"Were you eavesdropping?" he snarled, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. I straightened, refusing to be intimidated. "Not at all, I just got here." Luca's jaw clenched, a muscle ticking in his cheek. "What are you doing here Nazlynn?" "Looking for you, actually," I replied, crossing her arms across my chest. "Thought you might want to check on your bride after her near-death experience. Talk about delusional." Something flickered in Luca's eyes…guilt, perhaps? Then his expression hardened again. "You seemed fine to me." "No thanks to you," I shot back. "What kind of ‘husband’ doesn't even…” "The kind who has a business to run," Luca interrupted coldly. "In case you've forgotten, this isn't a real marriage and I couldn't care any less about you." The words stung more than I cared to admit. “That’s a little hard to forget when you're treated like a piece of furniture." Luca's eyes narrowed. "What do you want, Nazlynn?" "My phone, you promised to give it back after the wedding,
“Hello? Is there anybody on the line?” Enzo’s soft voice said again. It seemed like it had been months since I last heard his voice.“I think it's a wrong number,” I heard him say in a low voice to someone.Just when I felt like he was going to end the call, I opened my mouth to speak. “Enzo, it's me.”“Nazlynn?” He said, sounding shocked. “Sis where have you been? I have been calling and texting since forever, I even had someone check the house for me. What's up, is everything alright?” He asked, concerned. My breath hitched in my throat and I wondered what they found when they got to my house.My father, halfway dead or drunk, or his blood stains across the floor with no body to trace it to. “I…”“You know what? That's in the past, did you change your number? I haven't received a call from this number before?” I could picture him furrowing his eyebrows in confusion the way he would do over a video call. “I lost my phone,” I managed to croak out. There was a pause for a few secon
“Please Luca, I beg you,” the man pleaded, going down on his knees. “I had no choice, it was only a moment of desperation.”“Did I give you permission to speak?” Luca asked. The thick layer of rage beneath his voice was unrecognizable, it almost threw me off balance.Luca picked up a small knife from the table behind him, “I'm sure most of you know Peter, well, Peter has been selling illegal drugs using my business as a front.” Luca announced to the rest of us.If this were any other situation, people would begin to murmur after that announcement but the pin drop silence was deafening. “Luca, don't do this please. My wife! I have kids at home, you've met my kids.”“You should have thought about your family before deciding to act smart, Peter.” With a flick of his hand, Luca threw the knife into Peter's neck, missing his jugular by just a thread. It was so precise that it almost looked intentional.Peter's hand held on to the knife as blood spilled out of the wound. He coughed, splat
I didn't believe Luca, of course. He wouldn't actually do anything to hurt Enzo. But I couldn't help but start to panic when I tried calling Enzo two different times that day and the call went straight to voicemail.I was walking around absentmindedly to distract myself when I bumped into someone some time towards evening.“Nazlynn,” he called out when I walked past him after muttering an apology. I turned back.“Mathias? I'm sorry, I didn't notice you pass by. How are you?” I asked, giving him a forced smile.“I'm alright, the twins send their regards. They told me to pass across an invite to the house some time next week as well,” he said, guiding me to a side of the long hallway. I thought for a little bit before nodding when I remembered that there was nothing to do here anyways. “Are you okay? You look a little out of it,” he placed a hand on my forehead. “Luca mentioned the allergy incident of yesterday, do you perhaps need to see a doctor?”I pulled his hand off my head with
“Not all that good in the kitchen my ass,” Elena moaned as she stuffed her mouth with more cookies. Luckily, I was standing close enough to catch what she said.I laughed shyly. “That good huh?”“Good? Girl this is freaking amazing, José couldn't beat this even if he tried,” Jenna gushed, sniffing another piece before wolfing it down.“Well ouch, I feel offended Jenna,” a new voice joined in as the two boys walked in through the balcony.“Oh my love, you know I love you and I love your cookies but you have to try one of these,” Jenna said, walking towards them with two pieces in hand.They both greeted me before taking a piece each. I didn't miss the look of satisfaction on both their faces as they bit into it, nodding their heads.“I really can't beat that,” José said with a boyish grin before taking a few more pieces as they left the kitchen.Jenna piled the cookies on a plate while I sat and watched her. Elena slid a medium sized glass jar in my direction. “You should take some fo
“Where's your wedding ring?” I heard Luca ask me the minute I stepped out of my room.“What? No compliments, no nice words, the only thing you have to say is that?” I asked him with a raised brow and a frown.He ignored me, pointing at his ring finger again to remind me of his question.Sighing, I said, “I took it off, the jewelry set I have on has its own ring and I can't wear both at a time.”“Put on your ring, Nazlynn.”“What? No, I don't want to,” I argued, holding my hand away from him like that would change the fact that I didn't have the ring on. He snatched my hand, pulling the ring I had on out and throwing it down the hallway and out of sight. I gasped in horror. Those were real pearls.“That must have cost a lot, why would you do that?” I exclaimed, pulling my hand away from him.“Why do I have to wear the wedding ring? It's just a stupid ring for this fake marriage.”He took two steps closer to me and I took two steps back until I was backed up into the door. “This is not
Luca's POVI tried not to stare too much at Nazlynn when we were seated comfortably. She really did look beautiful and the dress matched the color of her eyes. She easily outdid every woman that I had seen so far.I tried to hide my frown when I saw the three men approach me “what's this about?” I asked them.Daniel bent and whispered in my ear. “The cargo and everything in the warehouse in Dublin has been cleared.”My blood ran cold, that warehouse had confidential information in it.“Stay where I can see you Nazlynn, I'll be right back,” I said to her before standing up.The second we stepped into a secluded area that was away from prying eyes and curious ears.“I want to hear what happened and I want to hear it along with solutions. What happened, Daniel?” I asked the middle aged man. Daniel was the man overseeing my second largest warehouse that was located in Dublin. His forehead was creased with worry. "It happened too fast, boss. One minute everything was secure, the nex minu
Nazlynn’s POVI woke up with a light buzz in my head, courtesy of the two or three glasses of champagne I had the night before. “Maria?” I called out the moment my feet touched the cool tiles on the floor.I was about to call out for her again when I heard her little footsteps approaching my room. “My apologies Signora, you called for me.”“Oh no, that's alright, could you run me a hot bath and then get me a glass of lemon juice. Thank you,” I said with a small smile. I sighed deeply, placing my hand on my temples.“Are you alright, Signora? Would you like me to get painkillers for the headache?” She asked with concern etched on her face.I politely declined and she entered the bathroom to get the bath running. I took a well needed soak, only coming out of the bathtub when the water started getting cold. Luca hadn't responded to my question last night and now, without sleepy eyes and with a clear head, I didn't know how to ask him again.The glass of lemon juice was waiting for me b
“What is it?” I asked. My feet had suddenly frozen to the spot. “She's currently out of danger and has stabilized. We are focusing on managing the injury on her hand. It may take some time, but the doctor would be out to address you further as soon as possible,” she said before giving me a slight bow and walking off.I looked at Sabrina, elated. “Did you hear that? She's going to be okay! Nazlynn is going to be okay.” She nodded, pulling me in for another hug. We stayed that way for a few seconds until I started feeling wetness on my shirt, so I pulled back. Sabrina's face was soaked with tears, I didn't even have time to wonder how she silently produced that many tears in such little time.“I was scared I was never going to see her again, Luca. I thought I had lost her for good,” she sobbed.I pulled her back into my arms and tried to soothe her by running my hand across her back. When her shaking had subsided, I helped her back to the chair so we could sit.I waited until she had
Chapter 147I jumped up from my position on the floor and barged into the emergency room where Nazlynn was, ignoring the attempts of the nurses to stop me.Her body looked so still and lifeless. They were delivering shock to her body using some strange looking device that I see in the movies. There were so many wires coming out of a machine that were plugged into her body, but one machine I recognised was the one showing a straight green line across it. I may not be well versed in medicine, but I knew enough to know that it was not a good sign.“Nazlynn,” I called out to her, pushing off the arms of the two nurses who tried to hold me back so I could walk closer to the bed.I could faintly hear someone shouting for security, but I didn't take my eyes off Nazlynn, not even when I was hauled out of the room by two large men.My heart was in my mouth when I heard the faint beeping sound start all over, and I slid down the wall opposite the door. I'm not sure how long it took until Enzo
Nazlynn’s POV I did not expect Alice to come back into the room and certainly not so soon after.She pulled a knife out of her waistband. “I'm tired of waiting for you or feeling like I'm replacing you. Ever since I found out about your existence, all I've wanted to do is kill you,” she said as she approached me.“What are you doing? What are you doing Alice? He said you shouldn't hurt me,” I said, alarmed as I started thrashing in my position.She smirked as she took off the restraints and pulled me to my feet by neck which caused me to start coughing.I yelled out to alert Santos but it only made her smirk deepen. “Oh! Father?” Don't bother about him, he's currently indisposed,” she said simply.Disgust covered my features. Did she kill him? “What did you do to him?”“He's fine, you don't have to worry about any harm coming to the man who had you kidnapped. I just needed him and his lousy men out of the way so I could get this over with,” she said with a shrug. “He'll thank me for
Nazlynn’s POVI flinched, waiting for the impact of the knife but it never came.When I looked up, Santos was standing in the doorway. He must have said something but I was too scared to hear it.He was giving Alice the most deathly glare I had ever seen someone muster up. “I told you to let her be for a little while longer and that she would come around, what do you think you're doing, Alice?” He asked. His tone was like he was scolding a little kid for touching something they were told not to do.“Father,” she said, standing up. I couldn't help but notice that her voice was firmer now like she was not afraid of what he could do. “We cannot compromise the integrity of our clan for a stranger.” Alice shot me a look of disgust.“Mind your words, that's your sister,” he said sternly.“Oh please. You never really considered me to be your daughter, just some girl you had pity on and took care of,” she spat bitterly.Well, that is certainly a new development. If this were any different s
Luca's POV Keeping my fingers tightly wound around his neck, I smashed the head into the table again and this time, it caused the wood of the table to splinter. The man groaned loudly in pain.“Please stop, I don't know where they are. I swear to you,” he said through blood and tears.“Wrong,” I smashed his head on the table again, disappointed when he suddenly passed out. I flung him away in irritation.With a clenched jaw, I grabbed the next man from the chair. He was relatively short so pulling him up and pinning him to the wall didn't take much. The place he was sitting had a damp spot. He had peed on himself.“Where did they take my wife?” I asked in a dark voice. This part of me had been concealed for so long but I had to bring it back out.“I don't know, I really don't know,” he said shakily.I smashed my fist into his face, causing blood to flow down his nostrils. He began crying and pleading.Whoever employed these fools must either be retarded or have forgotten what protect
I couldn't have run out of that house faster than I did when my father finished talking. My hands were shaking on the steering wheel, and it took a miracle of some sort to stop me from crashing into something or someone.My mind was reeling. I couldn't take Hailey back with me for two reasons. One, I instructed Gabriel not to let me know where they are until things are completely calm. Two, she was no safer with me than she was there. I basically barged into the house to find that everyone was either sleeping or lounging on the couch.The impact from the door hitting the wall must have made such a loud noise that it woke them all up. Well, all except Enzo, who could apparently sleep through a storm.You could almost see the steam coming out of my mouth as I started speaking. “You're sleeping? The whole clan is staying out of sight, hiding away while we let our rivals dominate us. My wife is missing, maybe seriously hurt, and you're sleeping?” My men scrambled up to their feet. It ha
In case you were wondering, the license plate thing was a dead end. The name there was the most random thing you can ever think of, and the address was an empty plot of land somewhere in Cleveland.It's been two days since then. Two days of chasing nothing, really. If there were false leads for us to go along with, at least we would have been chasing the shadows, but there was nothing, nothing at all.I was losing my mind slowly. I couldn't sleep because whenever I tried to, I would hear Nazlynn calling out to me, but I couldn't see her. Waking up, the thought of her being alone there and scared to death would drive me into downing a glass of whiskey or two. It was the only thing that could drown away the voices in my head.There were no further attacks on any of my properties or the piers, but it was too soon to ask everybody to return to their usual activities so my men were still on high alert.My father had not stopped trying to reach me, so I decided to go talk to him that day.
“What do you mean divorce Luca?” I asked, repeating what he said like I was suddenly hard of hearing. My hand had gone completely numb but I was well aware of the small knife sticking out of my hand.“It means exactly what you think it means,” he responded, taking a few steps into the room.“Father, no,” Alice argued as she stood to her feet. “Where is this even coming from?”“Did I ever tell you about Nazlynn’s mother?” He asked her with a sad smile. “I have committed a lot of crimes in my years on earth but I spent a large number of my youthful years regretting what my actions must have done to her.”I bore my eyes into his, so deeply that I could have been staring into his black soul. “What are you talking about?”Santos shook his head. “That is an information I'm afraid I'll have to take to the grave.”“Father! What the hell are you doing?” Alice spat bitterly.“Language Alice!” He snapped. Santos was crouched down in front of me now. “Your mother was such a lovely woman. What
“Any updates?” I asked Sabrina for the umpteenth time, hovering behind her on the couch. My anger had subsided, or rather I had swallowed it down, and it was replaced by a burning restlessness. I had absolutely no clue what she was trying to track at that moment, but I knew better than to ask her for details.“No, and you constantly breathing down on my neck is not going to change anything except my anxiety level,” she said sassily, shooing me away.I sunk into the couch beside her with a heavy sigh. “I feel so helpless, Sab,” I confessed. Although I didn't check first, I was thankful none of my men were in the living room at that time. All through the night, all I could think of was how scared Nazlynn was and how there was no one there to tell her that things were going to be okay, that we were coming for her.She tore her eyes away from her screen to look at me. “We'll find her, Luca. I know we will.”“What if we're too late? What if we don't make it in time? How do I tell Hailey