I wake up and I find that all of my purchases from yesterday are already in the bedroom. I didn’t hear a sound, but given that they are neatly arranged by size it’s easy to guess it was Stefan who did this.
I hear a sound coming from the dressing room, I go check and I’m surprised to find Stefan getting dressed. He usually leaves pretty early every morning for the gym, showers there, and then goes straight to work; I normally only see him in the evenings.
A bathing suit is not the only thing I have to buy for our trip, I’m also going to need a dress to wear for Christmas and another one for New Year’s Eve. I definitely didn’t expect my first Holidays with Stefan to be like this, pregnant and practically traveling as a hostage; but to be honest, my marriage with Stefan is nothing like I imagined.The task of finding two cute dresses that make me feel beautiful and confident with my new baby bump turns out to be rather difficult. I’m nervous enough to meet the Corvino clan as it is, so I want to feel good about myself and wha
Back at the apartment, I feel restless, I walk from the living room to the dining room and back, over and over again. I’m biting my nails, I can’t help it. I hid the bottle of pills inside my makeup bag, I’m still not sure what I want to do with it. That is the reason I feel so nervous, the presence of the bottle in the apartment has me on the edge. I was going to toss the pills down the toilet, but my mom’s words kept ringing in my mind, ‘do it for your brother’, she really hit a tender spot with that sentence and now I feel torn apart, unsure of what to do. I don’t want to become a criminal just like the rest of them, but I also don’t want to stay seated in my place while life runs me over. Could I be capable of poisoning a man? Even someone as vile as Romano Corvino is still a person. I wish I was brave enough to avenge my brother and don’t feel guilty about it, but I don’t think I’m that type of person.Every time I close my eyes I imagine Ivan or Olga finding the bottle of pills a
Our flight to Rio de Janeiro leaves in an hour. Since we are taking a private jet, I was foolish enough to think we wouldn’t go through airport security, but, apparently, there was an incident last week in one of the private flights and they now are scanning everyone’s belongings so, here we are waiting in line to have our luggage checked. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to control myself, my palms are so sweaty my handbag keeps slipping from my hands. I put the pills inside an empty Ibuprofen bottle and the idea of getting caught makes me sick to my stomach. I’m so frightened I’m almost shakin
Stefan keeps on driving until we leave Rio de Janeiro behind us, the sun is setting as we exit, the night falls while we drive through a two-way road surrounded by what appears to be the rainforest. The trees on the side of the road are the tallest I’ve ever seen and the vegetation is so thick it’s hard to see inside the rainforest, even with the streetlights. There are few cars circulating on this road and they become fewer as we drive further. At one point, we exit the paved road and enter an almost hidden dirt track. The jeep jumps up and down due to the numerous potholes along the way, there’s no street lighting here, only more and more trees and plants.
Our bags are already in our room at the foot of the king-size bed.“I’m jumping in the shower; do you want to join me?” Stefan asks as he takes off his shirt.“No, thanks,” I reply as I take off my shoes.
“Doll, I’m so sorry about that,” Stefan exclaims the minute we reach our bedroom. “Don’t mind him, my father was way out of line.”“Whatever... don’t worry, you put up with a lot of crap from my mom, I guess it’s my turn to deal with your hostile parent,” I reply feeling dispirited.“Oh, no, doll. You don’t have to put up with anything, I’ll talk to him, don’t worry, I won’t allow this to happen again,” Stefan promises me.I shrug, I wish I could say Romano’s words didn’t affect me, but they did. Stefan surrounds me with his arms, I lean my head on his chest and close my eyes. I feel a little bit better although I shouldn’t, Stefan is the son of Romano and the apple never falls far from the tree; if Romano is wicked, his offspring must be too and I have to keep that in mind. My eyes go to the air vent. Who cares about Romano’s hurtful remarks? Soon he will pay, for Alex, for my family, and for his words.Stefan goes to talk to his father and leaves me alone in the bedroom. Even though
I barely contain a scream when someone pulls me by the arm back to the dining room. It’s Agatha who is pulling me as hard as she can with an unfriendly expression on her face, then she gestures me to keep quiet. I feel a chill in my body. She just saw me spying on his brother and nephew. Is she going to rat me out? I’m supposed to be pretending to be innocent and naive, if they realize I’m spying on them I won’t seem so innocent. I may have put the whole plan in danger.“You know how much trouble you can get into for doing that? If Romano realizes you are eavesdropping he is going to lose it! My brother is an angry man with very little patience and he already has a poor
I sleep like a baby and when I wake up I feel rested and in a good mood. This mansion is beautiful, it’s almost hard to remember that it is the hiding place of my worst enemy. I most keep that in mind, this is not a vacation resort and I am not on a Holiday break, I’m on a mission. Stefan seems in a better mood too. I’m glad he is already over his father’s harsh words. “What were you doing in the kitchen with my aunt last night? I thought you were tired and ready to sleep when I left.” Stefan asks while we get ready to go downstairs for breakfast.I gulp. Last night I felt lucky he didn’t seem to find odd that I was in the kitchen with Agatha casually chatting way past midnight.“What do you mean?” I ask innocently.“Yesterday you told me you were exhausted, but then you magically appeared in the kitchen petting the dog.”“Not magically, I walked there... I was thirsty and went to get a glass of water... I ran into Agatha there and we started talking.” I explain trying to sound as c
I light the big Buzz Lightyear shaped candle on top of the carrot cake Agatha made. Alex loves Buzz Lightyear, so our house is full of toys and stuff from that cartoon character. He likes it so much we were afraid his first word would be Buzz, luckily it wasn’t, it was “dad”. He is even wearing a Buzz t-shirt that I bought especially for him to wear today on his 1st birthday. I step out of the kitchen and into the dining room, Alex gasp excited as he sees the candle, he is sitting on his dad’s lap. Agatha starts to sing happy birthday at the top of her lungs. Rebecca and Stefan share a mocking smile discreetly and then start to sing along. It has been hard for Rebecca to reconnect with her brother, but she wanted to be part of ba
At dawn, we hear a loud bang followed by multiple shots and a lot of shouting from Romano’s men. We are being attacked. Rebecca and I immediately get to the floor, I cover my baby with my trembling body. A tall man with dark hair comes into the room agitated.“They found us! We have to get out of here, come with me.” He yells at us. “Hurry!”We get up and start following him downstairs. My baby is crying loudly, but it’s barely noticeable in the midst of all the gun noise.“Let’s use the back door!” The man shouts.We go to the kitchen and thru the back door, but Gustavo’s intruders are already waiting for us. They shoot the man who was leading us and he falls to the ground. We run back inside the house and they follow us. They try to get to me, but Rebecca gets in the way. One of the intruders pistol-whips Rebecca in the head so hard she loses consciousness. He then sprints to me and tries to take my baby out of my arms. I yell and kick him in the crotch. He stumbles back and another
On June 21st, I gave birth to a healthy beautiful boy with big blue eyes. Rebecca helped me delivered it, she is an important Gynecologist with her own private practice and she took great care of us. She also hired me as her receptionist and she helps me take care of little Alex whenever I need it.I have to admit, I get sad sometimes that my baby boy is never going to meet his dad, but Rebecca always makes me look on the bright side: we are safe, safe from Romano, saf
Luckily, Romano’s men don’t come with us to Rio, only Diogo, Agatha’s driver, and bodyguard, accompanies us to the city. We go to a big mall, buy an iced coffee and start going through the different shops. I keep on the defense, in case Agatha starts trying to persuade me to give Romano the information he needs, but she doesn’t even mention the subject, instead, she seems nervous. She constantly looks over her shoulder to check if Diogo is near us, I guess she is scared someone might attack us as they did to Stefan.
I stay in bed until morning comes, I’m overwhelmed by emotions: the loss of my parents, the fear of losing Stefan, and the concern for my own safety. Romano’s men are still standing outside the bedroom door, they haven’t moved an inch. I don't feel safe, they can come in any second and shoot me or do whatever Romano tells them to. I’m completely vulnerable. I can’t be alone, I have to be near Agatha or the grandparents so they can intervene if Romano tries to harm me. I ask the guards to let me go see nonna Julia. They seem reluctant, but finally they agree. They walk next to me to nonna’s bedroom and stay outside the door in case I try to go out. I don’t, I stay with her the entire day. We eat there, watch TV and keep each other company. She is really sad about her grandson’s health and she appreciates having someone near since Agatha went to the hospital to visit Stefan as she has done every day for the past week. I stay with nonna until dawn and then go back to my room. My heart acc
A week goes by and Stefan's condition has not improved one bit. I resent Romano for not letting me go to the hospital, but at least he hasn’t come near me since the day he ordered his men to go through my belongings, he spends most of his days out of the mansion, probably in the hospital or searching for the people who did this to his son.I’m waiting for Agatha to come back from her daily visit to Stefan when I hear a loud bang on my door.“The boss wants to see you,” one of Romano’s men informs me.I step out of the room and follow the man to the library where Romano is waiting for me. My heart is pounding in my chest, what does he want? The man goes away leaving Romano and me alone. I get goosebumps thinking about the fact that Agatha is not home to defend me; I’m going to have to defend myself. I stand near the exit, in case he intends to attack me and I need to run.“I’m about to tell you something you are not going to like. I need you to stay calm and listen carefully, spare me a
The firsts rays of sunshine slip through the beige curtains, I haven’t slept at all, I feel exhausted, but I can’t stay in bed any longer. My head is going to explode with all the fears and thoughts I’m having. I jump in the shower, wishing that refreshing my body will help me clear my head too, but it doesn’t. My whole body is trembling, I can’t control my nerves. I step out of the shower and hear a lot of noise in the bedroom, I wrap my body in a towel and I peek out the bathroom door to see what’s going on.
I still feel full from all the food that we ate last night, but that doesn’t stop nonna from serving me a big portion of scrambled eggs and potatoes. Romano is not having breakfast with us, so at least we get to have a harmonious morning. Unfortunately, my joy doesn’t last long. “Lucas is going to the docks to see the shipment off. I suggest you go with him, you know what to do.” Romano says as he walks in the room followed by a
We go downstairs to the dining room, but dinner is still not ready, for some reason, Agatha wants us to wait until midnight to eat. Instead, she takes us to the library, where the rest of the family is gathered, including Romano who is once again drinking scotch. He makes a grimace when he sees me come in and then looks the other way, ignoring my presence. Nonna Julia waves at me so I get close to her, I walk pass Romano ignoring him just as he is ignoring me.“I know we are supposed to wait until tomorrow to exchange gifts, but I’m old and I don’t like to wait. I knitted this for your baby,” Nonna Julia hands me a tiny baby blue sweater with a big yellow ribbon on top.I gulp, it’s the first piece of clothing I have for my baby.“Thank you,” I say moved.“Mamma, you shouldn’t have bothered; we don’t even know if it’s Stefano’s,” Romano exclaims right behind me.Hearing his voice so close to me makes my skin crawl.“Father!” Stefan shouts furious.“Ro, you promised you were going to be