TERESA'S POV

“Tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” Louisa’s voice suddenly cut into my thoughts. Her eyes narrowed in displeasure as they locked on the wallet that I held in my hand.

“I thought you would have thrown that away by now,” she said as she sat down on her bed, opposite mine.

“I can’t,” I replied, opening the wallet, and looking at the picture that always made my heart race. “It has sentimental value.”

“You stole that wallet from a man who was nice to us, and now you feel bad?” she asked me and I rolled my eyes, turning away to her while my fingers stroked his picture.

The wallet belonged to Stefano Dante, he hadn’t told me his name that night but it was here, written in bold capital letters. I could still remember the night I had met him.

I had snuck out of the convent on one of my nightly escapades and Louisa had followed me because she wanted to ‘protect me’. We had ended up at a club and that was where I met him.

I could still remember the electric pull of his golden eyes, the way his hands had felt around my waist as he danced with me.

I could still remember the kiss, no matter how much I tried, I could not forget that kiss. How hot his breath had felt on my face, how tightly he had held my head to his, how his tongue assaulted my mouth and—-

“Teresa!!” Louisa called out suddenly. I sighed as I folded back the wallet and turned to her.

“What is it?” I asked, knowing where this was going.

“Do you even know that Sister Lena found out that we had gone out that night?”

“No way,” I replied sarcastically.

“I am serious Teresa, I had to beg her not to report us to Mother superior. Are you not scared that someone might catch you with that wallet?”

“I hide my stuff well, and besides, who cares if mother superior finds out that I snuck out. What is the worst she can do? Kick me out of the convent? Besides, we just went out to have a little fun,” I shrugged nonchalantly.

“You remember that we are supposed to be nuns, right? We can’t exactly keep sneaking into clubs and stealing from people.”

“Oh my goodness, can you give it a rest already?” she had been going on about this and it was getting draining.

“I can’t give it a rest because you don’t learn from your mistakes, what if the man you stole from finds us somehow, he seemed like a powerful person.”

I rolled my eyes, “there is no way that can happen besides—”

My words were cut off as I heard a loud bang, like something had exploded.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, immediately panicking, and Louisa still managed to give me a disapproving look for cussing, even as she shot out of bed.

We rushed to the door immediately, pressing our ears against it, trying to listen, and then we heard shouts of panic.

My amused expression turned to worry as I tried to figure out what was going on.

“Don’t allow anyone to get away!!” I heard a man yell, followed by several screams.

“We have to find the girl,” another voice shouted as we heard several screams coming from our fellow sisters.

“I think we are under attack,” Louisa whispered to me, her hands shaking in fear.

“We need to go out there and help them,” I said, thinking of what those men could do to the other sisters outside.

“What can you do?” Louisa asked, reaching for my hand and holding my hands tightly.

“Let us first find a way to run away, and then we can call for help,” she said, pulling me away from the door and towards the room window.

She was opening the window when the door to our room suddenly burst open and three armed men stormed in.

“Now what do you both think you are doing?” they asked us, and I turned to Louisa with horror in my eyes.

“Get down from there now, or it will be the last thing you do,” one of the men said, pointing a gun at our heads.

I didn’t even have to think about it, I just raised my hands up in surrender and climbed down to the floor where they stood.

“Good girls,” they smiled as they dragged Louisa and me out.

We were taken downstairs to find everyone in the building gathered in the common room, all the other nuns sitting down with their hands where they could be observed.

This did not make any sense to me.

If this was a robbery, what did all these men stand to gain by robbing a fucking convent?

“Who is the mother superior among all of you?” a man that I assumed to be the leader of the armed men asked.

“I… I am,” mother superior said, raising her hand. Even though she tried to act calm, she was visibly shaking.

“Please tell me what you want from us. Surely we can’t have anything of value to offer,” she said, looking at him.

“Oh you have something of great value hidden here,” he replied, moving closer to her.

“Which of the girls here is Teresa Ellis,” he asked her, and I went cold immediately, exchanging a look with Louisa.

I am Teresa.

“We don’t have anyone like that in here,” mother superior lied, and I stayed silent with my heart racing in fear.

Who exactly were these men?

Why did they want me?

Was Dante behind this? He was the only person powerful enough to pull this off. Was he really pulling this stunt because I stole his wallet?

“I don’t like being lied to,” the man said, stepping closer to where she sat. Without warning, he grabbed her shirt and pulled her up.

“Now, I am going to ask again who the fuck is Teresa Ellis?” he asked her again, and she stayed quiet, a stubborn glow in her eyes.

“You really don’t learn, do you?” he whispered and then one of his men pointed a gun to her head.

“You have five seconds to tell me which of these girls is Teresa or I will kill them off one by one,” he warned, and as he spoke, one of his men fired a gun into the air, making us all scream.

I turned to Louisa, knowing what I was going to do. I could not let any of those girls die because of me. We had grown up together, each of them were my sisters, and I was not going to let anyone hurt them.

My palms were shaky with anxiety as I looked up at the man. I wondered what he was going to do when I revealed myself.

“Five…” the man announced loudly, looking around the room, and just as I was about to stand up, Louisa grabbed my shaky hands and held me down.

“What do you think you are doing?” she whispered, looking annoyed.

“Let go Louisa, I have to stand up, or he is going to kill everybody,” I whispered back to her, trying to pull away my arm from her strong grip.

“No… I can’t let you do that. What if he kills you?” she asked me, worry reflected in her brown eyes.

“Three…” the man called, adding to our tension.

I gave her an encouraging smile and pulled her hand off, ready to stand up, but Louisa beat me to it.

“I am Teresa Ellis,” she said, standing up, facing the man confidently.

Was she crazy?

“What? No, I am Teresa,” I protested, standing up. There was no way I was going to let her get taken by these men.

“So we have two Teresas, is that right?” the leader asked, looking between both of us.

“I am Teresa, she is just doing this to protect me,” I said to the man, sounding desperate.

“No I am,” Louisa said defensively.

“Since both of you want to play games with me, I think I should teach you a lesson,” the man said, stepping closer to where I stood.

“Vander, shoot one of them,” the man said coldly, his eyes not leaving mine, and before I could say a word, he pulled a girl up from the crowd and shot her.

I screamed as I witnessed what happened. The surrounding girls rallied over to her side, trying to stop her bleeding.

I looked at Louisa with tears in my eyes. She should just have let me tell these men who I was, now, the girl was dying.

“I am going to ask everyone here one last time, who the hell is Teresa Ellis?” the leader yelled again.

“It is her!!!” one of the girls shouted, pointing directly at me. I turned to the girl to find defeated tears in her eyes. I knew that it wasn’t because she wanted to sell me out, but because she could not stand to see anyone else get hurt.

“So you are the impostor then,” the leader said, glaring at Louisa, who stared back at him stoically.

“Yes, I am Teresa, can you leave everyone else alone?” I said to him, tears falling over my cheeks uncontrollably. The leader continued to stare at Louisa like he expected her to apologize and beg for her life or something.

Which she should have been doing.

“Because you had the audacity to lie to me, one of your sisters will soon die,” he said, facing the girls.

“You have found the girl, can’t you just leave us alone already?” mother superior asked him, a broken look in her eyes.

“I suppose I could,” the man replied to her with a small smile. “But before I leave, I should drop a parting gift, don’t you think?”

What in the hell did he mean by that?

I figured it out quickly when he pressed a gun to Louisa’s chest and then fired.