"Where the hell did you get this from??" He yelled slamming his hands on the bed and now I could see he was enraged.

"It was given to me by my mother. Why?" I replied honestly. I was dead confused.

"Your mother? Who's your mother? Where is she now??"

"What's with the question? You wouldn't know her even if I tell you."

"Who's the lady in the pendant?" He asked.

Seriously how would he expect me to know that mother only gave me the pendant and didn't tell me who's on the pendant which of course I don't care? I mean she could be some model, modeling the pendant brand.

"I don't know her," I muttered.

He didn't ask me any more questions. He just left with my pendant.

Days rolled by and I remained locked in the room. The guy who took my pendant has been constantly coming to persuade me to implicate every member of my gang but as stubborn as I've always been. I refused to talk.  Well maybe I might have to talk if he would  torture me or so but hey

I was even been treated like a queen.

I mean with all the ladies Coming every morning and taking me to bath, giving me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was never even treated like that by my boss. This isn't what I expect from De' costa.

Well, maybe they are following up with the 'they-don't-hurt kids rules.' Or if they are being nice to me so I'll suddenly open up to them someday.

thinking about that, there's a high chance that the latter might be considerable.

And I'm very sure that one day, they might have to torture me till I speak up. But no matter what I can't betray my gang. That isn't what Maximo taught me. Betraying the agendas makes one a coward and I'm not a coward.

I better find a way to escape this place before it gets too late.

I started planning on how to escape so one night when a lady came to give me food, I watch her drop the food on my bed and the moment she turned to leave, a plan niggled at me. I picked up the fork, I jump off the bed, and stabbed her in her neck.

When she fell to the ground, I took the keys from her hand and used them to open the door. I also made sure I searched her for her gun then I took it. I might need this for protection. I sneaked out of the room and making sure no one was close by, I started following a different route. 

Luckily no one saw me till I was out. It was late midnight so a few men were sleeping off guard.

I proceeded to climb the fence but someone spotted me and signal the others. Putting my gun into use, I started shooting gunning down as many men as I could and at the same time climbing the fence.

Maximo trained me for this so it didn't take me any stress, I jumped down the fence and ran off. I successfully escaped.

But when I was already in the middle of dark streets, I realized something.

My pendant.

It was given to me by my mother, it's the only thing valuable to me and now it's in de costa's custody.

But I can't go back there, maybe I finally lost the pendant for good.

Antonio's POV.

When I left the basement I was quite confused. How did this pendant get into her custody?

When I first saw the pendant, it looked so much like the pendant I made for mum.

Well, maybe there could be a con-incident that it just looks like my mother's pendant. So I have to open it to be sure cause I remember stamping a photo of mum in the pendant and Lo to my fucking surprise, it was mum.

Which confirmed the pendant belongs to my mother but how the fuck did it got into the hands of the little girl huh?

As he got to his office, I took the picture frame of my mother and stared at it.

this pendant brought back the memory of mum which I've tried to destroy.

Staring at mum photo brought tears to my eyes.

I remember the day she told me she was living and was never going to come back again.

All because of who?

Our father.

I saw how My father would always abuse my mother, and beat my mother countless times so when mum got tired and finally decided to leave, I didn't hold it against her for living.

But...it hurts.

"I thought you've finally forgotten about mother." I was startled and turned to see Jayden walking into my office. He was mockingly rolling his eyes.

Wiping my tears And dropping mum photo I grunted. "She was our mother. It's not that easy to forget."

He sat on the seat facing me. "But You always tell Mateo and Liam to be fucking strong but here you are sucking at a corner over a fucking bitch that never cared about us." He said through gritted teeth.

I flashed him a scornful look.

"Mind your fucking  language." I cautioned. "She's our mother, she cared so much about us."

"Then why the fuck did she leaves us have you forgotten how we begged her to stay that night?" He puffed. "Well I know you'll always take her side." He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Yeah at that time, Jayden was just a kid, I was the only one who saw everything, How dad will always abuse his mother.

"Anyways how about the girl whose gang stole our shipment?" He asked.

"She had refused to talk." I shove him a Blatant reply.

His face turned red and compressed into furry.

"What??" He yelled. "Then why the fuck didn't you make her spill it."

"I tried but she's one stubborn little girl." He spoke quietly.

"Then she's yet to know me..." he stood up abruptly and stormed towards the door with rage sparking all over him.

"Where are you going?" I groaned.

"Of course going to make that little bitch spill talk" he growled.

"You can't do that...Leave me to handle this." He frowned at me when I said that. "You should be facing others things in the company."

"You handle it but what is the result?"

"Let's give her some time okay."

"I object. We have no time to give her, our clients are waiting we need to find the person behind this, deal with them and get back our property. We can't just keep our client hanging" he reasoned.

"We can always get a new shipment," I said already booting my computer to start working.

"Dad worked so hard for all this to be achieved we can't just let those shipments go down the drain." He continued rambling.

Yes, I know but He fucking doesn't have to remind me of that.

I was already getting angry at Jayden for the nagging but he's my little bro though he's already 24,  I still need to act mature.

"I'll get the shipment now leave." The stern tone in my voice was enough to make him leave.

I can always get the shipment but one thing I need to find out first is how mum's pendant got into her hands.

How is she related to my mum?

And  Could mum be alive?

I was going to find that out later but first I needed to get back the shipment which was the matter at hand.

I specifically instructed all my brothers never to go to the basement and they grudgingly obeyed.

Well, they've got no choice.

I'm their eldest brother and as such, they give me my due respect.

I kept going to the basement where the girl was.

And I've just found out her name a few days ago.

Was it Rechel?? Yeah, Rechel.

I tried persuading her to implicate the rest of her accomplices but she was so stubborn.

I'm not much concerned about the shipment but No body messes me and goes Scott-free.

I needed to find out who these traitors are and make them regret crossing paths with me, with us.

I could have easily asked one of my men to have Rechel dealt with just so she spills the beans but hell I couldn't find it in me to do it.

Aside from the fact that I don't hurt kids, Rechel was specifically different.

Damn, she fucking reminds me of mum.

I was already thinking of other ways to make her talk when one of my men came to my office on a certain night and informed me that she escaped.

I was so angry and cussed all my men for letting that happen. I mean how could a little girl like that outsmart all of them?

They are all bunches of idiots.

I Instructed my men to find her or I'll kill them.

Days passed and none of them were able to bring feedback.

For that girl, to out smirk a lot of my men she's smart and I fear if she will ever be seen.

So this time around I added a price tag of $10,000,000,000.

I know that's worth more than those shipments but like I said replacing those shipments won't be a problem for me. Aside from the fact that I needed her to implicate those snitches, I mostly needed her cause she seems to be the only key to mum.

maybe I was being too nice to her but the moment she's found, I swear I'll make her talk.

After several days of finding, I was in my office when I received a call from John. One of my most trusted men.

He told me he finally found her and I was a bit relieved.

He brought her to the mansion and I told him to lock her up in the basement.

He injected her so she was unconscious for hours.

I rounded off what I was doing in my office and when I went to her basement luckily I found her awake.

I started asking questions starting with the shipment and I planned to threaten her with the gun.

Maybe that will make her open up but much to my surprise, she started denying her identity.

To be honest I've already lost control and I was barely able to contain my anger when she gave me a paper.

As I read through it, I was surprised to see my surname on it. De costa.

At first, I thought it was one of her schemes but at that same moment, I received a call from one of my men.

"Hello, capo... I think I've found her..." "She is at the juvenile sea right and she's about to cross borders," Mark said to me on the phone.

"What how can that be..."

"I'm very sure of this boss, I'm tracing her right now, I'll get her and bring her to the mansion"

"Well fuck it.." that was the last thing I said before moving out of the room with papers.

My head was so occupied with different thoughts and I first went from my office to my room.

This cannot be possible. When I saw my mother's pendant from Rechel I know something was amiss and these papers just confirmed it.

Or what if it's a co-incident she's bearing the same surname as us but her resemblance with Rechel is so striking?

Fuck fuck fuck. I was so confused.

Fucking confused.

I had many reasons to suspect our blood flow through them but to be certain. I decided I'll take her (Clarissa) to my office and ask her a few questions. So I took my bath and changed into my office outfit.

I went to the basement and took her down to my office.

I asked her a few questions and Her answers confirmed that she might be related to us.

That prompted me to call my doctor when I took her down to a room, she was shaking in terror. When I told her to lie on the bed, she was sweating and I could hear her heart beating.

Maybe she was scared of injections so I thought but her eyes were filled with much misery and somehow I felt hurt.

Chris's injected her and while she was asleep, Chris took her blood and I took mine too. He ran a DNA test for our blood and after a few hours, Chris came to my office with the result.

And the text result confirmed everything.

It showed....positive?!!!

Maybe I nearly expected that but how possible huh?

After thinking and thinking about it, I concluded that my brothers need to know about this.

I brought my phone and send a text on the group chat.

"Meeting tonight in the living room, all of you be there."