Rose's Point Of View
The silence on the other end of the line was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experienced. It wasn't merely an absence of noise; it was the sound of a world shattering, a mother's reality crumbling in real time. I could hear the distant hum of an Italian morning… perhaps a moped puttering past or a bird chirping in the Mediterranean sunshine, and then, the unmistakable sound of a phone nearly slipping from trembling fingers.
"What?" Aunt Rita's voice emerged as a fragile, broken reed, barely holding together. "What did you just say, Rose? What happened to my daughter? Say it again. Please, tell me I heard you wrong."
My throat constricted with a mixture of bile and tears. I squeezed my eyes shut against the morning sun in Texas, which felt like a spotlight illuminating my complete and utter failure. My hands shook as I gripped the phone tighter. "Auntie... Seraphina was kidnapped last night. Right in front of the estate. Two men... they just took her."
