[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

𝐈𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑦."
—𝑂𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠

𝐈
— 𝐷𝑖𝑒𝑔𝑜 —

𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘, 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 up, wiping his moistened eyes with the back of his hand. He planted a kiss on her forehead before quickly heading down the stairs; the last thing he needed was for anyone to find out what he had done.

He felt relief flood through him as he saw Mara sitting on the couch nearest to him, thanking God that she was safe. His relief suddenly morphed into annoyance as he saw Vanya, who was sitting on the opposite couch while she used a rag to clean the dried blood on the side of her head.

Allison was sitting in front of her on the coffee table, leaning forward as she spoke gently to her. She turned around as Diego walked in and raised her eyebrows.

"Diego?"

Diego paced around for a moment before a humourless smile reached his lips as he looked toward Vanya. "What are you still doing here?"

Vanya's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm just trying to help."

"No, you could've been killed," Diego said angrily as he jabbed a finger in her direction. "Or gotten any of us killed." His gaze shifted towards Allison as he seethed, "She is a liability."

Vanya looked towards the other woman as Diego sat down next to Mara, who was watching with tightly-knit eyebrows and had her hands folded over her stomach. "Allison?"

Allison was quiet for a moment, looking down at her lap before slowly lifting her gaze and answering, "I think what he's trying to say is that this kind of stuff is dangerous. You're just—"

"Not like you."

"No, that's not what I . . ." Allison got up to follow as Vanya got up from the couch and began to head towards the exit. "Vanya, wait."

"Let her go," Diego called, causing Allison to stop in her tracks. "It's for the best."

Allison sighed and turned around as Vanya left, shooting him a quick glare as she walked back over to the couch that Vanya had been sitting on and sat down.

Diego's hardened eyes softened as he turned to Mara, his eyebrows furrowing as he stood up and quietly asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah . . ." Mara's lips tugged into a frown. "Well . . ."

Diego turned to her with a look of alarm. "Well?!"

"Uh . . ." she mumbled as she slowly got up from the couch, her arms still folded.

Suddenly, she clutched a hand around Diego's arm as she stumbled slightly, letting out a sharp intake of breath as she kept the other wrapped around her stomach.

"Mara?" Diego questioned, placing his hands on either side of her to stabilize her as his eyes worriedly searched her. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I-I'm fine," she said weakly, giving a short nod.

Diego rolled his eyes; obviously, she was not fine.

"What happened?" Allison questioned, leaning forward in her seat as her eyes roamed Mara's body to look for the problem.

"Noth—"

"Mara," Diego cut in and raised his eyebrows, to which she quietly muttered a curse.

Slowly, she removed the other arm from her stomach, revealing the maroon that had stained her pale blue shirt.