1927: Redemption

Car crash?

“Love is like a wind stirring the grass beneath trees on a black night,' he had said. 'You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life. If you try to be definite and sure about it and to live beneath the trees, where soft night winds blow, the long hot day of disappointment comes swiftly and the gritty dust from passing wagons gathers upon lips inflamed and made tender by kisses.”

-Sherwood Anderson

When they rounded the last block towards the candy shop, the sight that was waiting for them was completely unexpected.

The entire street was blocked off by orange traffic cones and tape and a plethora of cop cars and fire engines were parked everywhere, pointed towards a tiny hole in the wall down the way. Thick black clouds of smoke were billowing up into the night sky, clogging Adeline’s throat and making her eyes burn.

What the hell happened?!

Talia did not waste any time pushing her way down the sidewalk to the smoky, charred hole in the wall. Adeline followed quickly after her and watched as she was almost immediately stopped by police.

“Get out of my way! They are my kids!” Talia shouted, struggling against one of the burly looking FPDs.

A second later tears were streaking down Adeline’s face when she caught the sight of Ace sliding his way underneath the barricades and reaching for his mom, as he first pushed Katerina and Carolina to pass the tape. Adeline did not dare step any closer than a few feet as Talia clutched her daughters, holding them as tightly as possible when they came running towards her, shouting, “Mommy!” And hugging her back.

When Adeline looked closer, she found a deep bloody gash on Ace’s forehead, which needed to be treated. He was covered in soot and bruises on his cheek looked worse than before, but other than that, she couldn’t tell.

Ace came closer to Talia who was fighting inwardly as to what to do, how to express and how eager she looked to just embrace her son who was hurt. Maybe Ace got the mess from her eyes as he came closer and pulled Talia into a hug, saying, “I’m fine, it’s nothing to worry about.”

Sweet!

Adeline had to remind herself that everything was going to be alright. Ace was alive. But this suddenly did not look like an accident. The next time something like this happened, Ace might not be so lucky. Hell, she may be so lucky, too.

Now that William left her, or he might have gone into the dark again, she did not know if she was safe anymore and looking at Ace’s condition right now, she was definitely not safe anymore.

Ace pulled away from Talia as medics attended to his wound and checked for some other injuries and asked him to pay a visit to the hospital. And, after everything, he turned to Adeline with this look on his face which she did not know how to describe.

“Come on, Martinez,” he muttered, rolling his black eyes. “I’m fine.”

Sure, he was fine now, but what about later? If something as serious as this was going to happen again, she might not be there, and then what was going to happen? Was she really going to lose the family she just got a few days before because of a target painted on her back a long time ago?

“Adeline, stop crying,” Ace sighed, bringing her back to reality. “I’m just fine.”

“Arris,” Talia said, gripping his forearm. “What happened?”

Thank god, Talia intervened, so at least now Adeline had a minute to stop freaking crying.

“I don’t know,” Ace answered, rubbing a hand across his face. “We were just about to leave the shop when this car suddenly crashed into the shop. They’re saying the driver did not have any control, the brakes failed and it instantly caught fire, which is why the place burned so fast. It seems a little shady to me though.” He said the last sentence looking at Adeline.

No s**t it seemed a little shady.

“Are you alright?” Talia pressed, sounding anxious.

“I’m fine,” Ace said, starting to sound a little annoyed. “Seriously, just got my head banged with one of the racks and covered in soot. That’s all.”

“No, Ace saved us like a hero, mommy.” Said the girls, looking at their brother and for the first time, Adeline saw pride in Talia’s eyes for Ace as well as also had warmth in his eyes for his sisters.

Adeline probably would never know what possessed her to do what she did next. She just decided to go with the moment and relish in the fact that Ace was still here, her true friend and brother.

Leaning over, Adeline grabbed Ace in a furiously tight hug, wrapping her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. Ace did not seem to have a problem with hugging her back, even if he had warned her before. He sighed, saying, “I’m fine, Adeline.”

She mumbled something into his shoulder that sounded weird. It was probably going to take a few minutes for her to be able to speak properly again. It was not very difficult to see that she was visibly shaking against Ace and she was seconds away from bursting into tears all over again.

Ace may have said that everything was fine and that he was fine, but clearly, that was a lie. Clearly, everything was not going to be okay.

And, the next thing he said, shocked the hell out of her, “We are going back to London.” He whispered in her ear as she became still.

Why did he say that?

Why were they going back to London?

Has the time to go back to London arrived?

There were a ton of questions that had been unanswered and rolling in Adeline’s mind. There were a lot of things she needed to tell Ace first about the beast’s letter, his disappearance, but here came another twist in her journey which she did not think of.