as he lifted her. She giggled in childlike delight. She still loved it when her father carried her.
“You know, I’d do anything for you, Tesiera. You’re my beautiful, smart, and strong angel,” Roman promised, planting a loving kiss on her forehead and squeezing her in a tight hug.
“Daddy, why don’t we see Uncle Damian anymore?” Tesiera asked, pulling away from the hug and gazing at her father with curiosity.
Roman was taken aback by the unexpected question but didn’t let it show. He hadn’t expected his little girl to notice the strained relationship between him and his brother, but then again, he shouldn’t be surprised. Tesiera was remarkably astute.
“Your Uncle Damian is a busy man, Tesiera. I know he misses you,” Roman fibbed with a forced smile. The truth was his brother wasn’t a good person by any measure. But he wasn’t certain that Damian missed his niece. Roman had been avoiding his brother’s calls and distancing himself from the only family he had left. Roman didn’t want Tesiera to get entangled with Damian, or worse, with the family business. It was why he had walked away years ago.
“You’re lost in thought again.”
Her voice brought him back to the present. “I’m right here, sweetheart,” he assured her, gently placing her back on the ground and holding her soft hand. Together, they continued their walk down the quiet alley leading to their neighborhood. They jumped at the loud crack of gunfire. The sound echoed off the buildings, making it impossible to know from where the shot was fired.
Tesiera burst into tears as Roman instinctively scooped her into his arms, desperate to find shelter to protect him and his daughter from danger. He turned on his heel, nearly ran into a menacing man dressed in black, a ski mask covering everything but his eyes. Roman let out a startled yelp, and a shiver ran down his spine as he noticed the rifle in the man’s grip, just a trigger-pull away from unleashing death.
More footsteps echoed in the alley. Three more men, all clad in the same black attire and ski masks, appeared behind the man, sending Roman’s fear skyrocketing. Their numbers had grown, and the weapons in their hands heightened the threat.
“We don’t have time for this, Jaden; the police are already closing in!” one of the men hissed nervously, glancing over his shoulder.
“Now they know my name, asshole. We must do something about them,” Jaden replied with a smirk, his focus on Roman and his daughter never wavering. “Drop the girl.”
“Please, just let us go. We didn’t see anything. We were just at the park. We were just coming home from the park,” Roman pleaded, repeating himself as he gently placed Tesiera on the ground, pushing her behind him. The frightened little girl trembled in fear, clutching the hem of her father’s shirt tightly.
Roman noticed Jaden’s black outfit was distinctive compared to the others, and he had more sophisticated weaponry. But the man beside him was a slightly smaller figure, resembling a young teen.
“Take them,” Jaden ordered. The armed man in front of them aimed his gun at Roman’s heart.
Roman quickly put his hands up, his body trembling with fear and beads of sweat forming on his brow. “Please. We don’t have any money. Spare us!” Roman clasped his hands and pleaded with the men, revealing a golden locket on his wrist.
Jaden’s eyes gleamed.
“But you have that. Give it to me,” he demanded, pointing at the locket. Roman gasped and quickly pulled his sleeve over it, but it was too late. Jaden had seen it.
“I said give it!” Jaden repeated, his face contorting in anger.
“No!” Roman refused, an act that startled both the men and even Tesiera. What gave him the courage?
Jaden stepped closer, towering over Roman, with the teenager following suit. “You dare defy me?”
Roman couldn’t hold back his tears. “Please, this was my wife’s. It’s all I have left of her. Don’t take it from me. I’m begging you,” he pleaded.
He cherished the locket; the thought of losing it crushed his soul. It was the last memento he had of his wife—a precious keepsake that he gazed at each night, reminiscing about the wonderful moments they had shared.
They couldn’t take that away from him.
“No, Daddy!” Tesiera screamed in terror, tears streaming down her face. “Let them have it.”
Hearing the terror in his daughter’s voice brought Roman back to the present, and to his daughter’s safety. His hands trembled as he pulled up his sleeve and struggled with the clasp.
But Jaden stepped closer and delivered three harsh slaps to Roman’s face.
The pain was excruciating. Roman struggled to stifle his moans of agony as Tesiera screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Shut your mouth, you little brat!” Another member of the group advanced, pulling Tesiera away from behind her father. His grip on her hair was so tight that strands ripped from her scalp.
“No!! Please, don’t hurt my daughter.” Roman rushed forward to protect his little girl, but the teenager blocked his path, smirking.
“Your daughter is quite pretty. It’s a shame she’s so young,” Jaden tsked his disappointment.
“We haven’t had any fun in a while,” another one said, hope in his voice.
“How about we have some fun with these two?” Jaden smiled. The men behind him chuckled.
That was the last thing young Tesiera remembered.
She woke up in an abandoned house. They had tied her father on the floor, spread-eagle, naked, and brutally beaten. Tesiera’s eyes widened at the sight of blood oozing from her father’s battered body.
“Leave him alone!!!” she screamed, pleading.
The four of them laughed. Tesiera looked up, finally noticing them. Their faces were unmasked. The teenager locked eyes with her as he plunged a knife into her father’s arm and dragged it across his flesh, leaving a long trail of blood, carving into him like a chicken.
Young Tesiera screamed and then passed out in horror. She didn’t know how long she remained unconscious. But she subconsciously heard her father’s screams.
Then, she heard chilling words...
“Shoot him.”
Her eyes snapped open, and she looked at where her father had been. Tesiera could no longer recognize him; he was nothing more than a broken, bloodied figure.
“Shoot him,” Jaden said again.
The teenager pulled the trigger.
Tesiera screamed. Her father was no longer breathing. The teen pointed the gun at her face when, suddenly, the sound of sirens filled the air.
“Damn it! Let’s get out of here!” one of them shouted, already making a run for it. The boy swiftly stowed his gun in his pocket and fled with the rest, leaving Tesiera alone with her father.
“Daddy...?” Tesiera cried and fell to her knees, shaking her father. Why wouldn’t he open his eyes? Why wouldn’t her daddy look at her? “Daddy!” she screamed.
Tesiera continued to scream her father’s name until the police arrived and pulled her away from his lifeless body. She screamed his name when the ambulance arrived, during the ride to the hospital, and when he was pronounced dead in the trauma room. She screamed his name over and over again until her voice grew hoarse, and her eyes became as puffy as a winter coat.
And night after night, the faces of his killers flashed in her mind, until the image of the four of them was embedded into her soul.
The universe does not always have a way of working things out. Sometimes it gives, and other times, it takes.
This time, it took away her father, the most precious person in Tesiera’s life. The only family she had left in the entire world.
