His Promise: The Mafia’s Babies by C. Tamika
Chapter 251

Chapter 251

Chapter 251

Elena

Hi Lena,

It’s good to talk to someone from San Diego.

It took me some time to get back, and I would like to apologize for that, but I’m a bit shocked.

This is not quite what I meant when I said I needed someone to talk to, and I’m a bit confused as towhy you would send me a prison riddle,’ but so be it.

You asked me if I knew what kind of bars

won’t keep a prisoner in jail.

The answer to that corny question is obviously chocolate bars. Even though the riddle was a bit weak,the intentions were definitely there, and you’ve caught my attention.

I think it’s only fair for me to ask you something in return. I was very intrigued by not only your way oftalking but also your use of emojis, so I just have to ask. How old are you?

Marvin

“W-what?” I mumbled, confused. I almost fell from my bed and rubbed my eyes to see whether I wasdreaming or not.

It was still early. Of course, I was dreaming. This couldn’t be real. I reached beside me to turn on mylamp before I took another look at my phone.

No matter how many times I read the message, it was still there. That Marvin guy from the pen palprogram had really sent me something in return. I had forgotten all about him, and two weeks hadalready passed.

“What!” I gasped as I read through the message for what would’ve been the fifth time. This was the firsttime I interacted with someone in prison, and I could hardly believe it. “What the fuck.”

I dialed Victoria’s number and waited for her to answer the phone. “Come on, come on.” I whispered.

“Lena?” Victoria spoke. I let out a relieved breath and didn’t know where to start. “Tori, he hasanswered!” 1 yelled out. “The Marvin prison guy from the bet actually replied, and his message is kindof rude, actually a bit terrifying-but that doesn’t really matter, because he honestly answered, and Idon’t know what the hell I have to do now and-”

“Calm down!” Victoria stopped me from talking before she let out a squeal. “Hold up, he replied?”

“Yes!”

“Oh my god!”

“I know!”

“So, what are you going to do?” Victoria wondered. I hadn’t even thought about that, and we hadn’teven expected him to reply. “I don’t know!” I stressed. “Do I write him back? Do I ignore him? What do Ido!”

“Write him back, of course!”

This was all some kind of adventure for Tori. We lived in an extremely brave neighborhood where thechances of meeting someone who had gone to prison were about zero to one.

“Tori, are you serious?” I frowned. “Yes!” Tori spoke and let out another squeal. “Wait, what did he say?Read the message!”

“O-okay.”

I read Tori the message and cringed even more after reading it out loud. My message sounded soembarrassing, but it was only because I had no idea he would actually reply.

“Oh no!” Tori laughed out loud. “He’s definitely making fun of you, and he probably thinks you’re likefifteen.”

“I know. “I sulked in embarrassment. Something inside of me told me that it was necessary to reply, butonly so I could clear up our misunderstanding. It probably didn’t even matter because it wasn’t as if Iwould hear from him ever again. “Tori, what do I say?”

“Just end the conversation on a good note, Tori told me. “Thank him for replying and tell him that it wasall a stupid bet and that you wish him the best

“Good plan!”

“Don’t hang up. I’ll send something right now.”

I took my time to type my response and read it out loud for Tori.

Dear Marvin,

Yes, the answer is chocolate bars, but I must say, you’ve hurt my feelings ||

To be honest, this started as a bet, and I didn’t even know you would reply. I promise you I’m notalways like this, and I also don’t make corny jokes in real life!

I’m 21, by the way (almost 22)

I’m sorry for my use of emojis, but I just can’t help myself

Anyway, I’m so sorry for bothering you, but now that you’ve actually replied, it means we can all let thisrest!

Thanks for the reply, and wishing you all the best!

Lena

“See,” Tori spoke. “That wasn’t that difficult, now was it?”

“Should I send it?” I asked. I had the urge to keep this in my drafts and to delete his message. “Youshould!” Tori encouraged me. “You have nothing to lose, and it’s a polite thing to reply.”

“Okay,” I spoke with closed eyes as I carefully pressed send. “Wait!” Tori suddenly called out. “Youdidn’t add any emojis this time, right?”

“Shit!”

“Oh my god.” Victoria sighed, disappointed. “You aren’t making it any easier for yourself.”

I buried my face between my hands and prepared myself for disaster. The plan was to end theconversation, not to start another one. “What do I do if he replies?”

“Leave him hanging, of course.” Victoria snickered. “Wait, don’t tell me you’re actually anticipating hisreply?” She spoke. “Lena, this guy is a felon—”

“Of course I’m not!” I denied her accusations. “And just so you know, you’re the one who told me toreply.”

“Yes, so you could end the conversation,” Tori told me. “Anyway, I have to go-I have this importantbusiness meeting, and I can’t be late.”

Of course, Victoria was busy.

Unlike me, she had an actual job and didn’t have time to play around on some stupid website. “It’s fine,Victoria, I told her. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Works for me, bye!”

“Works for me, bye!” I mimicked in a childish tone. I didn’t know whether I was jealous of Victoria orwhether I wanted to be her. I made my way out of bed and put on my wool robe before I wentdownstairs.

I had never mentioned the program to my dad, and it was a good thing I hadn’t. He would’ve gottenpoor Marvin thrown into solitary if he knew he’d answered. I didn’t even want to start about my brother.If my dad was crazy, Alex was absolutely nuts.

I made my way to the kitchen to look for my dad, but I couldn’t replace him. Today was his day off, and if hewasn’t at work, you could always replace him in the kitchen behind his laptop.

I remember how he used to spend his day off with Maddens, but a lot had changed in four years.“Dad!”

“He’s not here. Strange.” I whispered to myself as I turned around to make my way to his office. “Dad!”1 knocked on the door and waited for his reply.

Maybe he was too busy today?

I was just about to walk away before I decided to wait it out. What if he had dropped dead in his office?

“Dad, I’m coming in!” I spoke one more time. I still didn’t get a reply, so I opened the door and almostdropped my jaw as I looked at my dad. He was fast asleep with his head glued against his desk.

“Dad?” I whispered and stepped forward. I shook his shoulder and watched as he slowly raised hishead. “Hmm, I must’ve fallen asleep.” He mumbled. He wasn’t his usual cheerful self, which made mebelieve whatever happened at work was something serious. It had to be if it had kept him awake for theentire night.

“Dad, you’ve been working the entire night-haven’t you?” I spoke disappointed. “And what’s with theeye- bags? Did you even sleep?”

My dad rubbed his eyes and gave me a confused look. His look told me, where am I? Who am I? Whatam I even doing here?

“No,” He yawned. “I’ve been up all night, trying to replace something against the Castillo cartel, but I’vefailed.” He breathed. “And now, because of our failure, the son of our biggest piece and Madden’s killerwill be walking out soon.”

“Jeez I frowned. “Sounds serious.”

“Because it is serious.” My dad got into the story. He loved talking about crimes, and he neededsomeone to listen, and unfortunately, I was that someone. “The DEA are making a big mistake.” Heshared. “They want to work with our biggest enemies to take down another group, the Hernandez,while the real killer is right in front of our eyes.”

“These people…..they are slowly taking over the state as if it’s nothing.” He ranted. “They’re up to nogood, and the worst thing is that they’re amongst us. They are our neighbors, our friends, our-

“Can I see him?” I interrupted my dad. “You know….the man that did this to Maddens, I’ve never seenhim before.”

I was not going to lie. Hearing those people were amongst us did scare me a little. “You’re right.” Mydad pointed out as he opened his desk and pulled out a map.

“Even though information like this was supposed to be top secret, you should know what they look like,just in case you happen to catch one of them on the streets.” He spoke enthusiastically and opened the

map.

“This right here!”

He pressed his finger on top of the picture of two men and stared at me with big eyes. “These areVictor Vives and Pedro Vidal, Aka Panther.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “These are the assholeswho had a big part in letting M. Castillo walk out free.”

“M. Castillo,” I whispered. It was a name I had often heard at dad’s job. “Are there two M. Castillo’s?” 1wondered. My dad nodded his head and flipped the page. “This is the head of the cartel.” He pointedout. “This is Mario Castillo, and the other one is his son.”

“Oh.” I forced a smile on my face. I already regretted getting into it. I knew my dad was still hurtingbecause of Maddens, but this obsession was going too far.

“And this right here,” My dad continued as he prepared himself to flip over the page. “This is his son, M-

“Here you guys are!” My brother Alex spoke as he walked through the door with a bag full of groceries.My dad quickly closed the map and placed it back into the drawer while Alex looked back and forthbetween

“Dad, you know she can’t see that.” Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He had different thoughts from mybrother and did not want me to get involved. He believed that the information the DEA provided wasmeant to be kept top secret, and even though my dad was his superior, he was not afraid to go against

him.

“She has the right to know, Alex.” My dad spoke. This had always been a sensitive subject for both ofthem. It wasn’t only because of Maddens but also because of my mom, who had abandoned us to bewith some villain. I was five years old, so I didn’t remember much, but Alex was ten, and it took a longtime for him to get over it.

Even until now, he still felt the need to protect me-just like my dad, but their ways were a bit different.“Too bad,” I shrugged to ease the tensions and patted Alex on his shoulder.

“I was just about to see M. Castillo, but it looks like he’ll have to wait.”

I walked past Alex and left my dad’s office. It wasn’t even a second before dad and Alex startingarguing like always.

“Home sweet home,” I whispered to myself and made my way upstairs, but I froze on the steps when Ilooked at my phone and saw that I had a notification.

How could it be?

It couldn’t be

How was it possible to get a response this quickly? The site had convinced me that it took severalhours before the email would get to the prisoner and a few more days for me to get a response.

I didn’t even know these people had access to the internet.

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From M. Romero