Since Elena told me those words, I haven't been able to speak, and I also haven't slept a wink. Maybe it was the fear that I would try to harm myself again, but my lips seemed to have been glued shut. I couldn't speak, I could only get a small quantity of food down after a long time of trying. “Hey,” Luca greeted cheerily as he entered the room with a box full of my favourite chocolates.I waited to feel the excitement I would usually feel at the sight of that yellow label, but I couldn't. There was nothing.He's done this for the past two days when he comes back in the evenings. Two days. That's how long it had been since I found out I tried to harm myself in my semi asleep semi awake state.I smiled thankfully at him as he approached me. I closed my eyes as he leaned in closer to place a kiss on my forehead. Luca had avoided kissing me on the lips since that day. That day when I had drawn back from his attempt to kiss me. You would expect the repulsed look on my face to have thro
"Nazlynn," Luca said softly as he approached me. He touched my shoulder gently, and I forced myself not to flinch. "I think it's time we consider getting some help. We need to."The word 'help' echoed in my mind, mixing with Elena's voice; ‘You just tried to hurt yourself.’I felt something inside of me crack as I took a step away from him. “You mean I need to. I'm not going to see some shrink, Luca. I'm not crazy.”“No no no. Of course not. There are specialists, therapists who deal with... situations like this. During pregnancy, it's not uncommon for women to experience…”“Oh my god. I already told you that nothing is wrong with me!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air.“You can't keep pretending like nothing is wrong when something is clearly wrong. Why won't you talk to me about it?” Luca asked, sounding hurt.I scoffed. “It's just a damn nightmare. And it's probably because my husband is a fucking mafia Lord who put my life and that of my child in danger,” I snapped.He
In just a couple of days, everybody in the house could tell that something had changed inside of me.I was livelier, more bubbly, and smiling more during the day. Sure enough, I was able to sleep now, although the nightmares were still there, but only I knew about that.Nothing could possibly spoil the good mood I was in, not even Luca coming home at late hours of the night and barely talking to me most times. Or maybe I was the one who was barely talking to him. Who knows?All I knew was that I felt better, and it was all thanks to my friend Alice. Now that we were on a first name basis and no longer initials, I felt closer to her, more connected somehow. Alice and I spent most of the day texting. She was genuinely interested in knowing me. Not the same way Elena, Sabrina, and Jenna bless her soul were interested in me. Alice wanted to know me, not the girl who married their adopted brother but me, Nazlynn.She didn't continue our conversation by asking me what was wrong or trying
“Nazlynn. Are you sure about this? I mean, you don't even know this person,” Luca said, turning in his chair to face me.I made a sound of irritation at the back of my throat. “We talked about this for the past few days, and I even gave you enough time to do your research on her.”“Why are you bringing this up when I'm right at the entrance of the building?” I asked, gesturing out the window to the four storey building we were parked in front of.“I just. I don't feel comfortable with this. It would have been better if we just went with one of Dr. Martin's recommendations. Just to be on the safe side,” he said in an attempt to change my mind.Sighing, I took his hands in mine. I saw the surprise flash behind his eyes at the contact of our skin. That was the most contact I had initiated in quite some time. “You agreed to let me make this one choice on my own. Please don't change your mind now,” I said softly.“It's not that I…”“Please. Don't make me feel like I'm still a prisoner in
Another month went by. Luca and I had started acting more civil towards each other. He still respected my wishes and spent less time keeping a constant watch over me.Elena and Sabrina, on the other hand, just couldn't get the hint. I didn't want company, and I was not upset with anybody. I just wanted my space, but for some reason, that was hard for them to understand. Luca had asked me if they did something to upset me for the fifth time now, and every time he did, I just gave him my best death glare, and that shut him up instantly.My therapy sessions have been the only constant thing going on for me. Just the week before, Dr. Payne suggested we increase our sessions to 2 sessions weekly for the next month.I'll say the sessions have been going great so far. She mostly asked me questions about my life before I got married, and then now that I'm married. Of course, I didn't tell her how we got married. She only knew that we did I always avoided topics of my husband's work because
I woke up one morning feeling sharp pains in my lower abdomen. My piercing scream woke Luca up. Hell, it would have woken anybody in the neighbouring houses up if not for the fact that the house was situated away from people.It felt like sharp razor-like pains in my lower abdomen. I was not a religious person, but I found myself praying to whoever was listening to please protect my baby.“Luca please,” I cried out. “Make it stop, please,” I screamed as I squeezed the skin of his hand in my palm. “I'm sorry I'm hurting you,” I said between screams. He looked down on his hand and back at me before shaking his head. “You’re the one hurting. Do whatever you need to feel better.”Gabriel entered the room shortly after Luca said that. “Dr Martin said she can drive here now, but she also said it's better we bring your wife to her clinic in case it's a more serious issue than you assume.”Luca let out a low growl at his words. He looked like he was going to yell at Gabriel for his words,
A knock sounded at the door the following morning, making me groan loudly in irritation. Luca didn't sleep on the bed with me that morning.I made it pretty obvious that I didn't want him in bed by how I lay in the middle with my limbs sprawled out on the bed in an awkward fashion. Luckily, he took the hint and sat on the couch. When he tried to talk to me again, I simply turned to the other side, leaving him staring at my back. When I opened my eyes in the morning, he was gone.“Who is it?” I called out.“I'm really sorry, ma'am. Your friends are here again and they insist on coming to see you. I don't know what to do,” came Gabriel's voice.“Tell them I'm busy, and I can't see anyone now,” I yelled out from my cosy position on the bed.I heard shuffling of feet behind the door, but I could still tell that Gabriel was still there.“What again, Gabriel?”“They said they wouldn't leave unless you asked them out yourself,” he said.I kissed the top of my teeth as I stood up grudgingly,
“And what job does your husband do that scares you so much?” Dr. Payne asked one afternoon during our sessions.My head snapped up so I could meet her gaze. “What are you talking about?”“You mentioned that you're scared of your child's life because of the nature of your husband's job,” she said with a slight frown. “Can't you remember that?”I racked my brain, but I couldn't remember saying anything like that. Shaking my head slowly, I spoke again. “I can't remember saying something like that.”“So I'm wrong then, that's not the case?” She asked, crossing one leg over the other in her usual fashion, then pushing her large framed glasses further up her nose. I fiddled with my wedding band on my finger, wondering what the best response to that question was. “No, you're not wrong,” I whispered.“So that means you're scared of getting hurt and endangering your child because of your husband's work. Has he put you in harm's way recently? Do you think that might be contributing to your r
I looked from the man to Alice and back to the man. My face was still stinging from the impact of his hard palm on my cheek when I opened my mouth to speak. “What do you mean she's my sister? I'm pretty sure I would know if I had any other siblings for over twenty years that I have been alive,” my voice trailed off towards the end as it clicked in my head.Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know that the man I thought was my father was not. That meant I could have a whole line of siblings that I was unaware of.The thought that they would all be crazy like Alice crossed my mind, and I shivered. I couldn't believe that I had a sister or that she was the crazy lady with me all this while.“Do you know what started the feud between my clan and Luca's?” Santos asked, ignoring my question as he walked away from the pole and to a chair I had not noticed in all that time. My eyes followed his every movement until he sat on it and returned his gaze to my direction. I shook my head in response
“Don Luca, we have a big problem,” Marco said as he walked up to me. “I can see that, what's happening?” I asked, looking around me.My men were scampering from one place to the other in the compound, so much that my presence went unnoticed. “There's a strange gas that was released in the house, it made a few people drop like flies. I'm not sure if they are just unconscious or it's something worse. We're having everyone evacuated before anything worse happens.”An alarm bell went off inside of my head. “Where are my wife and daughter?” I asked, making an attempt to go into the mansion.Marco sidestepped me. “Your wife wasn't in the house sir.”“And Hailey? Where is Hailey?” I demanded.“Mathias has her, Maria and Tracy stay at one of the safe houses alongside your sisters but I don't know which,” he responded.“Find out this instance and let me know.”“Sir, the less we know about their current location, the safer they are,” he argued. I took two angry steps closer to him, sizing hi
“How is this….how are you…I don't understand,” I spluttered. It was either my brain had gone radio silent, or I was just slow like Alice had said because I could not make sense of the situation.She gave me a few seconds to try to process things, and when she saw that I wasn't able to, she spoke up. “Let me make it easier for you, I kidnapped you,” she said with a sinister smile that made me want to puke.“So you see,” she started, dropping the pair of glasses on the table and picking up the blade that was used to free her. “My mafia needed inside information on Luca's mafia, so I decided to go through you. It took days of my tech guy doing his tech thing for us to finally find a social media presence for you. Although it turned out you had just opened the account that day. You live a very sad life, if I may say,” she tutted.“Anyway. You weren't giving me the information I wanted, so I suggested the therapist thing. It wasn't at all difficult to rent a space, place a few members of
Luca's POV“We've been driving for quite some time. I think we would have found her SUV if it were here to see.” Gabriel said, taking the words right out of my intrusive thoughts. I've been forcing myself to ignore the fact that my wife's car was clearly not in sight. “I'll just drive around this street one more time then,” I said, stepping on the gas to increase my speed. “She's not here, boss,” Gabriel said, and I only hummed in response but showed no sign that I had heard him.“She's not here!” He said, louder this time, causing me to step on the brake so hard that our bodies lurched forward in the car. I glared at him so hard until he cowered. “I'm sorry, boss. You were driving at a speed that was going to get us pulled over by the police.”Scoffing, I shook my head in disdain. I was irritated with myself, with the fact that I couldn't even protect my own wife. “I can't have a repeat of what happened a year ago, Gabriel. I really cannot,” I said, feeling my tough facade slipp
Alice struggled against her restraints, gnashing her teeth at him. “Who are you, and what do you want with us?”The man's face came into view, and I frowned slightly. It was a boy actually, he didn't look a day over fifteen years old. His voice sounded a lot more mature, I would have guessed he was in his late twenties if I hadn't seen his face. “Please let her go. She has nothing to do with me, and she doesn't know anything,” I pleaded on my friend's behalf. Alice looked scared shitless, like she would piss her pants any time soon.“Way to go, Nazlynn. You meet your friend for the first time ever and get her kidnapped,” I said to myself mentally. I couldn't let them hurt her. Alice could already clearly see that she's missing something about my life.The boy just stood there and stared at me. “Do you know him or something?” Alice whispered to me.I shook my head, “I've never seen him before.”He stared at me for a long time without saying a word. His face was void of any facial exp
She scrunched up her nose, and her eyebrows pulled together in a manner that screamed confusion. “You mentioned it when you told me about your nightmares some time ago,” she said.I nodded. “I think you should do what you think is best for your child. You know it's not just yourself that you have to take care of or look out for,” she said, giving me a look that my mother would give me when she was trying to make me see a point that I am intentionally blind to.We talked some more, and I told her everything about everything, going into more details than I did when I sent that long text message. For some odd reason, I felt really calm around her, like I could tell her anything at all. Which was surprising considering how much I was freaking out when I got here.I had come to meet with her to get some advice on what I should do and how I should do it, but here she was telling me that the decision was all mine to make. Just sitting down and talking to her did help me feel better, thou
I agreed to meet up with Alice two days after she had sent that text. Coincidentally, we were in the same city, so it wouldn't be too much of a hassle. She said it was important we met up, and I was curious as to why.“I already fed her, but in case she gets whiny again, give her water in her bottle,” I said to Tracy, crouching down so I could give Hailey a big kiss.The only thing I hated more than being away from my baby was being away from my baby.“I'm going out,” I said to Luca when I saw him in the hallway. He was speaking to some of the members of our security team. He frowned, giving me a once over. “Where are you off to?” “I'm going to meet with someone,” I responded briefly, checking my reflection in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall. Luca dismissed the small gathering of men before turning his attention to me. “Who? You don't have any friends. You're not exactly the most social person,” Luca pointed out. I froze. He had a point. Considering everything that has
Luca walked towards me in a predatory type of way. “Hi princess,” he greeted Hailey before taking her off of me. I stilled as he passed by me, keeping my eyes on Enzo at the other side of the room, who looked half as uncomfortable as I did. “Judging by the fact we've been married for almost two years, you should know that I know you better than yourself,” I heard Luca say from behind me before hearing the door shut and then the sound of a luck turning.I whipped around and was shocked to see an empty space behind me. “What just happened?” I asked Enzo, who was just staring at me.“Your husband just locked us in,” he stated simply.“Yes, I can see that. But why?” I asked as my panic level started rising. Enzo hopped off the chair he was sitting on and started walking towards me. “I asked him how I could get you to talk to me. He said you have a thing for eavesdropping on his conversations, so we decided to see if it'll work. We left the door open a bit, sprinkled your name into the
You're really not going to talk to me at all?” I heard Enzo ask, making me sigh.I had come down the staircase the next morning only to almost bump into him at the bottom. I increased my pace so I could disappear from him as quickly as possible, but Enzo just wouldn't let me be.“I thought I made that clear enough, but apparently I didn't, seeing how you're currently trying to talk to me,” I replied with a fake smile.“Nazlynn,” he called out softly, taking a step in my direction.My eyes searched his. I could still see fragments of the little boy who had left for Atlanta years back, but I could also see something darker. The kind of darkness that you are bound to be exposed to while working with the mafia.I was one to talk, considering how I'm married to a mafia don who is the rival to my biological father who is also a mafia don.“I'm not ready for the conversation you're trying to have, Enzo. I would like to get through one day without reminding myself of how I failed you as a si