I nced at Milly.


    Maybe they’d given up.


    Maybe they’d gone.


    A few more tense minutes passed with no sound and I began to rx again.


    The children still slept and we were still safe. That’s about all we could be thankful for but at least it was something.


    I rested my head back on the wall and took a deep breath as I ran my fingers softly along Stefano’s little tufts of silky blonde hair.


    His eyes were shut peacefully as his long ck eyshes flickered ever so slightly with every gentle breath he took. With his head rested on my chest and his little hands folded close to his face, I could cuddle him close, keeping him shielded from the harsh, cold darkness of the volt.


    He was not even a year old yet and he was lucky enough to stand no chance of remembering any of this. But that also meant he wouldn’t remember anyone we lose tonight. His father, his siblings, Luca, Max, his Grandparents, me.


    He’d never know them and that broke my heart.


    I ced my lips on his precious head and closed my eyes, holding in my tears.


    But just as I left the lingering kiss, I had to scrunch my eyes shut, my head suddenly filled with a high pitched, thudding, piercing ring.N?velD(ram)a.?rg owns this content.


    I could feel the gritty floor under my knees and hands, as my body was suddenly ovee with the pain of impact and my eyes filled with dust. The already dim light bulb flickered off and apart from the wretched wail in my head, I waspletely deafened, leaving me almost senseless.


    All I could smell was powdery concrete and smoke as I staggered to my feet, clutching in the dark.


    “Stefano,” I said.


    I couldn’t even hear my own voice.


    “Stefano!” I shouted, “Kids! Milly!”


    “E?” A croaky voice replied as I felt a pair of hands reach for me.


    The ring was quietening and being reced by the screams and cries of my children.


    “Milly,” I repeated, clutching the hands.


    “The vault,” she whispered, “It’s open. The door is broken.”


    I rubbed my eyes, wiping the dust as I nced around incredibly disorientated.


    But just by me, I could see a small slither of silver light slipping into the vault. Moonlight.


    “Get everybody back,” I said, crawling away from the light, wildly waving my hands and ushering the children back.


    “Are you all okay?” I asked, still unable to see as I felt their heads with my hand.


    I felt Cato’s height and Mathias’s curls. The bow I’d tied in Marie’s hair and an identically sized person beside her clutching her hand: Francesca. I heard Lili’s voice as I discovered another little girl reach for my hand and Ss’s cries came from somewhere in the vault too.


    “Zach and Stefy,” I whispered, “Where’s Zacharias and Stefano?”


    “Here,” Milly said, “I’ve got them. They’re fine.”


    “Everybody’s okay,” I said taking a deep breath before I turned back to where the door to the vault was.


    The explosion had only broken through a crack of it but the distinctive ng of the shovels and digging was soon back, this time closer and louder.


    I felt my pulse in my throat as I stood in front of the children, listening to the echoes..


    Milly stood next to me, shielding them too but as the metal of the door creaked and groaned and the shovels broke through, fear gripped me.


    Fear of not being able to protect them.


    A shlight shone in, blinding us with bright white light.


    I squinted and stepped back before whoever was holding it, began calling up to the surface in Spanish.


    “Ellos estan aqui,” he called, “They are here!”


    A few momentster, three pairs of footsteps flooded into the vault and I felt a man seize me.


    “No,” I hissed, kicking and punching, “My kids.”


    I nced around as he grabbed my hands and lifted me off the ground. One of the other men had ripped Stefano and Zach from Milly as another seized Lili as she screamed and cried.


    I managed to punch the guy who had hold up me hard in the nose, making him let go of me to stagger back, so that I couldunch myself at the one with his dirty hands all over my youngest daughter.


    I kicked him in the ribs with all my force and he leant over groaning so that I could pull Lili into my arms as she buried her head into my chest.


    “Stay away from us,” I growled as the man holding Zach and Stefano cowered back, “And give me my sons. Now.”


    The other two men who were still on the floor, rolling in pain so as I handed Lili to Milly and stepped confidently forward, anger and fury rushing through my veins as I gave him my hardest re.


    He nodded and put the boys down.


    But just as I was reaching for them, the first guy, whose nose was now bloody and already swollen, raised a ck metal object.


    I heard the click of the safetytch as he pointed it directly at Milly and my children.


    “Our boss only wants cares about having you alive, woman,” he slurred in a thick Hispanic ent, “Cooperate or I will kill them all”


    I swallowed before nodding.


    That wasn’t a risk I was going to take.


    “Okay,” I said lifting Stefano into my arms as Milly came to pick up Zacharias, “Come children,” I added ushering them all forward, “Don’t worry. Mama’s here.”


    Lili clung to my hand and my eldest three: Cato, Mathias and Ss took care of their twin little sisters as we all were herded out of the vault, through the rubble and into the fresh air of the forest.


    “Where are we going?” I asked as we were lead away from the vault.


    One of the guys was walking close behind Milly, continually prodding the back of her head with his gun and shoving her forward.


    In the distant, we could hear gunshots and bombs constantly sounding along with cries and shouts in both Italian and Spanish.


    “Back to your husband of course,” the second replied.


    My stomach churned, “He’s here?”