Better The Devil You Know

T is for Trauma

Twelve weeks. That's how long Aurora had been gone for. They were no closer to finding her either.

In the past two weeks, there had been five shootouts, and Nathan was already 27 men down. The War had begun.

As much as he hated to say it, he had reduced the number of men looking for Aurora. To 0. Everyone was told that if they saw her they would save her, but nobody was out with the soul purpose of finding her.

Because Nathan knew she was dead. Or at least, he told himself he knew.

He was sat in a family meeting at the house, discussing the upcoming attack on the Sicilian Mafia's home territory, Sicily.

Debating weapon orders and plans of attack, Nathan, Danilo, Mateo and Samuel were engrossed, until Izzy barged in.

'Nathan! She's alive! She's alive! She's somewhere in Cornwall, she's...'

'Izzy! What have I told you about interrupting meetings?! I know it sucks, but you've got to accept that she's dea-'

'Imogen Smith. Aurora told me that when she was in school, her dad was so paranoid about people finding her that she had a false identity. Imogen Smith. So if she is dead, explain to me why I received a letter from an Imogen Smith, dating back to two weeks ago.'

Nathan stood up. His heart was pounding loudly.

'Give us the letter,' Danilo held his hand out to Izzy.

Taking it into his hands, he looked at Nathan before reading aloud.

'March 7th,

Dear Isabella,

What is this letter? I haven't written a letter in years! But the WiFi down here in Cornwall?? It's so rubbish, I haven't even used my phone once! You'll never believe what happened, I got appendicitis! I'm making my nurse scribe for me as I'm about to go into surgery! I really miss you though, hopefully I will be coming back soon, so I'll need an invite to come over!

HOPEFULLY see you soon,

Imogen Smith x'

🖤

Nathan's head was spinning. Currently over 75 men were searching through CCTV files, hospital records, hotel logins, police records the whole lot previously done under Aurora's name, but now under the name Imogen Smith.

He wanted to break something. Hell, kill something.

She was alive. And he gave up looking. He gave up.

'Boss, I think I've found something.' Alex ran in, his laptop propped on his arm.

Thank you Jesus for this boy.

'What've you got.'

'Imogen Smith. Girl. Approx late teens, early twenties. Brunette. Admitted on 24th December. Zero visitors. Severe assumed assault injuries. West Cornwall Hospital.'

'That's her.' Turning to the open door, Nathan called out, 'Sarah, get Dr Harrison, tell him he's coming with me to Cornwall, get Andrew to bring the car around and pack me a bag.'

I'm coming Aurora.