Crimson and Gold: A Love Forged in Blood

"No papá, don't leave me!" "Cálmate, mija. You have to be brave, you must go to the safe spot and stay there until me or Miguel come for you. Entender?" "Sí, papá, I understand." Ten year old Estefanía runs as quickly as she can down the long hallway of her family home, stopping to turn and look at her father. He is all she has, he is her entire world. What if she loses him? "Quickly, mija, I'll be right behind you!" Bang. Bang. She hears gunshots as she starts running again. She makes her way down the hallway to the secret bookshelf. She pulls the book of Spanish Proverbs and the shelf slides open. She runs inside the safe room and activates the safe door. She remembers her father's training well. Activate the safe door, activate the safe room, watch the camera for papá or Miguel. She watches all of the cameras and sees papá in the hallway with Miguel. The bad people are in the house and they have papá! Miguel is hiding behind the big cabinet at the top of the staircase waiting for a good shot. She turns up the volume. "Well, well Arturo Vargas. There you are. You're a hard man to track down." The man with the funny accent says. "Cormac, how nice of you to drop by. Now get the f**k out of my house!" The smile fades from Cormac's face. "You and I had a deal, Arturo. You were supposed to give me the Vance deal and in return I let your family live." "That deal belongs to me and now my daughter. You will never see any of that money." Cormac punches papá and squats down beside him. "True, I suppose neither are happening. I don't have my billion dollar deal and you and your precious daughter are dead. You did that all for nothing, Arturo." Papá starts laughing and lifts his head to get in Cormac's face. "You and your filthy dogs will never find her. She is the future and strength of the Vargas family. My daughter will surpass me and grow this business bigger than yours and your stupid son. You may kill me today, but you will never stop her." Estefanía smiles, "You tell them, papá!" She looks at Miguel on the screen and he is aiming his guns at the bad men. Cormac smiles down at papá. "Arturo, that's so sweet how wrong you are." He starts to walk away towards the front door, then stops and turns. "But you were right about one thing. I WILL kill you today." Quicker than she was able to process, Cormac shoots Arturo straight in the head. "No!" Estefanía screams and starts crying. He's gone. Her father is gone. Miguel starts shooting at the bad men taking out three right away. The others grab Cormac and get him out of the house safely shooting back everywhere not finding where the shooter is coming from. He's gone. No, it can't be! Her papá is supposed to be with her forever. Her mamá is dead, and now papá too?! Estefanía cries and cries and soon she's on the floor sleeping. She wakes to someone lifting her from the spot she's cried herself to sleep in. She opens her eyes and sees Miguel carrying her out of the safe room. "Miguel, it's just a bad dream right? Papá isn't really gone! Right?!" "I'm sorry Nia, but it's real. He's gone." His face becomes hard with tears in his eyes. He carries her up the stairs to her bedroom and sits her in her vanity chair. He kneels down in front of her as she startles to men talking downstairs. "Miguel, they're back!" "Cálmate, Nia. It's your father's guards. they were tricked by the bad men to go away from your house but now they're back checking to make sure you'll be safe now." She starts crying again. Miguel gives her a big hug and tries to calm her. "Miguel, what do I do without papá? I don't have a family now." Miguel step back from Estefanía and gives her a stern look. "Your papá always wanted to be with you, but his work is dangerous and he knew someday, something like this would happen and set up a plan in case it did. I am now your legal guardian. I will take care of you and train you just how your papá wanted. Then, when you become of age, you will take over the business." Estefanía stops crying and sniffles. "But what if I'm not strong enough? What if it happens to me, too?" "Mija, your papá and I planned to give you the best training and education so one day you would be very strong and smart. Just like your papá. I'm here to help you, every step of the way, and I will never let anything bad happen to you." Estefanía stares at Miguel and her little sad face becomes angry. "Those bad men are going to pay for what they did to my papá." "That's my girl!" His face softens and he looks at her,"I'm sorry about you papá, mija. I can't imagine what you must be feeling, but you need to use that to make yourself tougher and stronger." Estefanía nods her head. She has to be tough for papà. "Now, are you ready to begin your papás plan?" Estefanía looks at her own face in the mirror of her vanity she's just a small kid, with a sad face. She makes a mean face in the mirror, set on working hard to become what her father wanted her to be. "Yes, Miguel. I'm ready."