THE SNITCH

In this broken home
Everyone becomes predictable

***

CHAPTER LV

*****

THE FLOOR I ended up on was relatively calm. It was the second floor and I figured that Daniel's men just hadn't quite worked their way all the way up here yet. Which was fine. I could wait.

I could be the damsel in distress, calling out for help and being grateful for the first person to come up here and rescue me. Or I could go downstairs and contribute. Probably get killed too but at least I'd get front tow seats to the chaos.

Better yet; I could go up to third floor and explore.

Before I could decide on what floor I was staying on, the phone I had acquired buzzed in my back pocket, making me retrieve it and answer Jorge's call. Only, it wasn't really Jorge.

“Araceli what the fuck is wrong with you?”

My heart had skipped a beat in my chest, my stomach fluttering like hell at the sound of his voice and my eyes watering from realising how much I actually missed him. God, I had gone from chaos-loving psycho to lovesick puppy all in five seconds. Either something was really wrong with me or Daniel had a really strong effect on me. Probably both.

“Daniel, you're okay,” I said, finding relief in the fact that he was actually as well as Jorge said he was and very easily brushing over him questioning my sanity. He probably already knew the answer anyway.

“Where are you?” he asked, making me look around at my surroundings in contemplation.

“Well, it's a bit of a tricky situation...”

“No, I know where you are. I mean where are you?” I couldn't help but chuckle at how absolutely nothing had changed about how he asked the question, yet I still understood exactly what he meant.

“I'm on the second floor. By the office,” I answered to which he responded back curtly.

“Someone's coming up to get you.”

“How are you?”

“I'm fine.”

“How is Mateo?”

“He's fine.”

I let out a small laugh at his short, curt responses, clearly not at all effected by them. The poor man was probably very pissed at me. “Are you mad?” I asked despite already knowing the answer.

“Fuming.”

I let out a small giggle from his response, feeling relieved myself at the breath of relief I heard him let out on the other side of the phone. From the sounds of it, he wasn't actually "fuming", as he put it. Just worried and scared but I guess those two emotions presented themselves as anger for him.

“I love you, Danny.” He let out another long breath at my words, making me envision him leaning back in exhaustion with his eyes closed and his hands in his hair in frustration.

“I love you too, crazy woman. Just never do this to me again,” he said back to me, his voice coming out soft and caring. Not like when I had first picked up the phone. “I don't think my heart could take it if I ever lost you.”

Before I could reassure and promise him up and down that I would never do something so crazy ever again, a familiar voice had called out my name, making me snap my gaze up from the floor to “Pablo!”

“Ara!” as soon as he had reached me, he had encapsulated me in his arms, damn near suffocating me as he held me tight against him, burying my face into his chest. I couldn't help but give in, hugging him back as tight as I could and soaking in his familiar scent. “You mad woman, what the hell is wrong with you?” Pablo demanded once he had finally pulled away to inspect my face for scars which obviously he found plenty of. “Who hurt you, huh? Give me names.”

“Wait, she's hurt? What happened?” Daniel butted in from the phone, making me roll my eyes at Pablo's concern. As if Daniel wasn't stressed enough about me.

“No, my love, I'm okay. Its only a couple bruises that Pablo was being dramatic about. Don't worry,” I said, putting in my best efforts to ease his worry but it was Daniel we were talking about so of course he wasn't actually going to calm down. Not until he'd seen me at least. “I'm fine, I promise,” I continued to convince him as I grabbed Pablo's hand and began pulling him towards the exit. “I'm leaving, don't worry. You'll see me within the hour.”

“If you insist,” he said, sounding reluctant but knowing he couldn't argue with me coming straight back. “Give the phone to Pablo, amor.”

Without arguing I had handed Pablo the phone, rolling my eyes at his default answer being, “what do you want?” while I continued to lead him through the house in search of an exit.

I couldn't explain but I had suddenly been overcome with this urge to leave. Before I had hours to waste away on the second floor of some dead man's house catching up with my family. Now I couldn't shake the feeling that something terribly bad would happen if we didn't leave quick.

“You should go out the backdoor,” Pablo suggested, making me look to him in confusion. Was he not coming with me? “There's less fighting there so you won't get hurt.”

“Are you not coming?” I asked to which he shook his head.

“I can only show you to the backdoor. I need to find Emma,” he ssid, making me nod because that made sense. Only problem was that I hadn't seen Emma at all today. She very obviously hadn't been locked up in the basement with me. Where had they kept her?

I let him lead me to the backdoor, knowing that as soon as I was outside, I would have to leg it without him yet just as he had turned the doorknob for me to leave, the lights of the hallway had flickered on, making us both spin around to try and see who had caught us.

“Where are you going?” Emma's familiar voice filled my head as I turned back only to see nothing else but her in the flesh, leaving me confused. Where had she been this whole time? Here? Free? Or perhaps she had found her chance to escape once Daniel's men had finally turned up?

That seemed logical.

“Emma!” Pablo exclaimed, quickly rushing to her yet her reaction to Pablo had been indifference. Instead her eyes remained focused on me, staring at me with so much hatred?

“Forgot about me?” she asked, first looking to me for an answer before turning her gaze to Pablo who looked confused and hurt at the accusation in her tone.

“Forgot about you?” he repeated, confused. “Everyone's been looking for you. You and Araceli. That's why I came in here to find you but then I heard talking upstairs and I found Celi,” Pablo said, seemingly desperate to defend himself to her, yet I hadn't said a word. The sense just wasn't sensing. “Come on, Emma. Let's go home. We can call this whole thing off now that we've found you.”

She remained in place for a minute, her eyes switching from Pablo to me back to Pablo again before she slowly took a step forward and made to walk along with us. I let them walk in front of me and followed close behind, thinking deeply about the interaction we just shared.

She didn't seem like Emma. Of course she looked like and sounded like Emma but her actions were so cold and hostile. I didn't know if I could trust her completely. Something seemed very very off about her and that bothered me.

“Emma?” I called for her, making her come to a halt as she whipped around to glare at me much to Pablo's confusion. My stomach dropped at the obvious hatred in her eyes. Hatred that I had never previously realised was there yet now that I saw it, it seemed so obvious. I braced myself to ask the question I knew I didn't want to hear the answer to. “You're not the...” I trailed off only confusing Pablo more.

“Not what?” she asked, taking a step away from Pablo as she smirked at me. “The what, Araceli?” she almost taunted, trying to lure it out of me before she just spat it out herself. “Oh, you mean the snitch? You think that I'm the snitch.”

“I just don't understand how you were here and they just wouldn't tell me about it,” I said to which Emma just rolled her eyes, yet the knowing smirk remained on her lips as if she knew what I was talking about yet she also knew that nobody else would understand or even believe me.

“I guess not everything revolves around you, Aracelia,” she said, calling me by my mother's name before covering her mouth and correcting her mistake. “I mean Araceli.”

It couldn't be a mistake to call me Aracrlia. Daniel sometimes called me that which definitely had to be a deliberate thing and that was fine. What stumped me was the fact that she corrected herself. She knew that it wasn't my name; that it was someone else's name.

She was the snitch.

“Emma, how could you?” I demanded, only heightening Pablo's confusion as he stepped in.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Just filler noise really,” Emma shrugged nonchalantly. “I don't actually care if you know or not, I'm really just trying to keep you here long enough so someone can hopefully notice you standing out in the open unprotected, aim and kill you,” she delivered smoothly, making Pablos eyes widen in shock and surprise as he took a cautious step away from her. “Or I suppose I could do it myself.”

Without warning she had pulled out a gun from the waistband of her pants and aimed straight at me before taking multiple more steps away from Pablo so he couldn't subdue her. She knew that nobody would shoot to kill a pregnant woman.

“Emma,” Pablo said, making to take a step towards her to placate her but then she had aimed the gun at him quickly before aiming it back at me. “Emma why?” he asked, sounding so incredibly hurt.

“Because I hate her,” she answered smoothly with a shrug as if it was obvious and we should've seen this coming. Maybe we should have. “I always have. You come into my life and all you did was take from me,” she said to which I furrowed my brows in confusion, feeling lost.

“What have I taken from you?” I asked, still speaking as if I was having an open conversation with a friend and ignoring the gun pointed right at my chest. Ready to kill me at any moment.

“Everything,” she answered with so much hatred, I almost had to take a step back in shock. “You took everything. Then when I try to get rid of you with rat poison, you still somehow miraculously survive. And the bastard child does too and thats all anyone ever fucking talks about. You and that fucking child. I'm tired of it,” she ranted before narrowing her eyes at me. “I'm tired of you. The only one everyone ever seems to care about. At least with you dead, no one will be able to focus on you anymore. I mean, not after the funeral, I guess.”

“Emma, what are you talking about?” Pablo piped up from the side, now making his way to my side which only seemed to enrage her the more. “We all care about you. When you found out you were pregnant, who was there?” he asked to which she only rolled her eyes. “Last year when you had your breakdown, who was there?”

“Then why did you send me to a mental institution and not Ara? Hmm?” she asked to which Pablo narrowed his eyes at her. “Why is it always different for me?”

“Because you and Ara need different things, goddammit,” Pablo yelled, sounding like he was frustrated with her. “Daniel was your brother and he was going through shit when you tried to kill yourself. Maybe if he was emotionally sound, he wouldn't have sent you away but even if he didn't, do you really think you want to stay in the same house as Lucien anyway? Believe me if I had the power, I would've made you stay home with me and done for you all the things I did for Ara but the situations were fucking different and if that hurts you, I'm sorry, but I'm not God.”

“You're not sorry,” she hissed, shaking her head as tears fell from her eyes, clearly hurt. “You're never sorry.”

“No, you're right. I'm not,” Pablo agreed, making me shake my head quickly as I tried to reason with him. Emma seemed to be unhinged right now and antagonising her didn't seem to be the way to go. But then again, I didn't think anything really was. We just had to keep her occupied long enough to subdue her. Unfortunately, she no longer wanted to waste much more time.

“I guess you can die along with your little sister then,” she said before aiming the gun straight at Pablo.

“Kill me if you can,” he challenged her, making my eyes widen when I finally figured out what he was trying to do. He wanted her to shoot him instead of me so someone could hear the gunshot and save me before I got hurt. He wanted to sacrifice himself for me. “Shoot me and end everything between us.”

“You ended everything!” she accused, anger so clear in her tone, I almost flinched but Pablo only shook his head.

“No, I never did but I will now. Whatever we had between is over. For good,” he said firmly as if he was going to be able to make it out of this situation to fully think on his decision. “I don't love you anymore.”

“You never did.”

“Emma wait, don't listen to him,” I said, trying to come between them so she didn't shoot him like he wanted her to yet before I could even get out what I wanted to say, Emma had fired her gun.

She had fired her gun at me.

The whole world around me went silent, my hand coming to the bullet wound lodged deep inside my chest and as blood began pouring out of me like an open faucet, I found myself falling to my knees in pain.

“Araceli!” Pablo yelled, immediately running over to me as Emma dropped her gun onto the ground and began walking away as if nothing had happened, leaving us there in the middle of the field. I guess her job was done now. She could go now. “Araceli, don't do this now,” his pleading voice filled my ears as he gathered me into his arms, pressing his palm onto my bullet wound in an effort to slow the blood loss. “You can't do this now. I can't lose you now, Ara. You can't die. Not after all you've been through.”

I opened my mouth in an effort to get some words out. I only really wanted to tell him that it was okay; to tell him to wipe away the tears that were now running down his cheek. It hurt to do anything though so all I could really do was use all the energy I could muster to very gently wipe away his tears. I didn't want to die yet, but if this was really my last moment on earth, I wanted to be close to someone I loved. At least one person that enriched my life.

“I love you and Daniel and Teo,” I just managed to force out through the immense pressure that filled my chest. God, it was getting so hard to breathe. “Don't forget that.”

“Boss,” Jorge's familiar voiced joined us, making me realise that he was here too. Pablo immediately sprung into action, turning his gaze to look up at him.

“Jorge. Tell Judith to get the car. Call the doctor. Right now. Do it right now,” he ordered, making Jorge nod before he turned away and began running back the way he came from. Pablo looked down at me again. “Don't do this, Araceli. Youre going to be fine. Just think about Daniel. Think about Mateo. Think about Mateo for God's sake don't die. Ara, fuck!”

I felt myself slump further into him, my body losing all feeling as I dropped my hand from his face, making him grab it and hold it to him again. He was the only thing holding me still as my consciousness slowly left me. Until there was nothing else. No Pablo. No pain. Just me. And then there was no longer me either.

I allowed myself to think of Mateo.

***

Third Person's POV

“Is she dead?” Emma asked eagerly as Daniel made his way into the house, not bothering to lock the door behind him because even if she tried to escape, she wouldn't be able to get past the guards stationed all around the perimeter.

Emma's situation was peculiar. Some would say she was living a lavish life now after everything she had done. She lived in house that was probably too big for just one person with someone there to cook and clean for her and multiple security details stationed all around her. She had a doctor and psychologist on call and she'd never have to lift her finger to do anything again.

In that same breath, she also lived in complete isolation; never allowed to leave the property for the rest of her days with no access to a phone either. The only contact she'd have with her friends and family would only be if they felt like coming to visit her. She wouldn't even be allowed to care for the baby that she was nine-months pregnant with; due to give birth any day. She would be truly alone. Imprisoned.

Daniel knew she deserved much worse, but beneath all his coldness and cruelty, he was still a human being. Someone who loved his little sister. He couldn't hurt her even if he wanted to, but he still had a duty to make sure everyone was safe and kept far away from her. He always knew but it was like he only now realised that Emma was volatile. Unpredictable.

“She's in the ICU,” Daniel confessed as he took a seat opposite her by the dining table. He closed his eyes in an effort to stop himself from feeling the pain yet with his eyes closed, all he could see was his beloved wife hooked up to multiple wires; unconscious. Barely breathing. “Doctors are saying she'll be okay.”

Even though the doctors assurance came as a relief to Daniel, he couldn't help the hurt he felt knowing that she had been hurt. He had allowed her to be hurt. When he had received the call from Pablo saying that she had been shot and critically injured, it had felt like his whole world had come crashing down. He had barely got his pants on as he went rushing past the door, desperate to go see her as if he could save her.

Celeste had talked sense into him; told him that the hospital she was at was too far away and he'd have to wait a few hours until he himself was fully recovered before he could go see her. Plus, Mateo needed at least one of his parents. It was only really Mateo that pulled him through.

For days, Ara had been asleep; that's what he called it. Rather she was in a deep state of unconsciousness. Medically induced coma if you will. Not like the actual scary ones when they didn't know when she'd wake up. She'd be up in a few days. They just needed her body to recover from the blood loss.

He was going through hell and he looked like it. Daniel had never truly been anxious about much. He knew how temporary life on earth was but he had found a good thing and grown attached to it. He wasn't prepared to lose her. Not now. Not ever.

“Of course. The bitch never dies,” she said, not showing the slightest bit of remorse as she rolled her eyes in annoyance. Daniel breathed away his anger for her sake. “And Pablo?” she inquired, “Why isn't he here? Let me guess; he chickened out last minute.”

“It wasn't last minute,” he said as he shook his head. “He's heartbroken; says it's too soon.” Emma's eyes softened at his words, her gaze now full of something akin to remorse. Guilt even. Daniel took the chance to see if he could speak some sense into her. “He loved you, you know that, right?” he said, but she only shook her head in conviction.

“You don't treat people you love like that.”

“It was never a competition,” he tried to say, but Emma remained sure in her beliefs.

“He always chose her,” she said, tears now filling her sorrowful eyes as she looked at her brother. “You always chose her.”

“It wasn't a competition,” Daniel repeated himself, his voice coming out firm as he glared down at his little sister, noting how similar but different they really worry. “If you went through the shit she was going through and needed me like she needed her brother, I would've 100% put you first and she would've supported me. I was fucking awful to her and Pablo was her only fucking rock; her only voice of reason,” aside from Anna, of course, but Emma didn't know Anna. As he reminisced on their past and how it all started, he couldn't help the heavy feeling that had settled in his heart as he thought again of his treatment of her. And she had still stayed. He promised her a good life and instead, she almost dies? “He was never choosing anyone over the other,” he ssid, calmer this time. “He was helping the person that needed the most help at that moment but you're too fucking spoiled to understand that people can't give you all of their attention all the fucking time. Grow the fuck up, Emma.”

“How about you have a brother that absolutely hates you and see how spoiled you think I am then?” she accused, making him let out an unamused chuckle as he tilted his head to the side.

“Tell me why I shouldn't hate you after everything you've done,” he requested, making her narrow her eyes at him in irritation. Why was he not getting it?

“I never did anything wrong to you before and you hated me then.”

“I never told you I hated you.”

“You always acted like it,” she said, unable to hide the anger in her voice as she thought of Daniel's mistreatment of her when she had been younger. “You never liked me from the second I was born. You used to cry when you were around me, Daniel, you fucking despised me.” Who didn't cry and hate their younger sibling when they went from being the only child to the oldest child, he thought. “You moved school because you wanted to be nowhere near me. You hated me.”

“I hated everybody,” Daniel said nonchalantly and even though it was weird, it seemed to make perfect sense for him to hate everybody when he was younger too. “The way I treated you was the way I treated everybody and do you want to know why? No have you ever considered asking me why?” he mocked, making Emma lower her gaze as her voice came out smaller than it had been previously.

“Why?”

“Because I was the black sheep of your family. I was ripped away from my mother, not knowing if I was ever going to see her again and brought into this unfamiliar family where this man that I now had to call my "dad" would beat me if I got the slightest thing wrong. And do you know what really drove the wedge in?” he asked as he struggled to fight back the tears that were beginning to well in his eyes. “The fact that I had to stand there and watch from the sidelines as your mother doted over you and loved you; like my mom was supposed to do yet couldn't.” Daniel's memories took him back to all the times he had had to watch by the edge of the room as Emma's mom would pamper her, kiss her; tell her she loved her. And Lucien, although not being a great father was good to them; the both of them. Emma had a great life while he had a horrible one and they both came from the same fucking family. How funny. “It wasn't about you,” he said quietly this time as he shook his head, “it was never about you.”

“I didn't deserve you hating me though,” she said, tears now falling from her eyes as she glared at him, trying desperately to hate her brother like she thought he hated her. “I deserved none of it.”

“And so what, you think I deserved what I got?” he asked, chuckling because he knew if he didn't try to find the humour in the situation, he would break down and cry. When he felt like this, he'd usually go and hug Araceli and just having her arms around him would make him feel better. Now he couldn't even do that. “You really expect a five year old to regulate themselves well enough to treat you the way you deserve?”

“All I wanted was my big brother,” she hissed out, making Daniel narrow his eyes into a glare at her.

“And all I wanted was my mother,” he said, making her fall silent because who could deny a child its mother? He couldn't help but hope that she was finally realising the severity of what she had done and decided to calm himslef as he spoke to her. “You've been through hell, Emma. I'm not denying that,” he said softly, “but the person that hurt you — hurt us both — was Lucien and you've ended up hurting everybody else in your life to the point where nobody can trust you anymore because of that.”

“You hated me,” she cried as she shook her head. Although it seemed like she was struggling to convince herself that she was in the right and not anybody else. “You hated me.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes at her, his fists clenching under the table; not in anger but frustration at her inability to understand him. No one understood him. No one but her; Araceli.

“Is the fact that I haven't killed you not a show of my love for you?” he asked as he glared at her. “The fact that you had put me, my son and my wife in harms way, almost succeeded in killing her and I haven't even laid a finger on you; nobody's laid a finger on you not show you how much I love you? Is the fact that instead of punishing you like you fucking deserve, I'm leaving you here where all your needs are taken care of for the rest of your life; is that not a show of my love? My fucking mercy?” he asked her before shaking his head in clear disappointment. “Everybody here fucking loves you because if they didn't, they would have shot you dead the second you fired that gun,” he hissed at her. “Araceli is going to wake up tomorrow and probably forgive you for almost fucking killing her because all she's ever felt for you is love. All she ever did was trust you. You're surrounded by love but you're too fucking selfish to see it,” he hissed, making her look down at her hands as tears dripped down from her face. Daniel couldn't allow himself to believe that they were real though. He had been through too much with Emma to trust her again.

“Will I...” she trailed off, reluctant to break the silence that had settled between them. “Will I at least be able to see her when she's born?” she asked, making Daniel look down at her rounded stomach and think about his future niece and her father; Pierre.

When Pierre had learnt about Emma's pregnancy, he had pushed for her to get a paternity test although he seemed extremely confident that he was the father. Turned out that he had been right all along. The results came back and Pierre had been almost guaranteed to have fathered the child Emma was carrying. As if that wasn't enough, it had also came out that Emma had lied about everything. About him forcing himself on her; about being raped.

Pierre never wanted to engage in sex before marriage; not for any religious reasons but to avoid situations like this. Problem was that he really liked Emma and anytime she'd initiate, he'd respond. Everything between them had been consensual and amicable. That meant everything Emma had said had been a lie.

If only she knew how her lying like this to make her seem like a victim made it harder for actual survivors of rape and sexual assault to come out and be taken seriously. If only she knew how her lies affected her own brother.

“Pierre said he has to assess you himself before he can allow you to see her,” he said to which she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Assess me himself bullshit. I'm the one giving birth to her,” she argued but Daniel only narrowed his eyes at her, immediately becoming protective of his unborn niece.

“And you lost the right to her when you attempted to murder Araceli and her unborn child two years ago, lied to us that Pierre had been forcing himself on you, lied to Pablo that it was his child, pointlessly endangered Mateo's life, attempted to kill Araceli and betrayed us,” he said, listing all the horrible things she had done and the reasons why she was a danger to her own child. “You might be the one giving birth to her, but you are no fucking mother and I feel bad for the day she'll have to be told that biologically, you mothered her,” he said, not withholding his anger as he glared at her before he stood up and dusted off his suit. “Now, do you have any other requests?” he asked to which she only stayed silent, making him nod his head and push in his seat. “Then I guess that'll be all.”

He began walking towards the front door when Emma's small voice had made him come to a halt. “I'm sorry.”

He only shook his head at her, a frown settling on his face. “You know it's too late to be sorry,” he said finally before walking out the door, leaving her alone with only her thoughts for company.

***

Guys!!!

I'll be honest, the person I actually wanted to see get shot was Daniel or Pablo but... it didn't make sense to be Daniel because he would've been unconscious and I already have a whole story line for Pablo if he had gotten shot but it wouldn't have been like Emma to shoot Pablo instead of ara.

Anyway, what do yall think about this chapter?

I know I keep saying this, but I wrote more so like there's now one extra chapter but I promise! Even if I have more to write ima just lump it in one chapter and call it day!

I've been slowly rediscovering some of my past works again and some of them are really good. I've been thinking I'm quite a mediocre writer for a while, but iwl seeing some of the things I've written before makes me rethink that. Would you like for me to share some of them with you? Tbh I'm really proud of them.

Also as for SE (Saving Emyra) I'm slowly working my way through writing the chapters and I'll start posting when I have all of HQ posted! I can't wait to share with you Morgan and Derek's story. I promise it may seem like everything in this book already makes sense but when you read their story it'll make even more sense. I hope you guys love it just as much as I do.

Also also! HIS WOMAN IS SO CLOSE TO 1M READS AND IM PRACTICALLY BURSTING AT THE SEEMS IM SO EXCITED! I never thought I would ever be here yet here I am despite it all.

Anyway, I'm going to go and probably write something. Or maybe study for my maths exam. Yeah, I'll do that instead. See yall next week!