Matteo POV Avery refused to leave the hospital without Eliana so I made sure the doctors released her to my care and we went to the safe house. Eliana came with us, but I am not happy about this. I still don’t trust her completely, but I guess it is better to keep her under my radar then her disappearing on me and planning something else without my knowledge.  “This is your room”, I say opening the door of one of the furthest bedrooms from mine and Avery’s. Eliana walks in and looks around while she hugs her body and she limps a little, the bullet hit her on her right arm and that makes it hard for her to move her shoulder. Great.  “I can stay here with you if you like” Avery says and I wrap my arms around her waist pulling her closer to me. Her back against my chest and I take a deep breath. “I’ll have someone stay here with her”, I whisper and Avery looks

Matteo POV“Boss, you need to check this out”, I hear as Leo speak through the earpiece. “On my way’, I reply ask walk around the corner of the empty abandoned factory where we were supposed to meet Andreas Santana, the heir of the Spanish mafia. They contacted us to meet here and after we swept the place it was empty and they never showed up. I am always aware and anticipating an attack, but I never anticipated what I am about to face.As I see Leo across the room I approach him while I still hold my gun in case someone appears out of nowhere he is bending down looking at something.“What is it?”, I ask“A heart’, he says and I look down to see a human heart wrapped in a piece of fabric. The fabric is now red but you can tell that it used to be white. It has some engraving as well. I scrunch my nose as I smell the irony scent of blood.

Avery POV I don’t know how long I have been in here, but the torture makes all the day blend together. Every day and hour is the same, I still have the blindfold and I am being fed by tubes, just enough to keep me alive while man after men touches me, they touch my body as if it was their property and not my own body anymore, but none of them actually penetrate me, I don’t know how much longer I can live like this. My body and my personal choice being taken away from me by force. I have been enduring psychological torture since I have arrived here, the constant hands touching me are nothing compared to the psychological torture I am suffering, I have earbuds on playing constant sounds of crying babies keeping me awake and from time to time the sounds stop and I am allowed to sleep for a few minutes and then the torture continues. I am sleep deprived, my head hurts and my body, well I stopped felling my body as a way of disassociating from the constant hands touching

Avery POV I open my eyes and I can’t see Matteo next to me. I look around starting to feel my anxiety creeping in as I pull the blanket closer to my body and I hear Matteo moving and walking to me. “Hey, I am here”, I hear his soft voice whisper, I look at him and he looks tired, he looks like he hasn’t slept in days and I feel myself breaking again, I feel my tears spilling down my face as Matteo wraps his arms around me pulling me closer to him. “Everything is okay, I am here, you’re safe”, he whispers and I nod my head. Matteo pulls away saying I should have a bath and I can’t think of anything better right now. Matteo walks to the bathroom opening the taps I can hear the water running and the bath filling up. I put my legs out of the bed and Matteo walks back into the bedroom rushing over to me to help me stand up. As soon as my feet touch the floor Matteo wraps his arms around my waist keeping me stand as my knees give up on me. I am weak and Matteo knows. He wa

Avery POV The ceremony was beautiful and baby Rose is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, she loves her mommy and daddy but she loves mu cuddles and I have to say that I enjoy her company more than I enjoy any adults at the moment, she is a great listener and she is helping me a lot, more than therapy. The way she looks at me melts my heart and I made a decision. I want to volunteer at the Maternity ward in the hospital. There’s a Volunteering program that all you have to do is cuddle babies that are in the NICU while their parents are at work and can’t give them attention. As soon as we got home I told Matteo what I wanted to do and he smiled. I know he is worried about me and he knows that this is the first step for me to get better, I will do something to help someone, it will make me feel better about myself, I will be able to help those children and those parents. Matteo decided that because I will volunteer there he will provide hot food to parents that a