Always

32| can't miss

ALEXIS

Everything was fine.

Amara and Sage's marriage was being planned, about which neither of them seemed sad or angry. Amara's restaurant business with Jake was doing really well. Ace was slowly healing. All of us were closer than ever. It was all good.

Until of course, Ace had to go through an emergency operation because his wound got infected.

We were currently sitting outside the operation theatre, waiting for the surgery to end. The doctors said the success rates were ninety-eight percent, but I was still worried. We all were. There was still that two percent nagging me. My thoughts were just a fried mush as I held and squeezed Carina's hand tightly.

We had been there for almost two hours now. I checked the time. It was 1:36 a.m. Everyone was tired, but were trying their best not to fall asleep. Rubbing their eyes, yawning, stretching, checking their phones, basically doing anything to stay awake.

I was tapping my foot anxiously. "You guys should go home, I'll stay here." Gen said.

"No, it's fine, we'll stay." Carina said.

I nodded in agreement. Genevieve frowned. "I feel like we'll have to stay here for a long time, are you all you want to stay?" And us, like the stubborn kids we were, nodded.

"How about, half go, half stay?" Carter suggested. "And I'll come with you all."

"Alright, let's do it that way. Who is going?" Gen asked, looking around at us. I don't know what she expected, but no one said anything.

Then she chose to do the teacher tactic. "If you guys won't volunteer, I'll pick myself. Alex."

"No." I protested.

"Layla and Lucas."

"What about Liam?" Lucas asked.

"No, he's not going. And Romeo." Genevieve stated.

Romeo just nodded. Carter got up. "Let's go then."

She turned to Gen. "Don't forget to call us when anything happens."

"I won't."

"See you guys later then." Layla said as everyone waved bye.

I got in the car after the others in the back seat, Romeo in the driver's seat and Carter in the passenger's seat. I stared outside the window the whole ride, letting my thoughts wander off. New York City was a lit up blur in front of me. All my thoughts started coming up and collecting at the same point. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Good? Bad? I didn't know. But I knew it was something big.

We were home in no time. Or at least I thought it was in no time, I wasn't really paying attention. We got out of the car and went inside. I decided to head to the living room, since I wasn't sure I would get any sleep. But the moment I stepped in our house, it didn't feel right.

Something was wrong. I knew it wasn't just me because everyone else was looking around the room as well. With silent glances at each other, we went to different areas of the house. I was in the kitchen when I heard Lucas yelling for us to come into the living room.

There was black box on the coffee table. And it didn't belong to us. There was a piece of paper on top of it. Romeo went over and picked it up. He took one look at it and frowned.

"What is it?" Carter asked, concern clear in her voice.

"It's a note." He replied.

"What does it say?" Layla asked. I went over and looked at the note as Romeo read it out loud.