Nola didn't even bother to answer her but instead just proceeded to follow James past the gate.

"Oh... I guess we are going inside..." She could hear Gianna pipe up.

At this point there was no reason to go back. They were here and from the looks of it the place was empty. The letter that Gianna had gotten directed them to this rundown place. There had to be something here that would tell some sort of story. Perhaps Gianna would be able to find something... anything to end her search.

Cause at this point Nola was ready for a drink on the beach, she about had enough of this searching... of this babysitting of sorts. Though it was something that she grinned and bared.

"Looks pretty cleared out, seems like no one has been here in ages." Nola was talking towards James but he wasn't paying attention. Gianna on the other hand was as she quickly made her way to Nola's side.

"It does... kind of sad actually. This place looks like it has so much potential, I wonder what happened here."

Nola turned to her and slid her sunglasses down her nose a bit.

"My guess, people died... With bullet holes like those, someone was out to get someone."

She could see Gianna's face change, was almost as if she immediately got depressed.

"A place of this size though probably had a bunch of hidden tunnels and such, maybe no one died."

Nola shrugged and slid her sunglasses back up on her face. They continued to walk up the path to the big wooden doors. It was crazy quiet, only the sounds of nearby birds could be heard.

"Well?" Nola looked at James. "Use that big ole body of yours and open that door will ya?" James shot her a look, grunted but turned towards the door.

He turned to his side, lowered his shoulder and gave it a ram. The force opened the doors. He stepped in and gave the place a quick look over, making sure the coast was clear. With a nod, he deemed the place safe.

"Let's go have a look, shall we?"

Gianna nodded at Nola and slowly followed behind her through the busted old wooden doors. The place definitely had seen it's better days as the inside was still for the most part pretty pristine minus the occasional cobweb here and there.. and well... It had clearly been ransacked at some point, all of its contents were all but gone minus a select few pieces of furniture...

The ground floor seemed to take you in two different directions from the front door, as well as a huge grand staircase in the center that took you to the above floor. Her eyes wandered everywhere as she slowly walked around and inspected the place, the sound of old shattered glass crunching underneath her feet was the only sound in the building, that was until James decided to speak..

"I'm going to go and have a look upstairs miss, the ground floor seems pretty clear.. holler if you see something.."

Gianna gave him a faint nod and watched has he climbed the staircase. There were still some pictures hanging up on the wall, pictures of a woman and what looked like a young man appeared in multiples, perhaps this was her mother? Carla? She looked.. well dressed.

Nola brushed past her and headed out into the large ballroom, leaving Gianna alone for a few moments before returning while shaking her head.

"Nothing of interest over there... Just a torn out old kitchen and what looks like an old room to eat or something in... Come on we should go follow after James."

Her eyes were still fixated on the picture and it wasn't until Nola tapped her that she turned and nodded in agreement with her. This place already held a lot, but she wondered who the man was standing next to her in these photos? Was it her father? Couldn't be he was far too young... She turned and realized Nola had already left the room and had begun climbing the old staircase to the second floor.

She quickly began to hustle after her, but noticed the bullet holes again as he rose the stairs, clearly there was a significant gun battle here and if there was some sort of tunnel, did they escape? Seems it goes all the way upstairs where presumably they slept...

They reached the top and realized they were in for a bit of a puzzle.. the corridors were long and lewd to every different parts of the upper floor of the house. Gianna looked left and right down the hallways before calling out to James..

"I'm over here... I think I found something."

His deep voice came from the right corridor and the two woman quickly walked towards the sound where his voice came from until they found him hovering over what appeared to be a door that was completey boarded up. He glanced back to Gianna and Nola who quickly said

"Well.. open it up!"

James grunted at Nola again before using his brute strength to pull the board off the door and tossed it to the side.. Gianna quickly stepped forward and looked over his shoulder and peered in as he talked.

"I knew it, it's your mother's office Miss Gianna.. it looks like someone had boarded it up to keep people out on purpose..."

Gianna stepped infront of him and stuck her head through the door and looked around.. this was the most pristine room in the entire house and the only one whose contents was not ransacked. A large brown desk sat on the center of the room with massive book cases at each side, a fireplace sat directly behind it with a large leather chair tucked neatly into the desk.

She slowly stepped inside and felt her heart sink as she read the name tag on the table..

'Madam Carla DiMarco' .. this definitely was her mother's house, and even more so definitely her office. She slowly walked over to th desk and ran her fingers along it, wiping the dust along it as she came upon the back of it and looked down to see a small drawer.. Her hand found its way under it in an attempt to pull it open but she was not strong enough...

James chuckled and quickly walked over and pulled the desk ajar for her as carefully as he could, the first thing that caught their eyes was a book.. a rather sizable one that was brown and made of leather and belt her mother's initials into it, was this her diary? Gianna quickly pulled it out and pushed the leather seat back and sat down into it as she scowered through the pages, reading various bits of this and that about her mother and what this place used to be and it's daily operations etc....

But it wasn't until she came across the pages talking about her life in queen village, and the moment she read her name.. 'Gianna' ... It was bitter sweet for her but still, where was her mother? Why was she not here?

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Nola's voice came, Gianna remained quiet as she continued reading further on past her name.. it was then that she finally read it.. she was not who she thought she was.. her mother wrote her birth name down and where the Smith's had taken her but.. she didn't have her mother's last name...

Her eyes rolled over it a few times before glancing up to Nola as she cleared her throat.

"I think so... I mean... This book talks about me here on this page..mentions my adoption and all that but... My last name is not hers..."

Gianna took a pause as she reread it again before saying it out loud.

"My mother's last name is DiMarco but.. right here it says... Gianna Rose Patangeli.. ​​​​​​"

Nola glanced down at the page as Gianna traced the name with her finger. It clearly read Gianna Rose Patangeli... for some reason that last name rang a bell but from where she couldn't pinpoint it. She hummed then shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"So it does... wonder why that is?"

Gianna looked up from the page.

"Yeah, I don't know."

There was a brief pause as Gianna looked back down onto the book. It was if she was expecting it to change, as if the name she was reading wasn't correct and that it would magically just correct itself.

"Well, at least you have something else to go with now. This place wasn't a dead end.... Speaking of this place, if that book is true... this place is probably yours... Though I'm sure that involves a lot of legal stuff that would boast yourself into the limelight even more than you are now."

Nola's words were interrupted by a random hissing sound that echoed through the hallways. It sent a shiver through her core, causing her to whip her head about. Her eyes shifted onto James then back down the hallway. There was nothing visual in sight.

"You've got all you need here, take the book and let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps..."

"Yeah, I think that is a good idea." James pipped up.

"Come on, let's go..."

Nola started walking towards the door and could hear Gianna close the book with a loud snap of the pages. She had what she came here for, now it was on her if she wanted to further dig into it all.

Her mind was a bit at ease now, the loud snap of the book echoed through this large empty mansion and it was a reminder that this place was of the past, and also was very vacant.. that was the thought that stuck with her, the bullet holes, the house in disrepair... How many years had it been since her mother was here? Was she still alive in hiding? This book contained far more information but that was for later Gianna to read and look through, like Nola, this place had definitely started to give her the creeps...

she slowly stood up from the desk and rubbed her finger again along the stretch of the desk before making her way around it and following after Nola and James who had already begun leaving the place.

"Maybe I can take the book back to Philadelphia with me.. maybe ask a few people about it and the last name.. someone is bound to know something I bet.."

Her eyes continued to scan over the cover of the brown leather book, her finger slowly brushing the seem as she did so.

"But I suppose... First things first.  Let's go get a hotel and lounge on the beach with a mimosa in hand.. what do you say?"

Nola glanced back at her and gave her a nod. Gianna smiled and scurried to catch up to her. She was grateful to have found Nola, even if she was tasked at first with the job of protecting her, that still remained unknown but perhaps in time things would be answered, for now, she was just glad to have a friend.