Chapter 1

I remember when we were taken like it was yesterday, though I have no idea how long ago it was exactly. I was 8 years old and had a happy life. I lived with my parents, 12-year-old twin brother and sister, Michael and Maisie and my 6-year-old sister Meaghan, my parents had a thing about us all having the same letter at the start of our names. We lived in a big house in Southern California and my life was perfect until, one awful day, everything changed. It was spring break and Maisie, Meaghan and I were playing in the garden in our swimsuits, Michael was on his PlayStation while Mum was baking and Dad was at work. Suddenly we heard a huge commotion followed by screaming, before we had a chance to react 3 masked men came into the garden and grabbed me and my sisters, we tried to fight and scream but we were all small and easily overpowered. As they were dragging us inside I heard a noise I’d never forget, a noise that would wake me from my sleep screaming for years to come, a noise that I discovered a few moments later was a gunshot. As we got inside I screamed out for my Mum and looked around for her but couldn’t see her anywhere, what I did see will haunt me forever. On the kitchen floor, with half his head missing, surrounded by a growing pool of blood around his head, was my dead brother, his misty eyes staring up at the ceiling. The sight made me start to vomit, I knew the moment Meaghan saw him as the blood-curdling scream was like nothing I had ever heard before. The masked men continued carrying us through the house and out the front door, across the front yard, before throwing us into a black panel van and getting in themselves, the door was then slid shut and the van took off at speed. I remember having a quick glimpse of my Mum while a gag was forced into my mouth then a hood was placed over my head and my wrists and ankles were tied together. I lay on the floor of the van sobbing and terrified. I have no idea how long we drove for, it felt like days to me but was probably only hours. I felt the engine of the van shut off then heard the sliding door open. I was picked up and carried before being dropped onto a hard surface. The hood was ripped off my head and the rope was cut from my wrist and ankles. As my eyes adjusted to the light I saw my Mum was also laying on the floor, I jumped up and ran to her, as did my sisters. Mum cuddled us tight while trying to reassure us everything would be ok.

Over the next few days Mum and Maisie kept trying to find out what was going on but no one would tell us. We were fed and taken to the bathroom but that was it, Maisie, Meaghan and I were still in our swimsuits and felt very vulnerable around all the men, most wore masks and all of them carried guns. They were all dark-skinned with black hair so Mum guessed we were in Central or South America somewhere, maybe Mexico but she couldn’t be sure. We’d been there about a week when a very smartly dressed man arrived, he introduced himself as The General. He set up a video camera and recorded us before looking at the camera himself.

‘If you don’t do what you promised then you will never see your pretty wife and children again. Your daughters are very beautiful, just imagine what we could do to them. You have one week.’ He spoke with a thick accent, directly into the camera. Once he’d turned the camera off he explained what was going on, I think more to scare us than anything else. My Dad was a district attorney, turns out he was a corrupt district attorney. He’d been working with this Mexican cartel for years but decided he no longer wanted to work for them. The smartly dressed man explained that he had taken us and killed my brother as a warning and that, as long as my Dad did what he was asked, then we would be returned unharmed. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but Mum kept reassuring us it would all be ok.

It was another week before the General came back in, and stood in front of us.

‘Your Dad came through, he did what he was asked.’ He explained in his thick accent. We were all relieved, Mum cuddled us together, we all thought this ordeal was finally over. ‘However, he disrespected me, I can’t let that go or others will think they can try it.’

I felt my heart sinking as I realized this ordeal was probably only just beginning. The man then threw a large envelope on the floor which Mum picked up, opened and remove the contents. She gasped and tried to hide it from us but we all saw what was in the envelope, it was photos of the gruesome way in which my father had been brutally murdered.