THIRTY TWO

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Hannah's POV

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"Ace?" I mumble, slowly starting to wake up.

I looked around the dark room, feeling around for Ace in the bed, but he wasn't there. It was still dark outside so he must still be on the phone or in the bathroom. I heard people whispering down the hall, though, signaling people were awake. It didn't make sense, everyone was going to bed when I came back here.

I get up and grab Ace's shirt from the floor and button it up. The end of the hall leads into the living room and I see Oliver and Antony sitting on the couch. Antony had his shirt off and a white bandage over his shoulder from where Vinnie removed the bullet. Luckily, the Bullet went all the way through, so it didn't do any serious damage.

"What's going on?" I ask, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. 

I look around the room to also see Vinnie and Leo sitting in the two arm chairs. All of them look to me and then each other. I give them a confused look and walk further into the living room so I can see the kitchen and dining room. They were both empty.

"Where's Ace?" Silence.

"He's gone." Leo finally spoke.

"What do you mean gone?" I ask slowly. I looked at the clock on the wall. "It's 3:00 in the morning, where the hell could he be going right now?"

"We don't know." Oliver spoke.

"He didn't even tell you guys?" I ask, looking to the two Capos.

"Hannah." Leo got my attention. He looked at all of the other boys who nodded for him to go on. "Ace got a call from Ben. When he went to answer it, though, it was Jack." My heart stopped. "Annika tortured Ben for information and he died from it." I immediately shook my head and tried to blink back tears.

No. This can't be true. I trusted her, she wouldn't kill Ben. Ben isn't dead, kidnapped maybe, but he's not dead. Ace wasn't gone. He's probably just outside, taking a phone call. Everyones okay, everyones fine. 

I quickly use the sleeves of Ace's shirt to wipe my eyes and I walk towards the door. I go outside and step on the porch, looking around the yard for Ace. He's gotta be out here somewhere, this isn't real, it's just some fucked up nightmare.

"He's not here, Hannah." I turn around to see that Vinnie had followed me out here.

He looked miserable. Vinnie normally reminded me of Oliver, always wearing a smile, but now he looked as though he may never smile again. I'm not that close with Vinnie, but I could tell he was hurting. I walked over to him and hugged him, he wrapped his arms around me and let out a shaky breath.

"I'm so sorry." I tell him, the realness slowly started to let in.

"Thanks." He sniffled and pulled away, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry about Ace. For a second there, we all thought you might be the one to break through to him."

"Why can't I now? He's coming back right?" Vinnie looks out over the field, letting out a deep breath.

"Ace has always seen himself as a machine, made for nothing but killing and ruling the mafia. He's afraid of love because he thinks it makes you weak, but he's also afraid to lose love. We're all like brothers, but Ben was Ace's closest friend. He just lost one of the few people he loves and he thinks it's his fault. You may have started to break through those walls that he puts up, but now he's building a whole new one. 

"As for the coming back part? I don't know. Whenever Ace runs off, distancing himself, he doesn't come back for months. He'll fall off the face of the earth, much like his father, and he'll be a completely different person when he comes back."

Vinnie walked back inside, leaving me on the porch. I felt like I couldn't breathe. He just lost his best friend, he shouldn't be alone. Regardless that Annika, who I was now going to kill, betrayed us, she was right. I wouldn't give up on Ace. Whenever he decided to come out of hiding, I would keep trying to break through to him.

"Hey." Thea sighed, walking onto the porch. She was rubbing her wrist and I noticed red marks on them, like she'd tried to catch a whip. Sarah.

"How is she?"

"Not good."

"Are you okay?"

"I was friends with Ben, but we were never really close. I'm sad, definitely shocked. I think right now I'm just worried about Sarah and the Capos."

"I got the first aid kit." Leo says, walking on to the porch with a little box.

"I should probably go talk to her." I sigh, looking back into the house.

"Be careful, I don't think you're gonna get through to her right now." Thea tells me as she goes to sit on the porch swing with Leo.

I walked inside and ran to Ace and I's room, grabbing one of my knives. I then went to Sarah's door. I stood in the hallway for at least five minutes, debating on what to do. I don't know if I'm more scared of her or the whip she has right now. Slowly, I open the door and walk into the dark room.

"Sarah?" I ask softly. 

I can't see anything, but I wince when I feel a sharp burn hit my arm. Before she can pull it back, I grab the whip and cut it with my knife. She gasps when she realized what I did. I can make out the bed in front of me and gently lay my knife on the floor, out of her reach, before slowly crawling on the bed.

"Sarah." I feel around until I finally bump her. She was curled up in a ball in the corner of the bed.

"Leave." Is all she says. It wasn't soft or sad. It was feral and violent. A warning.

"No, I'm not leaving you alone right now."

"Hannah, leave. I won't tell you again."

"Sarah, no." I tell her sternly. 

I can barely see her but she immediately pounced on my, trying to attack me. She was punching and clawing and I did my best to fight her off. Eventually, I caught her fist. She tried to use her body and kick me off the bed but I climbed on top of her, locking her legs between mine. She tried to get out of my grasp a few more times before she stopped. As soon as she stopped, the tears started.

"Hey." I said softly as I slowly loosened my grip on her.

"He's gone..." She cried.

"We don't know that." She nodded her head as I climbed off of her.

"Th-they sent...a picture...." She said as she curled back up into a ball.

"A picture?"

"H-his body."

"Oh my gosh..." I thought he was kidnapped, that Jack was lying. 

"I was...so mean...to him." She said in-between breaths.

"You forgave him."

"I was too late. I was too late." She kept mumbling. "If I had forgiven him sooner, known about the mission sooner, I would've had more time to convince him not to go. I-I had a bad feeling about it, I was literally sick over him going."

"Sarah, there was nothing you could've done. You know he still would've gone." She was silent again, all I could hear were sniffles.

"Luca..." She whispered.

"Luca?"

"We always talked about what our future would be like. I never really wanted kids, but he did. He always talked about us getting married and having a baby boy. Luca. He wanted a baby boy named Luca."

"That's a beautiful name."

"It is. Whenever we were going through tough times, especially lately with the war, he would always talk about it. He would tell me to think of us growing old together, think of us watching Luca grow up, or debating on whether or not Luca should have another sibling.

"Now, I can't have either of them. I can't grow old with the man I love, Hannah. I can't get married and one day have a baby boy. Hannah, what do I do?! We had our whole future planned out and, just like that, he's gone. He and everything we've planned is just gone." 

There's nothing I could say right now. I could never imagine the pain she's feeling. I scoot next to her and wrap my arms around her. She immediately collapses into me, shaking with tears. My best friends whole world just came crashing down and I don't know what to do other than be here for her.

"It hu-hurts, Hannah...It fucking hurts...make it stop..."

"I'm sorry, love, I wish I could." I say softly, rubbing her head.

"How do I live without him? He saved me, he gave my life purpose. How do I go on? I have nothing anymore. Hannah, I don't want to be here. I can't live in a world where he isn't."

"You take it day by day, Sarah. You take it day by day and you don't go through it alone."

"You wanna know the ironic part about all of this? The one person that I want to talk to and to comfort me right now is the one that is no longer here."

I hugged her tighter, just trying to be there for her in anyway I can.

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Im ngl this chapter made me tear up :(( Comment and Vote!


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