Leo had just finished reprimanding the class and although I'm greatful that he stood up for me I don't really see the need because they would still talk even though its behind my back.Really not in the mood for the drama and the stares everyone were giving me ( I just wanted to be in Nico's arms right now). I stood up from my seat walking out, I hear someone behind me and I know its Leo because I told Andrea not to follow me"Bella wait" Leo calls out and I stop, my back to him.I count a few numbers till he gets me and he turns me around to face him."Bella" He calls my name with his hands still on my shoulder and I push it away. He shouldn't be touching me."What do you want?" I ask a bit too coldly but I didn't really care, I was starting to feel weird, like something bad is about to happen but I wasn't sure what."Listen Bella…" He starts saying but I really didn't want to hear what he wanted to say."Thank you for standing up for me. I'm really happy that you did but can you ple
What Is he talking about? I didn't cheat on him."Nico I didn't…" I start to say but he shuts me up with a scream."Don't lie to me!!!!" He screams at me in anger and I flinch out of fear.Don't be scared, he won't harm you. You don't have to be scared.I repeatedly tell myself."I hate it when people lie to me, so I would ask you this and I expect you to answer me honestly. Understood?" He asks and I nod my head hurriedly. I really don't know what he heard or saw but its going to be false.My eyes go to Andrei that was standing beside him. Did Andrei tell him something?"Were you or were you not in the embrace of that Leo kid?" He asks and I blanch. How did he? I don't know what they told him but its obviously false. Someone probably twisted everything that happened.The look in his eyes is begging me to tell him no, begging for the reassurance that I didnt cheat on him.But I didnt cheat on him though, its all a misunderstanding."I was but then……" I start explaining but he cuts me
"I would be off now. If you permit me master" I tell him flatly, too tired to say anything to him.He watches me silently for a while and I turn away, averting my gaze once more.Why does he look like he is hurt when be is the one hurting me?"Take her to school Andrei" He orders Andrei who has been standing beside him the whole time.I glance at Andrei and he averts his gaze, looking else where.Him too? He thinks I cheated on Nico?Nico walks away, leaving just Andrei and I together and I remain there, standing and staring at his back."Let's go" Andrei tells me walking away too.Sighing, I pick up my school bag which I had placed on the floor, slinging it over my shoulder and going after him.I get inside the car sitting beside Andrei and he revs the engine driving off.The car is filled with silence as I stare at Andrei's side profile as he drives.Does he really think I cheated on Nico too?"Stop staring at me. Its distracting" Andrei says breaking the silence in the car."You th
"You called me, ma'am?" I ask the principal but i still kept my eyes on Nico.He was sitting on a sofa with the principal seated right across him.I just left the house about thirty minutes ago, how did he get here so fast? Was he following behind me?"Miss Russo. Do you think this school would accept any behaviour and turn a blind eye to your terrible behaviour due to the fact you have powerful people backing you up?" The principal asks and I stare at her blankly confused on what she meant.Uhhhhh……What bad behaviour? It was just one punch and suddenly I have a bad behaviour? And yes, I do expect them to ignore my said 'bad behaviour' because they do so for Alessia.My eyes goes to Nico who has still watching me and I raise my hand."Excuse me ma'am. I have one question though" I say and she looks at me as if to say "what now?""Go on" she says and my eyes flicker back to Nico"What is he doing here?"She rolls her eyes and mutters an 'ofcourse.'"Mr Perez, who is just your guardian
He stares at me for a while, before shaking his head stopping himself from saying what he was about to say."Go back to class" He tells me instead and starts walking away."Really Nico? Really?? This is what we are going to keep doing? You are going to walk away from me?" I ask as he walks away.He pauses with his back to me before shaking his head again then walking away.I stare at his back till he gets out of sight.He really did walk away from me. Is this how we are now?Sighing, I walk back to class. Stopping at the door when I get to class. I take a deep breath as I listened to the chattering coming from inside.I really don't want to go in there right now.But having no choice, I push the door open and step inside.The chattering stops once again as everyone pauses what ever they were saying and doing just to stare at me. I really hate when they just stop whatever they were doing just to stare at someone when the person enters the class.Like can't you just mind your business a
I take back what I had said. It was that hard."Aw. Don't be sad love, you did your best" Andrea tried to cheer me up and I turn to glare at her."Knowing seven out of fifteen questions isn't 'my best'" I say and she gives me a pointed look. Okay for now it was my best."But you knew all of them" I say in a whinny voice."That's because I come to school. Unlike someone who has been skipping school for a while now" She says and I groan, does she have to say that? She had to just put it that way, I think she is going to constantly remind me of what I did for the rest of our lives."Just let it be" I tell her looking up from my desk, my eyes meets Alessia who was glaring fiercely at me.I shudder with how intensely she glared at me.Her nose was wrapped up and I think that's a bit of an exaggeration because I didnt hit her hard enough to dislocate her nose, just a little bleeding and that's all."Barbie staring at you like she wants to strangle you" Andrea whispers and I nod still mainta
The rest of the day went by fast, teachers teaching things I was yet to understand because I missed a lot of classes which made Andrea laugh at me but she promised to tutor me later so I really didn't mind her laughing. Andrea and I hung out with Andro for the rest of the day, which surprised me cause they were laughing and joking with each other. Thought you both hated each other and couldn't stand the other? I guess they stopped hating each other and started tolerating the other while I was away.See people, distance makes the heart fonder. When school had ended, I was waiting for someone to come pick me at the school gate, if someone would come that is."Are you sure you don't want to come home with me?" Andro asked, obviously concerned about me because a blabbermouth named Andrea told him everything that had happened. EVERYTHING!!Which includes the fact Nico and I were not speaking to each other."Yes, Bella. Go home with him" Andrea quipped and I glared at her.She wasn't sup
"The car is still unlocked Andrei" I say and he looks at me, locking eyes with me on purpose.Why does the car suddenly feel too small? Where did all my space go? I need to escape from here."I know that it's still locked" He says lowly, his deep voice vibrating through the air.If you know, then why don't you unlock it so I could get the hell out of here."Then why don't you unlock it Andrei?" I ask once again pushing back a bit.I don't like situations like this. My heart is hammering in my chest but in fear of Nico seeing us here and thinking the wrong thing.Nico being Nico would think wrongly if he sees us here."I love it when you say my name that way. The way you pronounce my name always affects me in more ways than one" He tells me with a weird look in his eyes and I move backwards once more, my back to the door.This is getting weirder by the second. Anyone hearing this would think we have something going on while we don't. And anyone is Nico.I'm still having issues with N
*Warning. This chapter contains a little bit of smut.**Isabella Russo's POV*I was walking down to class when someone yelled my name from behind."Hey Bella! Wait." Pretending like I didn't hear the person, I increased my pace, hoping to avoid whoever didn't want to leave me alone."Bella. Stop" He placed his hands on my shoulder and unfortunately I couldn't fake being deaf or unable to feel his hands on me so I stopped and turned."Hey Charlie. What's up" I say with fake euthusiasm. Charlie is one of my classmates, who apparently likes me since first year. But I've been avoiding him my whole time since then because why not?Everyone expected us to date because apparently the 'queen' and 'king' has to be together. But no thanks. Don't even know why they tagged me as that."What do you want Charlie?" I ask again when I notice he has been staring at me without saying anything. My cheek hurting because of the fake smile I had on for too long. He shakes his head snapping out of whatever
I stared at the car which stopped a few distance away from my house, it stayed there for a while, before it drove off once again.It's been a few weeks since I started seeing that car around me, at first I thought it was a coincidence, maybe a student with a car staying around. But it has been showing up everywhere and anywhere I go. Maybe it was Andrei asking someone to keep an eye on me, but for some reason I wasn't bothered and wasn't about to panic.I opened the door, walking into my house and shutting it behind me, making sure it was locked.It's been two years since I left Italy, two years without Nico and two years since I started all over in a place no one knew me.Andrea decided to go to fashion school at the last minute so we were separated, not that I minded.It was nice to be in a place without anyone staring at you with pity at every minute, waiting for you to break down so they could wrap their arms around you and tell you everything was going to be alright.It was sicke
*Isabella Russo's POV*Prom day went by fast, which I obviously missed and finally it was graduation day, the day everyone has been waiting for to come. Everyone except me of course, I just wanted to be over and done with all these. I sat on my own waiting for Andrea to arrive. She was the only one I could lean on today.I was wearing my graduation gown over a plain shirt and baggy jeans.Andrea talked about it all she could, but I didn't care that it was "D graduation", I want it done.l s I could start a new beginning.I didn't bother telling Andrei it was today because he would be busy and things like this didn't interest him, I don't want to bother him. But it didn't matter along as I was finally leaving this place. "Why are you looking so lost? You should be happy that finally we are leaving this school" Andrea said, sitting beside me and snapping me out of my daze. She held m e tightly, gluing her sweaty body to mine and I wondered what she did to be that sweaty."You do know tha
Isabella Russo's POVThings were becoming a bit better and Andrea always stayed with me and made me forget the pains I suffered earlier. School was going well and my finals were coming up soon. The days of my high school was coming to an end. And I could remember vividly when Nico promised to attend my graduation. What a jerk, I had come to accept his death and live a free life but doubted loving again."Bella, can I see you for sec," the principal requested as I was crossing the hallway with Andrea. "Thank you for your audience, I was wondering if you would like to be the valedictorian of the year. It's like I'm imposing it on you. But you have the highest grades so far and I don't know if..." She starts, staring at me and hoping I would accept. S"I will take it, the speech, I will say it. After all I earned it for myself. It would also be a great start for me in college," I smiled easing her tension. Everyone in school knew about my tragic story. They were avoiding me mostly and
Isabella Russo's POVThe funeral took place at the Perez's burial ground. As usual, everyone wore black and stood in line waiting for me to place the last flower on his coffin and say my final wordsNot that I was ready to say my final words to him, I wasn't ready to let him go.I was not allowed to cry because it would be a sign of a bad omen. In the mafia, Don's were to be respected till the very end. Crying would only mean that he was weak and didn't live a good life. I held my tears back and stood in front of Nico's coffin. Inside, his face was covered I couldn't even see his face for the last time. This was the part where I hated the mafia tradition. I couldn't see his face as I said my goodbye. And Andrei safi wasn't even allowed to say my farewell here to me. The mafia rules are against such. I really felt pathetic doing this, my tears were pending and the mourning crowd was waiting for my words."You have to speak Bella, the time is ticking," Andrei stepped to my side prompti
Isabella Russo's POVI froze in shock when Andrei dropped the bomb on me. "He lost a lot of blood and before we could save him...""You are lying to me. That's an on obvious lie Andrei. Please tell me you are joking. It's impossible, Nico can't leave me here alone," I held his shirt tight hoping that he would tell me that it was all a joke. But he didn't, instead he held me in his arms and let me cry on his chest.I got angry when I wasn't let to see his body. I wanted to confirm his death and and actually believe that Nico left me but Andrei didn't let me. He carried me away from the hospital and drove me back home.For two weeks, I refused to eat or talk to anyone. I couldn't believe that Nico was no longer with me. And the longer I waited, the more I felt his absence.He was gone for good and I couldn't get myself to accept it. I was fully healed and able to move on my own thanks to my consistency intake of the medicine. Andrei handled most of the activities in the mafia while I tr
*Isabella Russo's POV*My entire body went rigid with fear when I saw the bomb tied around my waist. It was ticking fast and had two minutes left before it went off."I don't want to die Nico." I cried holding him tightly. The bomb started to count after nico had shot his father dead. That is to say that he was the trigger."Don't worry, I will not let anything happen to you," Nico comforted as he looked at the bomb thinking of how to diffuse it."I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. If I had grown stronger or listened back then, none of this would have happened. I'm so pathetic for causing you all this trouble. Maybe if I hadn't left your office then I wouldn't have been taken." I muttered forgetting the pain I felt on my cheeks. "Don't say that, I'm the one who should have protected you. I let my guard down after I had promised to never let anything hurt you. You don't know how worried I was when I couldn't find you. And seeing you brusied and bloodied, makes me want to beat myself.
*Domenico Perez's POV*I marched down to the inn, completely blinded by rage. Martins was standing at the entrance of the inn, the same way he was the night before when we got here."I heard the explosion and I see you here. It seems she took you there earlier than she was supposed to" He tsked and I look at Angelina who was standing behind him, she lowered her head, unable to meet my eyes."You knew about it all these while" I say and he didn't bother denying it."Yes I did. I had a job to do. Kill the men coming to my village. And I had to perform this job." He says and I once again look at Angelina." Oh no, don't look at her that way. It wasn't her fault really. The girl just has a kind heart and wanted to help you even if it meant going against her father. I was just expecting her to hesitate a bit before she decided to disobey her father" He says and I see the tight grip he has on her wrist."So you were working for Andrew. You lied and said you were not working for him" Andrei
*Domenico Perez's POV*We had searched the whole village, searched every corner, every building and yet we couldn't find her. Angelina and Martins had watched us leave the inn, and the stare they gave us while we were leaving made it seem as if they knew were she was."They would know" Andrie said and I looked at him.We were currently parked at the back of the inn. "What?" I ask him. "The father and daughter would know where she is" Andrei says and I know that. "Would they be able to speak though? Tell us where they kept her? Do we have to torture them to get them to tell us? Andrei, each passing second that Bella stays with Andrew has my mind racing on what he is doing to her and all he can do to her. He would break her to the point of no repair. And I don't want that to happen." I say breaking down and he just listens, he doesn't have to say anything or do anything. He just listened.We has searched everywhere we could think of and I was getting frustrated and really angry. Wher