Filed To Story: Returning to Her Not-So-Poor Family
He didn’t want to listen anymore. Mumbling about being tired, he walked out of the room.
“The kid, I don’t know what he’s huffing about.” Cornelia watched Sean’s retreating figure, guessing that none of the girls caught his eye, and that perhaps he felt too young to settle down.
“Let him have his fun for a few more years. As long as both Hans and Chasel settle down, the rest will naturally follow suit when the time is right.”
Sean had barely stepped away from his grandmother’s room when he heard a noise coming from his sister’s room.
“Bella.”
Sean rapped on his sister’s door with a casual knock to signal his presence.
He’d been hoping to catch up with her for a bit, so as to get a read on Ophelia’s take on the recent events. For example, had the car race they’d attended left a sour taste in Ophelia’s mouth? And was Ophelia now harboring a grudge against him for the whole debacle with that project ?
But after a few knocks, there was no answer from within.
Hadn’t he heard some noise just moments ago?
Why was it dead silent all of a sudden?
Had she fallen asleep?
Just as Sean was about to walk away, a sudden thought struck him and froze him in his tracks. What if his sister was in danger?
“Sis, I’m coming in, okay?”
Throwing caution to the wind, he twisted the doorknob and pushed open his sister’s bedroom door.
The room was deserted, with the balcony door wide open, curtains billowing in the breeze, and snowflakes drifting in.
Where was his sister?
He stepped onto the balcony, only to be greeted by a world blanketed in white, with snow piled everywhere.
There were footprints along the edge of the wall and in the snow below, which were roughly the size of his sister’s feet.Could his sister have leapt from the balcony to the wall’s edge and then down to the ground? Where was she headed?
Following the direction of the footprints, Sean’s eyes landed on a corner of the garden where a few figures seemed to be missing.
Had someone broken in?
With that alarming thought, Sean jumped down, following his sister’s trail. He alerted his brothers and sprinted towards the spot where his sister might be.
Moments before, after Mirabella had finished her shower, she found something off about the surveillance, whose angles seemed to have been tampered with, and she also noticed that the number of guards in the corner was down by two.
To avoid tipping off the intruder, she leapt from the balcony rail, dodging cameras and rushing towards the corner of the garden. True enough, it wasn’t just two guards unconscious under the trees – there were six.
Someone had definitely made their way in.
The intruder had likely aimed to stay under the radar, hence there were no fatalities.
Murdering on a snowy day would leave conspicuous red stains, so the visitor would act with discretion.
Mirabella tracked the footprints to the basement and, sure enough, found a group of skilled assassins.
The guards from Reflections Villa were clearly no match for them, and even the seasoned security team under Hans seemed overwhelmed. Within moments, they too crumbled to the ground.As Mirabella drew near, she detected a peculiar scent on the attackers – a custom knockout fragrance that had floored the Collins’ guards.
What was this potent concoction?
She’d never encountered this fragrance before.
Luckily, she had been taking a special pill these past few days, which was an antidote for various toxins and fragrances.
The assassins, seeing Mirabella still standing, exchanged puzzled looks. By all accounts, the fragrance should have rendered her unconscious upon first whiff.
Yet there she stood ,safe and sound, causing a conundrum in their midst.
At that moment, Mirabella kicked at one of the assailants, and then blocked the entrance to the basement with her slender frame, refusing to let them in.
Had they finally trapped themselves?
It seemed like the mastermind behind the scenes wasn’t small-time; not only had they used knockout gas, they had also sent henchmen who were quite skilled.
She was suddenly curious about who was pulling the strings.
The group of hitmen exchanged glances before launching another attack on her.
The substantial security team of the Collins family arrived just in time.
“Don’t come any closer,” Mirabella warned her personal guards, “make sure you take those capsules I distributed earlier first.”
The team understood instantly that something was off with these hitmen.
Thankfully, Ms. Bella was prepared.
“Also, don’t fall for their diversion tactics.”
Mirabella’s words reminded the head of security, who ordered some men to return to their posts while the rest stayed to provide backup.
Sean was the first to arrive, and seeing so many hitmen, he said excitedly, “Caught in the act, huh?!”
Seeing his sister surrounded, he was about to charge in to help.
The head of security quickly held him back, “Ms. Bella instructed us to take these capsules.”Sean grabbed the capsule from his hand, popped it in his mouth, and rushed to his sister’s side.
Soon enough, Hans, Chasel, and Clark arrived swiftly.
With just Chasel’s agile moves, these men were no match for him, not to mention the other Collins brothers.
The four brothers shielded Mirabella behind them, leaving her no room to fight.
“Don’t worry, Bella, we got you.”
“With Chasel here, no one’s going to lay a finger on you.”
“Clark’s going to knock their teeth out.”
“Did they touch you? If so, Sean will break their fingers one by one, grind them up, and feed them to the dogs.”
Mirabella looked at the dozen or so hitmen, feeling that things couldn’t be this simple.
Logically, with so many guards at Reflections Villa, the enemy wouldn’t just send these few hitmen.
If they weren’t after Erik in the basement, what was their real purpose for storming in on what seemed like a suicide mission?
They knew they were up against the Collins family, including Hans, Chasel and Clark.
Suddenly, Mirabella remembered something and whispered to Sean, “Sean, they arrived shortly after Ophelia left our place. I don’t know if she’s safe on the road. Take some men and check on her; make sure she’s safe.”By all accounts, Ophelia should have been home by now, but she hadn’t sent a single message to check in.
Mirabella’s reminder made Sean realize that Ophelia might be in danger. He immediately said, “Then take care of yourself. Leave these goons for me to handle when I get back. Don’t dirty your hands with their blood.”
“Sure thing.” Mirabella nodded in agreement on the surface, but not long after Sean had left the room, she had a switchblade pressed against one of the hitman’s throats.
The hitman was tough as nails; not even glancing at Mirabella, he said with eyes closed, “Do it.”
He was a prisoner at her mercy, yet there was no begging for his life. To be killed or slashed, he left his fate in her hands.
With a quick swipe of her blade, the hitman’s throat gushed with blood.
The other hitmen were clearly startled; they hadn’t expected her to actually go through with it.
“I’m only asking once. Who’s pulling your strings?” Mirabella didn’t finish him off with that cut, but nicked him to draw blood, yet it was enough to terrify the others.
Some of the hitmen thought about taking their own lives, but Chasel, sharp as ever, caught on quickly and crushed that hope.
“As you guys fell into our hands, you’ve got only one way out, and that’s a fate worse than death,”
Chasel said with a cold voice which was devoid of any emotion. “Answer my sister’s question. Who sent you?”
Seeing that they remained silent, Mirabella flashed her blade to streak across the throats of three more hitmen, with a demeanor as cold as a heartless she-devil.
The remaining hitmen couldn’t believe this young girl was so ruthlessly formidable, even colder than them.
Finally, the fourth hitman couldn’t take it anymore and spilled, “No one sent us. We acted on our own, trying to save our boss Erik. That’s all we know.”Mirabella clearly didn’t buy his story, and her knife moved towards him again.
She was a medical student, so she knew just how much it would take before causing a fatality. Hans had noticed this too—his sister wasn’t out for their lives, but to scare them into giving up an answer.
The fifth hitman, realizing just how resolute she was, decided to come clean, “At this point, we’ve got no reason to lie to you. Our boss Erik did have contacts with some mystery go-between, but he never revealed their identity. Whenever he met with this contact, he’d send us away; he even went abroad for the meeting, couldn’t be more cautious!”
“We were just following orders, you know? The boss said that not telling us about it was for our own good.”
“We had a crew of one hundred and forty-two, but we lost thirty-three in Belloria. Lately, many others have disappeared. We’re worried that the go-between is wiping us out from behind the scenes, so we wanted to get Erik out to figure out what to do.”
“Even if you kill us all, we don’t know who the go-between is.”