War

Chapter Twenty

A/N - longer chapter for you guys ❤️❤️

TW: brief mention of self harm in the last scene

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Marco
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Nine months ago

"She's gone", I frowned, keeping both car seats in my grip as I advanced further into the house, watching my best friend lower his gun slowly and gaze down at his newborn twins.

"What do you mean she's gone?", I asked him, watching him fist the beanie on his head and yank it off, "gone where?".

"Do I look like I have a fucking clue?", he snapped, throwing the hat and groaning, "her clothes are gone, her shoes are gone- everything that belongs to her is gone Marco, like she never fucking existed".

That couldn't be right, the mother of my best friend's children had been sitting on the sofa just over an hour prior, bidding us farewell as we took the twins to my house to meet my brothers. It didn't make sense for her to disappear without a trace so quickly, with no signs of it occurring whatsoever.

"She can't have just vanished", I narrowed my eyes, "why would she slip away without a trace?".

"You fucking tell me", he snapped, cursing under his breath before proceeding to drive a fist into the wall twice; the sound only making the babies stir, "fuck!".

"The children, Rio", I warned him, looking down at them in their car seats as they began to squirm and cry; he paused immediately and cursed again, crouching down and undoing his daughter's seatbelt before lifting her into his arms.

I lowered his son's seat to the floor and did the same, watching the newborn scrunch up as I rested him on my chest; the two of them were three days old, still had no names, yet I could see the love that Rio had for them as clear as day.

And I thought I had seen the love their mother carried for them, but if my best friend was correct and she had disappeared completely, then it had been nothing more than a facade.

"She's fucking gone", he seemed adamant, and I had to take his word for it, knowing he was just as efficient as I was when it came to being precise, "gone Marco, she's fucking left the two of them". He didn't include himself in that yet I didn't chase him up on it, merely clenched my jaw and rubbed the baby's back as he whined against me.

"You're not alone in this", was all I could say to him as of now, being able to see him thrumming with anger but keeping it in check as he held his daughter, "you're not raising them alone, not as long as I'm here".

And that was a promise, one of the strongest ones I'd ever made in my life.

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Astoria Karras was one of the last people I expected to see again for as long as I lived.

She disappeared without a trace, and explanation, a care in the world nine months ago- three days after the birth of her children, and hadn't been seen since.

In that space of time I'd watched my best friend raise Reyna and Sol with everything he had in him, I'd watched him doubt his abilities to be a father- I'd listened to him as he contemplated putting the twins up for adoption when they were a month old.