I strode back to the manor like fire was on my heels. My whole body had stiffened with rage and with a mission. I threw open the French doors, letting them slam into the wall and made a beeline for the nursery. The guards looked confused to see me this time of night and questioned me.
"The children are all asleep right now, what are you doing?"
I met the man's confused eyes with my rageful ones.
"I am collecting the remnants of my pack and we are going back north, right now."
The guards looked back and forth between each other. The younger one turned back to me and tried to reason with me, voice empathetic.
"Luna Liana, it's the dead of night. You can't possibly make it back north on your own with almost thirty kids. Let them sleep, please."
I glowered at the man and went to step around him through the nursery doors. Both guards moved to stop me when a familiar voice sounded from behind me.
"Liana, what the hell are you doing?"
I met the tired old eyes of Frankford Turner, both hands raised in the dark of the hallway as he tried to understand what was happening.
"Frankford, I am leaving right now. I am taking my kids with me and we're going back the fuck home. You can help me, you can try to stop me, but I am leaving one way or another."
He eyed me for a second in the darkness. My voice had been calmer when I spoke to him than when I had the guards. He scanned my eyes and cursed aloud in the darkness. Finally, he touched my shoulder in a grandfatherly manner and made me look at him.
"You just talked to Val?"
I didn't answer him. Just hearing her name made me enraged. My silence was all the answer he needed and he nodded his head. He gestured for the guards to open the door. They looked horrified at his order but did so, pushing the wooden double doors open and allowing me to enter. Frankford followed behind me as I headed for the older kids' rooms first.
When I woke Donte he jumped up from the bed, startled.
"Liana?"
I hugged him to my chest, adrenaline flooding my body. Making the way up North was truly dangerous and something in my head was screaming that if I didn't leave quickly, I would somehow become wrapped up in the Valeriano's shit again.
"Come on, get the kids. We're leaving."
Donte blinked away his sleep with a disoriented shake of his head. Then he locked eyes on me in the dark where I had moved three rows down and started to wake Emerald. I tried to be quiet, so as to let the rest of the kids sleep in peace.
"Liana, are we really leaving?"
I turned back to face him, nodding. He didn't look afraid. He stood up from his bed quickly and moved to wake the next oldest kids first. Frankford had picked two of the littlest ones up in his arms. We made quick work of it, collecting the lot of them. I counted all twenty five heads as we rushed down the hallways and out to the back lot where they had travel cars of all kinds.
Frankford met my eyes seriously.
"You should take a van. Throw the kids in the back."
I stared at him, eyes hard as Donte questioned bluntly for me.
"Will Val and Liam follow us if we take a van."
Frankford raised his hands in the air and shrugged. Donte shrugged in return and held a hand out for the keys. Frankford pulled a pair from his back pocket and carefully put them in my hand. He scanned my face one last time and spoke with only adoration.
"These are for my van, you can take it. Anyone tries to argue about going after you, they'll answer me first and I'll try to tell them off."
Another voice sounded from the backdoor of the house, prompting all of us to stare worriedly back at the mansion. My blood was racing. I didn't know how long I had to escape. How long until she stopped me. How long until Liam convinced her to stop me. I shuddered just at the thought of what Rosaura could do.
"You're leaving."
For once, Jesse didn't look sarcastic. His blue eyes scanned me and the small boy in my arms and then his uncle. Donte tilted his head in confusion.
"Who's he?"
Jesse walked up to us quickly, taking the keys from Frankford for me and clicking them to unlock the van. Without a word, he started leading the kids over to the back of it, pulling the doors open. I followed him, gesturing for all of them to get in. Donte followed suit, loading kids into the back with Jesse.
I turned back to Frankford with paranoid eyes, glancing back every other minute at the back door of the building. Finally, the old man pulled me to him and hugged me. He looked and sounded calm. He let me go and met my eyes.
"You're the only thing I'm going to miss about this place."
Frankford smiled sadly and shook his head.
"No, I'm not. But I love you too, kid."
In my fear, I didn't understand what he meant. When all the kids were loaded, the van doors shut behind them and Jesse was at our side again.
"We're leaving right now, right?"
I turned to Jesse like he had lost his mind. Frankford turned with a raised brow too. Donte broke the silence first, meeting his question with a genuine lack of understanding.
"Seriously Liana, who the hell is he?"
I ignored Donte's question confused, scanning Jesse's face for some glint of humour or sarcasm or something only to find him looking back like he'd only asked what was for lunch. I questioned him seriously, glancing back at the backdoor again, shoulders so tense I felt like exploding.
"Jesse don't fuck with me, I don't have time for this-"
He cut me off, sarcasm returning with full force.
"So then all this standing here staring at me is super helpful for you then? Are you deaf? I said I'm coming with you, now. Do you even know how to drive Liana?"
His sarcasm snapped me back to reality and I sighed, nodding and running a hand through my damp creek-infested hair. Frankford turned to Jesse and eyed him the way a man does when his only son decides to leave in the dead of night on a whim.
"Jesse, don't just do this spontaneously. Think. Is this really what you wanna do?"
Jesse turned to Frankford, an inch taller than the old man and crushed him into a giant bear hug. Frankford's eyes were the side of sauce plates and he patted Jesse's back awkwardly. When Jesse pulled back, he kissed the old man on the cheek and started walking around to the driver side of the car.
I said goodbye to Frankford one last time and ushered for Donte to get into the middle seat up front and took the passenger right beside him. I checked the rearview mirror both to see if the Valeriano's were hot on our heels and to lock eyes with an alert and focused Emerald in the backseat. She met my eyes with affirmation and refocused her attention to tending for the kids in the cramped trunk of the car.
Right as we pulled off with the screech of the tires loud in the night, Donte slumped back in the seat in confusion. I ruffled his hair like usual and he asked again, completely bewildered.
"Liana, who even is this guy?"