Chapter 16: Si nadie te ama, entonces estoy muerta.

Axel is talking to friends outside the cafe when the cartel guys arrive. Out of habit, he nods to his friends in greeting, but they, measuring him with contemptuous eyes, pass by.

"I don't get it," Leo kneads his neck, getting ready to teach the guys manners, and walks over to them. "Your tongue has dried out not to say hello?" firmly pushes one of them into the chest.

"He's the son of a traitor," the man points at Axel, and before Leo breaks his jaw, Axel breaks his nose.

"What did you say, scum?" Axel lifts him off the asphalt by the scruff and shakes him.

"Your father betrayed the cartel; he reported to Nebo about the transfer, wanted Chan to die, and died like a dog," the man tries to stop the blood. His friends run up to them, but they don't get into a fight, not daring to attack the "beasts."

Axel frowns at the guy for a few seconds, scrolling through his head.

"What did he say?" Axel turns to his confused friends, confused, and then, pushing Aken hard, he runs to the car. Friends follow him. On the way, Axel calls his father in a row, but he doesn't answer. Man feels panic seeping into every cell of the body but continues to grip the steering wheel and press on the gas. When he drives into his street, he realizes that the guys were right - his father is dead.

The courtyard of the house is full of people. Axel squeezes in with difficulty and, having flown into the living room, freezes on the threshold. He refuses to believe that his father's lifeless body is lying in the middle of the room. The house resembles an abode of sorrow, neighbors flock from the surrounding area, and grief-stricken Inna continues to hug the corpse of her husband. She seemed to have aged in a couple of hours. The woman is disheveled, crying. Her scratched hands continue to stroke Do, and her wounded heart does not want to come to terms with the loss.

Seeing Axel, Rene rushes to rush to her brother, but the man doesn't see anything. He goes straight to his father and falls to his knees next to him.

"Father," Axel takes Do's hand in his. "Father ..." repeats and licks dry lips, not finding words. "You promised to be careful."

Rene, listening to his voice, bursts out again. It hurts. She loved Do, but she can't imagine how much it hurts Axel. Aken, Leo, and Dev stand at the door, not letting anyone in.

"Father," Axel continues to whisper, his face disfigured by a grimace of pain, "don't leave me, I'm not ready yet. I'll never be ready," the man sobs. "They say you betrayed the cartel, but that's a lie. You are not a traitor. You couldn't! You and I fought over this too much, but you worshiped one God, and his name is Chan. I'm sure it's not your fault, and I swear to you, I will find those who set you up. I swear I'll chop them to pieces and clear your name." Axel speaks.

Rene sees Inna rushing to tell him and shakes mum's hand hard, preventing her from opening her mouth. Rene is scared. She hears Axel's oath, sees in his eyes besides the pain and rage, and feels the Spirit shaking inside him. Aken approaches women and asks to leave the son with his father alone. He does not want them to see how, one by one, small-large wounds open up in Axel's chest, how he sits, seemingly healthy, but if you look closely, there is not a single living place in his heart.

Inna, leaning on Aken's hand, walks into the kitchen. Rene strolls around for a couple of seconds at Axel's hypnotizing body, but never finding the courage to say anything, follows mum. In the hallway, she encounters The Mad, who has finished talking on the phone and asks to tell her what happened.

"This is all bullshit, just don't believe it," Leo says. "They say he told Nebo about the place and time of the meeting, that he personally called Abel, maybe even directly to their chief. Everything is muddy."

Rene listens to Leo as she walks into the kitchen, closes the door behind her, and pours some water for Inna.

"Mum, please don't tell Axel," the girl begs quietly. "You did a terrible thing. You rob yourself of your husband and us of our father, but I'm still not ready to lose you. Axel may not have loved you anyway, but now, blinded by rage and pain, he will tear you to pieces and me too." The woman swallows noisily. "I'm also to blame. I called grandfather from father's phone."

"Father promised that they would kill Chan, not touching Do, that Do will be the new head," Inna reaches for a glass with a trembling hand. "I believed that everything would work out, but Chan turned out to be smarter than my father. This is the beginning of the end. They will kill us too. In cartels, betrayal is not forgiven and revenge on the whole family."

"Mum ..."

"And if Chan doesn't do it, your brother will. He'll find out anyway. I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid for you. You are all that I have left" Inna reaches out to Rene.

"We'll figure something out." Rene herself doesn't believe what she's saying.

"If we live until dawn," Dev, who entered the kitchen, looks at Women.

Even behind the wall, Rene feels the agony of Axel's Spirit. She keeps trying to return to the room, where Axel bursts into pain, but Aken doesn't let go, lets his friend cry. Rene can't deal with her own Spirit, huddled in a corner, mourning the loss.

When Rene finally breaks free, Do is already being carried out of the house. She hugs Axel, who is so lost that he does not immediately hug her back. Feeling his favorite smell, he clings and, burying his face in her shoulder, does not let go for a long time.

"I love you. Do you hear me? I will love you forever," Rene repeats, pressing closer to him. "You must always remember that there is me, and I love you. If nobody loves you, then I am dead."

"I know, I believe," Axel wheezes and, letting go of her, goes to see his father off on his last journey.

Half an hour later, Axel is already in the cemetery in front of a freshly covered grave surrounded by his friends. Inna, who has no more tears left, sits on the ground with trembling hands playing with the flowers that Rene lays on the hillock. The last journey of the respected man is seen only by the closest and neighbors. There was no lavish funeral, first people of the cartel, no stream of cartel people, only "beasts." Until Do is an officially disrespected man, a traitor, anyone who comes to say goodbye to him can receive the same status.

After the graveyard, Axel walks the women to the car and pulls Rene aside.

"Give mum a sedative and put her to bed," the man asks. "Do not leave the house anywhere before my arrival. I'll put the guys on guard."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Rene holds his hand. "Please don't leave me. Let's go home."

"I have to go to Chan. I have to show that I am devoted to him so that he does not touch you, but then I will come, I promise," the man strokes her face tenderly.

"He'll kill you too. You can't go to him." Rene doesn't want to let go of Axel, her nausea in her throat with the newly re-emerging memories from the morgue.

"Not this time," Axel smiles cracked, for the first time in almost a day, the wrinkles on his forehead are smoothed out. "I'll kill Chan, get A-Card, and then I'll get to Nebo and find out who framed my father."

"My grandfather is in Nebo, and he is not to blame ..."

"If there is his hand in the death of my father, then the fact that he is your grandfather won't help him. My father's killers cannot be saved." The man notices Rene's pale as she immediately thinks of Inna. "Baby, it's time for you to choose a side, and I thought you had already chosen it." Rene silently hugs him, and even though Axel is already trying to leave, she won't let go. "I'll be back soon," the man gently strokes her hair. "No need to say goodbye to me."

"Just a little more," Rene asks, sniffing at her favorite scent for the rest of her life.

* The title of the chapter is "If nobody loves you, then I am dead." (Spanish: Si nadie te ama, entonces estoy muerta.)