Our car stops and I look out the window to notice the familiar beautiful venue.
A guard helps us out to which I quickly thank him in Portuguese. Carter walks round to my side whilst I hold Alannah's hand. I would give everything to be able to pick her up right now. But unfortunately dad told me I was not allowed till atleast half way through the night, I have no reason why.
The paparazzi start taking our photos and a guard has to help us inside. Carter picked Alannah up so she wasn't hurt by the paparazzi and we head inside.
When we get inside Claudia, Arabella, dad and Marco were already there waiting for us. Carter puts Alannah down and she holds my hand as we walks towards the hall. "Are you ready?" Carter asks and I take a deep breath.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I say and he kisses my forehead.
We get announced and we walk on to the stairs into a formation. Our parents behind us then me and Carter then Alannah in front of us.
I stiffen as I quickly notice Jax but I look away back to the camera man.
Carter puts his hand on my lower back and we smile as the camera man takes a photo.
I'm just glad Alannah hasn't noticed Jax yet.
Carter notices my discomfort as he invites Alannah to go and dance. He kisses my cheek and takes Alannah as far away from Jax as possible.
I wasn't stood there awkwardly for to long as Claudia called me over to where she was talking to someone.
"Hello." I say smiling softly at them.
"You must be Lara it's a pleasure to finally meet the last Fernandez." She says and I smile at her.
"Thank you that's very kind." I say and she nods.
"Lara this is Emma, shes a very high up worker in one of your dad's businesses. Shes lovely." She says and I smile.
"Its nice to meet you." I say and she nods.
Claudia introduces me to quite a few people and I was in the middle of a conversation when I heard someone shout Jax's name. Except I know it wasn't just anyone.
"Sorry excuse me." I say smiling and walk over to where I see Carter standing with Jax.
I look at Carter with wide eyes and he just looks at me with apologetic and sympathetic eyes but I plaster a fake smile on.
"Gio, how are you?" I ask giving him a hug once I finally get to them.
"I'm good, you look amazing." He says once we pull away from the hug.
I step back to Carters side where he puts his hand on my lower back for the constant reassurance that I'm going to need.
"You must be Lara." The girl joint to Gio's side says. I smile at her and nod my head softly.
"Lara this is Amara, my girlfriend." He says and my eyes light up. Gio finally got a girlfriend?
"No way oh my god finally Gio jesus!" I say smiling at him. A cough interfers us.
"What did I miss?" A guy says and we look over to the guy now standing beside Jax.
"And you must be Lara." He says kissing my hand.
"And that is Matteo." Gio says when I retrieve my hand. I nod slowly confused and look up at Carter.
"Uh I'm sure you guys already know Carter." I say and they nod.
"Its nice to officially meet you guys." Carter says and they nod.
I look at Alannah who was still in Jax's arms. They looked lovely together but I can't even comprehend how annoyed I am right now.
"This is a beautiful venue." Amara says looking around.
"Yeah it's been in the family for centuries." Carter says and she smiles looking around.
"Sorry but you guys look very similar are you related?" Carter asks and I look at Amara and then Matteo.
"Twins." Matteo says and I smile softly.
"That's so cool." I say and they nod.
"How have you been?" Jax asks looking from Alannah to me. I scoff and ignore his question and turn to Carter.
"Ah Ricci's it's nice to see you here." Dad says shaking Jax's hand.
"Thank you for having us, this is beautiful." Amara says and he smiles.
"Vovô." Alannah says turning around.
"This is Jax." She says and he nods.
"I'm glad you got to see him before your birthday." Dad says and she smiles.
"I want to dance." She demands making me smile.
"Come on." Dad says taking Alannah from Jax and heading over to dance.
"You look amazing." Jax says and I nod.
"I'm aware thank you." I say and he looks at me stunned.
"I love her." Matteo says.
"Well come on then we still need to talk to a few people." Carter says and I nod.
"Wait sorry, I know this is completely insensitive but I was wondering if I could dance with Lara." Matteo says and I look at Carter confused. He doesn't answer he just shrugs.
"I guess so." I say and he smiles and quickly downs his champagne and hands his empty glass to Jax. He takes my hand and leads me away from the group and to the dance floor, making me do a twirl which made me smile.
"Can you dance?" He asks and I scoff.
"I can indeed." I say and he smiles.
"Good we don't have to do that awkward sway thing." He says and I smile.
He puts his one arm around my waist whilst holding my other hand. I then put my free hand on his shoulder as a slower song starts to play.
"Ready?" He questions and I smile and nod.
We start of by dancing around the ball room in a sort of circular motion, quite slowly.
"I'm very happy I got to meet the girl who broke my cousins heart." He says and then spins me around.
Why? That's so weird.
"It wasn't intentional, it was his fault." I say as my hand reconnect with his shoulder.
"I am aware, I've heard the story." He says moving our hands up to his shoulders so now both of my hands were on his shoulders. He smiles at me before then leaning me backwards and down.
Once I come back up he smiles at me. We reconnect our hands and I put my free hand on his shoulder and his hand meets my waist again. We then start dancing around in circular motions again.
"I'm sorry for my cousisn actions. Hopefully now he's the boss, he'll behave better." Matteo says and I smile.
"It doesn't matter anymore. I wish him all the best in everything he does now but I don't really care what he does." I say and he smiles before twirling me around and then lowering me as the music stops.
"You have a kind heart Lara. I'm glad I got to meet you." He says standing me back up. I smile and thank him as he walks me over to Carter.
"Thank you Lara." He says kissing my hand again.
"It was lovely to meet you Matteo." I say and he smiles and heads back over to Jax.
I look over to see Alannah now dancing on my dads toes.
"Now can I dance with you?" Carter asks and I smile.
"I suppose." I say sarcastically as he takes my hand.
I put my arms around Carters neck whilst he let's his arms fall down to my waist.
"You're doing amazing at this so far." He says and I smile up at him.
"Jax hasn't stopped staring at you all evening." He says and I roll my eyes but before I could say anything a gunshot erupts through the crowd along with screens. Carter covers me with his body making sure I'm fine.
"We need to get out of here." He says grabbing my hand. "Wheres Alannah?" I ask looking around. "She should be with your dad." He says rushing me up the stairs and out of the building.
I stand outside of the venue nervously whilst looking around for any sight of Alannah or my dad. It had cleared up by the time dad and Marco came out.
"What happened?" Carter asks straight away but that isn't my concern.
"Where's Alannah?" I ask and he looks around.
"She's supposed to be with you?" He questions and I start to get worried.
"Last time I saw Alannah she was dancing with you." I say and he shrugs.
I rush back inside
"Lara it's not safe." Carter calls behind me but I really don't care.
I run inside and I was rushing around the halls looking for Alannah. I run to the toilets in hope she was there. But unfortunately she wasn't.
I looked literally everywhere but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. I look around the hall again but there was still no sign of her.
No.
Why is this happening?
"Alannah!" I scream and then start to cry. I collapse on the floor as I cry our for Alannah. I hold my chest as it begins to ache from the pain of losing Alannah.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I immediately look up hoping it was Alannah, but it was just Jax.
"I can't find her." I tell him and he crouched down beside me.
"I'll help you." He says but I shake my head.
"I've looked everywhere, shes not here." I say and he sighs and hugs me.
I then broke down in his arms. If I can't find her I don't know what I'll do. I promised to protect her and shes gone. Shes not here anymore, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.
"Lara." I hear Carter say. I quickly wipe my eyes and turn around.
"Have you found her?" I ask hopeful and he looks down at the floor.
"You need to get out of here Lara. Is she doesn't show up by morning then we'll do something about it." Carter says and I furrow my eyebrows.
"How can you say that? You loved her just as much as I did. I need to find her now Carter. You know what will happen if I don't." I say and he sighs.
"I'll get them to do a sweep of the building tonight, but you need to get out of here." He says and I shake my head no.
"She was the only child here, she shouldn't be that hard to find." I say.
"Wrap up in here and meet me out the front and we'll come up with a plan." He says pointing at Jax, Gio, Amara and Matteo.
"Come on." Jax says helping me up. I stand there scanning the building from this angle looking for something, anything. I notice something near the top of the stairs.
I rush to the top of the stairs when I see her flower head band. I pick it up and turn around to see them looking at me confused. When Jax notices.
"Oh my god she was wearing this tonight." He says and I nod.
"It could of just come off her head as she got rushed out. Right?" I question as Jax's eyes widen.
"What?" I question taking the headband from his hands. I examine it and see the blood on it.
"Oh my god." I say and he takes the headband and passes it to Gio.
"Come on lets get you out of here." Jax says and but I stand still.
"Lara come on." He says turning back to see my eyes filled with tears.
"I promised no one would hurt her again." I say covering my mouth with my hand. Jax sighs and signals for the other three to head out.
"Lara listen to me." He says grabbing my wrists. I look up to him shocked, his grip was firm but it didn't hurt me.
"You need to get out of here. There's a chance something could happen if you don't. Now if Alannah has been kidnapped then something happening to you is just going to make it worse. So you need to go home and you need to wait for Alannah to come home. If she doesn't, I promise you, I will help you find her. I don't care what it takes." He says but I don't meet his eyes.
"Hey look at me." He says taking one of his hands of my wrists and putting his hand on my chin to look up at him.
"You know I keep my promises. So don't you give up on me yet." He says and wipes away one of my tears.
"We're going to find her." He says and I sigh.
"Come on, I'll walk you back to Carter." He says and we slowly walk over there.
Once I get back to Carter he smiles at me sympathetically. I mutter a goodbye before getting in the car to head home.
On the way home Carter informed on what had happened at the event. He told me that the Russians shot someone, that someone we were not aware of. Apparently dad and Marco are in the office right now waiting for an email back to ask what had happened.
Once we get home I ask if Alannah had been brought here yet, unfortunately she hadn't. I sit on the stairs just staring at the door, hoping and waiting for Alannah.
"Lara what are you doing on the stairs?" Arabella asks as she takes the first step.
"Waiting." I say and she nods.
"We'll find her." She says and kisses my forehead before saying a Goodnight and heading up the stairs.
"Its going to be a long night sweetheart you should go to bed." Claudia says as she takes off her earrings.
"I just want to wait for her to walk through those doors." I say and she sighs and sits beside me.
"I could never imagine losing a child." She says and I sigh.
"I never had kids, not because I didn't want to but because I never met that person. Then when I met your father, we were sort of past that age." She says and I glance up at her.
"So what I'm trying to say is that I couldn't imagine the pain you're experiencing. Its only been an hour or so and hopefully she'll turn up. But until then I couldn't imagine that pain you're feeling." She says and I smile slightly at her.
"I know I'm not your mother, but if you want to talk to me about this or about anything you can. You're an amazing girl and you've done an amazing job at bringing Alannah up on your own. I can only hope to be as strong as you are." She says and I put my head on her shoulder.
"I'm not strong. I push everything away and put Alannah's needs infront of my own all the time. I know it's the wrong thing to do but once you start you can't stop. So I push everything and everyone away to look strong for her. I feel miserable all the time, but I don't act it. But when Alannah is in my arms asleep, that's what makes me happy and when I see her having fun that reminds me that I'm glad I brought her up." I admit watching the door.
"Now I don't even know where she is, I feel lost. It's been basically me and her since she was born. The Miller's helped a lot and when Jax came along, we were sort of like a family. We were happy, all of us. Well I think Jax was." I say and chuckle softly.
"I promised her I would never let anyone hurt her. She's hurt, that's not hard to tell and I have this god awful feeling in my chest that just won't go away." I say and yawn.
"You should go to bed Lara. Waiting at the door won't do you any good. Your fathers men are looking for her everywhere so if she gets found. You'll know before she walks through that door." She says and I shake my head no.
"I'm still going to wait for her." I say and she nods and stands up.
"You're still a good mother Lara. You couldn't have predicted what would've happened tonight." She says and kisses my forehead.
We say our goodnights and I stay on the stairs all night waiting for Alannah to walk through them doors.