I woke up with Ana hovering above me.

"Good morning." I smiled, my voice was hoarse.

"Morning!" She says on my thighs and pulled me up.

"Why are you so excited?" I set my head on her shoulder.

"You got a call from your father." She ran her fingers through my hair.

"How long ago?" I looked up.

"Only an hour, don't worry he said it wasn't urgent."

I leaned over to get my phone from the nightstand. Surprisingly I only had one missed call from him and a text message that read, 'Call me when you wake up.'

I called his number and he answered instantly. "Rosa?"

"Hi? What's going on?" I tried to sound as nice as possible but venom crept into my voice.

"Have you seen the news lately?"

"No, I've been busy." Asleep, ruining my relationship or fixing it, but he didn't need to know that. "What happened?"

"Our house was raided. I don't know how, I don't know what we lost, but I need to do some serious reforms and I need your help."

I smiled slightly. Mother could handle herself and he didn't have Ana to hang over my head. "Why would I help you?"

He sighed. "You can do whatever you want. If you help me and continue to you have free will. You can have all the protection you need for whoever you want."

I moved out from under Ana and paced the room slightly. "Whatever?"

"I won't lie, these plans are working out better than I could've imagined. We're rising in power and nobody has noticed. If we keep this up we could take Italy."

"I don't want to take Italy." I smiled slightly. "I want The Cartel."

My hope vanished as I heard him burst into laughter. "Are you insane, you have the brain to lead, but nobody will follow you. Don't be stupid Rosa, we're traditional, if people found out about your woman they might even stop following me."

I looked up at Ana. She looked extremely confused.

A smile crept onto my face. I walked toads Ana and grabbed her left hand. "I hope you're right."

He was silent for a moment. "What do you mean?"

I intertwined my fingers with Ana's. "Do you remember how much traction the Scottish got when the media found out Ronan was bi? I wonder how much attention we'd get if I married a woman. I mean, we're far more traditional."

Hope danced through Ana's eyes. I felt bad using her against my father but it looked like she didn't mind.

Father made a frustrated noise. "If they don't follow me, you have no power."

I hummed. "We'll see."

...
I walked into the house. Mother was standing in the living room looking around. She had Spice in her arms.

At least a million dollars worth of smashed antiques and ripped paintings were thrown across the room.

She crouched down to pick up a piece of a painting. I walked into the living room and kneeled beside her.

I looked at the scrap of painting, it was probably the least valuable one in the room. It used to be one of those hand turkeys, I probably made it when I was eight or nine.

Mother turned to look at me. Tears fell from her eyes. "They ruined so much."

I grabbed the scrap from her hand. "Who cares about the art I made as a kid."

"I do." She cried.

I wrapped my arms around her. "Hey, it's okay."

I hated comforting people, I was always bad at it.

She wrapped her arms around me as Spice jumped away. She let out a few small sobs. "I'm dying."

I looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"I'm so sorry. I should've told you sooner." She wiped away tears.

"What do you mean you're dying? Did Father threaten you? Are you sick?"

She nodded. "Alzheimer's."

I shook my head with disbelief. "Al- what? You're in your forties. There's no way."

"That's what I thought." She sniffled. "Early-onset."

I looked down. "How long have you known?"

She pulled Spice into her arms. "A while."

"How long is a while?" I stood up.

She shook her head. "I don't remember exactly before I met Ana."

I let out a strangled gasp. "Who else knows?"

"Everyone." More tears escaped her eyes. "I'm sorry."

I wanted to yell. At her, at the world. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. The words came out in a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"At first I didn't want to believe it, but when the signs became more obvious and I was forced to. I was planning on it but then you got shot and after that, you've been busy." She shot up.

"I wasn't too busy for you." If she would've told me I would've stopped.

"Yes, you were. If you had to choose between me and Ana, you'd choose her every time with no hesitation. I don't blame you, actually, I'm glad you have her."

I looked into her eyes. This woman loved me unconditionally, she was always there for me. Now I couldn't stop thinking about how one day she wouldn't even recognize me.

Then the thought crossed my mind. This is why she pressured me into marrying Ana.

I turned on my heels and ran up the stairs to my room. The door was off its hinges and I had to kick it down.

I froze as I looked at what used to be my room.

The curtains were shredded and across the room, the window was completely shattered but the lack of glass told me that's how they escaped, all of my books were torn or crumpled beyond repair, the contents of my dresser and nightstand were all over my bed, which had been stripped down to just my mattress. Every poster or picture on the wall had been torn down.

I walked over to the loose floorboard and moved away the debris. It had to be here. It's why I came.

Mother stood in the doorway with wide eyes. "Dear God."

I propped the floorboard out. I almost screamed with relief when I saw the box, but the note on top stopped me.

I picked up the box and looked through it to make sure nothing had been tampered with. Everything was fine.

I looked at the note. I didn't recognize the handwriting. It was extremely out of place in a situation like this.

Get your girl :)

A small sketch of a dinosaur was the only clue I had to figure out who this person was.

I looked up at Mother. "Is this some kind of joke?"

She walked over to me and looked at the note. "Do you know anyone who likes dinosaurs?"

"No." I shook my head.

"I guess you have a guardian angel then."

I furrowed my brows. "Angels wouldn't destroy my shit." I looked up at her. "This was an enemy."

She frowned. "Why would they leave this then?"

I studied the small dinosaur. "I have a feeling they understood why I hid my love letters under the floorboards."

...
We're going to pretend this chapter made sense.

<3