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     "B-Brother?"

     I asked as I looked at him with disbelief.

     Romeo and the others stood there in shock, not sure what to say or how to react to what we just saw.

     I stood there like my feet were glued to the floor.

     Jiyong was lifeless and chained up on the wall like some kind of animal that's ready to be butchered .

     My tears continued to pour, and my body started to tremble. But when my brother suddenly gave out a shaky breath, the floor finally released me and I immediately ran towards him.

     "Jiyong!" I shouted as I approached him.

     At first I was hesitant. I didn't want to touch him, I was too afraid I'd hurt him if I do.

    He was covered in blood, like he was tortured by a monster who I still wasn't sure of.

     "What are you standing there for?! Someone get him out of those chains!" Romeo suddenly shouted, quickly making his men go to Jiyong.

     "P-Please be careful," I say as I moved aside.

     But when they started touching him, my brother started moaning in pain, "W-Wait! You're hurting him!" I shouted.

     "We can't put him down if we don't touch him," one of Romeo's men stated.

     So I nodded my head and finally let them touch him.

     One man put out his gun and used it to break the chains. And when the chains were finally off the wall, two other men immediately grabbed him.

     "Call for a doctor, hurry!" Romeo shouted.

     "Yes don Romeo," one of his men answered before running back upstairs.

     "Carry him to our room," Romeo instructed as he looked at the men who were carrying Jiyong.

     The men didn't answer and just carried him upstairs.

     I was about to follow them when Mat suddenly grabbed my hand to stop me, "T-That's...that's your brother?" he asked me.

     I couldn't even open my mouth since my whole body was trembling, so I nodded my head instead.

     "How on earth did he get here?" Mat asked further.

     "I...I don't-" I immediately stopped because the tears started to pour out even more.

     Romeo immediately grabs me to give me a warm embrace.

     "I'm so sorry Julien. I should have known," Romeo tells me.

     "W-We were right here...he was so close and I d-didn't even know. I didn't even fucking know," I say as I buried my face on Romeo's chest.

     "He'll be okay. The doctor will be here and he'll recover. He's a strong man right? Then he'll be okay. And once he's okay, we'll find out who did this, and we'll definitely kill him. I promise."

*****

     "How is he?" Romeo asked as he approached me.

     I was standing outside the room where Jiyong was. The doctor immediately treated him so thankfully he's better now.

     "He's still unconscious but he'll be okay," I answered.

     Romeo looked like he wanted to apologize again. Ever since we've discovered my brother, Romeo's been apologizing to me none stop.

     It wasn't his fault so I wasn't mad at him at all. But now I know what Romeo felt when Johnson died and I kept on apologizing to him too.

     "I'm sorry," he says again.

     He walks towards me and suddenly lowered his head on my shoulder.

     "I'm the godfather of this household, and I didn't even know anything," Romeo says with a sad voice. I took a deep breath and quickly hugged him, "This isn't your fault. We didn't know anything, and we trusted too many people. And you shouldn't worry, my brother is alive, and that's all that matters."

     "You're the only one I can trust at this point Julien. I can't even trust my own family," Romeo tells me.

     "Do you have an idea on who it might be?" I asked.

     Romeo lifts his head and looks at me, "The key was found in my uncle's room. It could be a setup since he's not here, or it could really be him and I don't know what I'd do if that's true."

     "So what's the plan then?" I asked him.

     Romeo takes a deep breath and leans on the wall too so he could stand beside me.

      "For now we need to talk to your brother. Pointing fingers on just anyone won't do us any good. And if it's possible, we need to talk to his men, I think the person who planned all this purposely made Jiyong's men think we're the enemy," Romeo answered, suddenly making me remember something.

     "Wait a second..." I say.

     "What?" Romeo quickly asked.

     I looked back at Romeo and said, "Remember the bomber? We thought he didn't have a reason on why he did that right? But what if he was actually a distraction?"

     "A distraction?"

     "Yeah. He bombed the front to startle us. And of course, so we could put all our attention to that. But what if he wasn't alone? What if someone else went inside the house to search for something," I explained further.

     "And what makes you say that?"

     "The bomber said it was a warning that they are near. And the men who ambushed yesterday knew exactly where Jiyong was," I revealed, shocking Romeo.

     "So his men came here to take him. But why are they attacking us? If a Valentino is the one behind all this, why did they attack here? Wouldn't they be too afraid that he'd kill Jiyong if they do that? Because they've obviously been following orders from that guy, because if they haven't, your brother might have been already dead," Romeo explains to me, but I quickly shook my head and said, "But like what you said. What if they thought you were the once behind all this? We weren't here on the day the household was ambushed, so that's the only explanation."

          "So these people don't even know who they're following?" Romeo asked further.

     I took a deep breath and said, "Or they did, and they were able to put him down."

     Romeo was about to say something when the door to the room where my brother was suddenly swings open, "Your brother's awake," the home nurse suddenly tells us.

     I looked at Romeo first before running inside the room to see Jiyong sitting down on the bed, drinking medicine the other nurse was giving him.

     "Jiyong!" I shouted, immediately making Jiyong look at me.

     "J-Julien?" he confusingly asked as he stared at my face. He was about to say something else when he suddenly sees Romeo, "Who's that? Where am I? What am I doing here?"

     "Jiyong calm down," I say as I ran towards him to touch his hand.

     "Leave us," Romeo tells the nurses, making the two of them leave the room.

     "Why are you here? How did you find me?" he continued to ask me.

     "You're in the Valentino household big brother. Romeo is the godfather of this household; he's the one who has been taking care of me. We didn't know you were-"

     Jiyong suddenly cuts me off and angrily shouts, "He's a Valentino?! What are you doing with him?!"

     "What is he saying?" Romeo confusingly asked as he slowly walked towards Jiyong, but Jiyong suddenly flinched and shouted, "Don't come near me!"

    "Jiyong, please calm down," I tell him again.

     I squeezed his hand tighter and said, "Romeo has taken care of me for a long time and has protected me with all his life. He even became a godfather for my sake. You do not have to worry because he's on our side."

     I thought Jiyong was finally going to calm down, but then he shouts at me, "He's a Valentino!"

     "Who risked his life multiple times to save me!" I finally shouted at him.

     When I realized what I just did, I took a deep breath and let go of his hand.

     I can't believe I'm shouting at my brother who is obviously traumatized after being chained in the basement for who knows how long.

     "I'm sorry," I say.

     "I know you're scared Jiyong, and you have no idea how angry I am at myself for not knowing anything. But you need to calm down and tell us what happened," I continued, and finally, Jiyong calmed down.

     He looked at Romeo instead and suddenly said, "A Valentino tortured me."

     I took a deep breath when I heard what he just said.

     This is it. We were finally going to know who is behind all this.

     "I was sent here by our sisters to get you. I was supposed to meet up with a man named Matthew King, but when I arrived at the airport, a different man suddenly welcomed me. He said he was an acquaintance of Mr. King, but it was obviously a lie that I cannot be fooled with. But before I could even do anything, Valentino men suddenly ambushed us and took us to a warehouse," Jiyong explained.

     "Valentino men? How many were there?" Romeo quickly asked. I knew that he already knew that his family was going to betray him sooner or later, but somehow, he had hopes that maybe they'll all be loyal to him instead.

     "I don't know...maybe about...20 of them at least," Jiyong answered.

     "This warehouse, I've heard about that before when they kidnapped me," I say, shocking Jiyong. But he doesn't ask anything about it and just continued, "We were held there for a few days. My own men were being used by activities that I did not even know about."

     That might have been the time his men came to the club to...

     I immediately looked back at Romeo, and I could see Romeo trying his best not to remember that event as well.

     "After that I was suddenly taken. They tied my hands and feet and brought me to this house. It was almost empty, like it wasn't used for a long time," Jiyong tells us.

    "I think I wasn't the godfather at the time. Without a godfather, only a few chosen ones can be allowed to live inside the household," Romeo explains to us.

     Jiyong then looks back at me and says, "I was chained up in the room downstairs. I was tortured every time my men didn't follow orders. I asked them to just escape and go back to Korea, but none of them left, they were too loyal, and for the first time I didn't want them to be loyal."

     "If they were following orders, why did they attack yesterday?" I asked, but Jiyong shakes his head and says, "I don't know what's happening outside, so I don't know why they suddenly attacked."

     "We left the other day to go to Korea. We thought you were...we thought you were the bad guy but our sisters told us the truth. Do you think our absence, or rather, Romeo's absence made them brave enough to attack?" I asked.

     "It was pretty obvious you'd think that I'm behind all this, but my men don't really know how the system of this mafia works, so they might just assume that any person who is a Valentino is an enemy. And since your..." Jiyong paused then looked at the both of us before continuing, "Lover...is the godfather, or the boss. They might have thought that he's the mastermind of all this."

     " the greatest question is...who took you?" I finally asked, and I could see Romeo holding his breath as we both waited for my brother to answer.

     Jiyong looked like he was thinking hard about it. Like it's been a long time since he has heard of the name of the person who was behind everything.

     "Name, what is the name?" Romeo asked, like he couldn't wait any longer.

     "I-I...I don't quite remember, but I think it was a man named-"

     "Don Romeo!" Mat suddenly shouted from outside the room.

     Before Romeo could even tell him to come inside, Mat suddenly barges inside the room and quickly says, "The hospital called...Antonio's gone."

     "What?" Romeo and I asked in unison.

     Then, my brother's eyes widened as he shouted, "Him!"

     Romeo slowly looked back at Jiyong and asked, "W-What did you just say?"

     "A-Antonio...Antonio Valentino. He's the one who has been using my men. He's the one who welcomed me at the airport."

- END -