PROLOGUE

Arianna’s birthday was the biggest event in their small community. It was a grand celebration for his daughter’s first birthday. In fact, Marcus hired a photographer to document every happening during the event.

    Veronica and Arianna were smiling happily as they were about to blow out the candles in the fondant cake. Guests were singing a happy birthday song as they waited for the celebrant to blow out the candle when suddenly…gunshots were fired. People screamed. Veronica cried, and Arianna was scared.

   Marcus was quick to react but he was unarmed, and those men disabled him first before they aimed their guns at his wife and daughter. He witnessed how Veronica tried to protect Arianna but a bullet hit her head just before their daughter was murdered brutally.

    He couldn’t move and just cried as Arianna’s small body was shredded by the multiple bullets that hit her. His friend was able to exchange bullets with the assailants and killed one of them but the others managed to run away.

    His wife and daughter have died on the spot…right before his eyes, and at that moment, he wished he was also killed! For Marcus, there was no point in living if he couldn’t feel alive. Veronica and Arianna have become his world and now that they were lifeless, how could he go on?

     Why did those men leave him alive? They should just have killed him too! Tears rolled from his eyes before he lost consciousness and someone shouted for his name.

     After three weeks in the hospital, he should be glad that he made it alive, but could he be happy when Veronica and Arianna were already gone? Yes, his body was repaired by the doctors but what about his heart? It was shredded into tiny pieces and he didn’t know how to put them back together!

     When he was discharged from the hospital, they were already buried. Once again, it broke his heart that he couldn’t even say his final goodbye to the most precious girl in his life. From the hospital, he went straight to the memorial garden where their bodies were laid to rest.

     “Justice will be served, my love. I promise,” he vowed to kill the remaining gunmen who were able to escape. With slumped shoulders and teary eyes, he continued to talk with his loved ones as if they were still alive. He should have died with them! Without Veronica and Arianna, he was not sure how to go about living. Losing them in a tragic death was heartbreaking and he couldn’t stop himself from crying.

    Samuel gritted his teeth as he watched his best friend, Marcus, cried in despair above the tomb of his family. Marcus wailed like a baby, and it was also killing him inside! Marcus blamed himself and he couldn’t listen to it! “Buddy, enough! Do you think your tears could bring them back?” He yelled.

    Upon hearing his friend’s comment, Marcus turned and glared at the man who looked formidable in his expensive cloth. “It’s easy for you to say because it wasn’t you who lose your loved ones!” He yelled back and was ready to fight against his best friend.

    “I understand how painful can it be, especially when you witnessed how they were killed. But don’t forget that you’re still alive! Why do you think he spared you from dying with them?” The man tried to put some sense into his friend’s head.

    Marcus weighed up every word that came out of his friend’s mouth. Was he being spared from dying? Or those men failed to realize that he was still alive? Or did they intentionally let him live to suffer? Whatever the reason why he was still alive, he decided to avenge the loss of his loved ones. “I’ll make him regret his foolish decision to let me live!” he said and laughed like crazy before he informed his friend that they would go home.