Chapter 4

Marissa

Swallowing hard, I tear my eyes from my parents to meet his gaze. “H-how long until I h-have to decide?” He looks down at his expensive watch on his arm.

“Five seconds.”

My mouth falls open in shock as my head goes blank. What should I do? When the five seconds have passed he reaches behind his back to pull out a gun. My mother whimpers from her seat. Quickly I reach out my hands to grab onto his arms. “I’ll go! Please don’t hurt them.” I beg him. A smile stretches along his lips.

“That is a good decision.” He nods his head to the doorway leading to our rooms and the front door and the men move in unison towards them. Then he grabs my arm and leads me to the back door. The man that had his hand on me in the living room is following behind us. “Put on your shoes.” I do as I’m told. When I reach for my jacket he grabs me and drags me towards the front door. Okay. So no jacket? At the door one of the men stands with an umbrella ready to lead us out to the car.

“Wait. I have to say goodbye to my parents.” When he doesn’t stop to allow me this I grab the doorpost. “Please. Just a hug and goodbye.” He gives me an irritated glare but then he nods and turns towards the living room. He lets go of my arm as we enter and I throw myself in the arms of my parents.

“We are so sorry, Marri. So sorry. We never planned for this to happen. We love you.” My parents keep apologizing and hold me tight in embrace. I squeeze them back with all my might but too soon his strong hand grabs me and pulls me away from them. “We love you!”

I don’t have time to ask them what this is about or how they have such a large debt to a man like Mr. Falaguerra. “I love you!” I cry out to them. My tears are flowing freely down my cheeks as we make it out to the most posh of the cars. A man opens the back door and Mr. Falaguerra motions for me to get in. He then slides in after me. The driver pulls away from the curb and soon we are on our way.

I sit as far away from Mr. Falaguerra as the seat allows with my arms wrapped around myself. “Your phone.” Mr. Falaguerra says and holds out his hand towards me. I give it to him without any resistance and he puts it in his pocket. He then picks up a laptop and starts to work on that, ignoring my presence completely.

About twenty minutes into the ride my tears had stopped and I worked up my courage to speak to him. “Where are we going?”

“To your new home.” Is all he says as he keeps tapping away on his computer. The car falls silent again.

“Where is that?” I ask when I see that he’s not planning on giving me more information.

“You do not need to know that.”

“What are you going to do with me?” My voice breaks as new tears threaten to fall. He doesn’t say anything, just keeps tapping away on his laptop. I bite my lip as the tears spill over once again.

After several minutes he speaks again. “You are my property. I will do with you as I please. I have paid a large amount for you.” I whimper at his statement and pull my feet up, wrap my arms around my knees and shrink myself into a little ball. “No shoes on the seat.” He says without taking his eyes from the screen and I do as told immediately.

After traveling for another two hours we finally came to a stop. Mr. Falaguerra puts away his laptop as the driver gets out and comes around to open the door. I figure that it would be to my advantage to be obedient so I follow him out of the car. The house that stands in front of us is more like a mansion or castle, with its gray stone facade and white pillars framing the double front doors. It is a two story building, but considering how high the building is there has to be really high ceilings. I don’t have too much time to take in the outside of the building as Mr. Falaguerra swiftly makes his way up the stairs and through the open doors.

As I enter I see him striding towards the right and I follow. “This is the dining room.” He gestures into the large room that holds a table large enough to seat at least thirty people. “Through there is the main kitchen.” He gestures at the door to the left and turns back out to the entrance hall. “All meals are served in the dining hall. Breakfast is at seven am, lunch at twelve pm and dinner at seven pm. You are to be present at all meals unless you have a reasonable explanation to be excused.”

He leads the way through the hall and into the first room on the left. It is a large room with polished marble floors and large crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Along the far wall is a large bar and around the perimeter of the room small there are groups of armchairs and high tables. “This is the ballroom, and here is the sitting room.” There was a set of double doors that he strode towards. This room had a bar along the far wall as well. Scattered around the room were groups of couches, armchairs and high tables. A large mantelpiece sat at the wall directly opposite of the door to the ballroom.

In the entrance hall he gestured to a door on the right. “That is the office where I receive business partners. You are not to go there without my permission.” He says and gives me a stern look and I nod. “And through that door is an indoor pool.” He gestured to the left of the staircase where I could see a door disappearing behind the staircase.

He continues to the large staircase that splits in two at the middle, one going to the right and one to the left. “To the right are the servants quarters and their gym. Your bodyguard, Luca, is staying in the first room to the left in the hallway.”

“My bodyguard?”

He turns to me with a smirk on his lips. “We can call him your guard if that makes you feel better.” I shake my head at that. He leads the way to the left. “The first rooms are guestrooms or spare rooms. Here is the gym.”

He opens a set of double doors in the middle of the hallway. The gym is fairly large with several machines and free weights. Following him farther into the corridor he stops at the last door to the right and gestured to the double doors at the end of the hallway. “That is my room. That is my private office.” He gestured to the last door to the left of his room. “And this is your room.”

He opens the door to the right and walks in. The room is large and light with a soft off-white color on the walls and the floor was hardwood. The inner wall has three large windows and a door that must lead out to a balcony. There is a large bed to the left with cream colored bedspread and pillows. Beneath the bed is a large fluffy cream carpet. To the right there are two doors and between them there is a huge TV with a couch in front.

He stands by the couch and looks at me as my eyes slowly take in the room. It was a beautiful and luxurious room. I could see that everything in this room cost more than the house me and my parents currently lived in. My eyes met his but I didn’t say anything and I tried to keep my face neutral. I think I see disappointment flash through his eyes at my lack of appreciation but it’s gone as fast as it came. He lifts his arm to look at his watch.

“It’s past nine pm now. The maid will bring you something to eat and then you should go to sleep. The maid will wake you at six am. There are a few outfits in the wardrobe. Tomorrow we are going shopping to make sure you have all the clothes you need. You are not to leave your room tonight.” Then he left the room without another word.

I just stand there, a few feet from the door and look around, wondering what the hell had happened this evening. There was a knock on the door and I jerked awake from my confused thoughts. “Ehm. Come in?” The invitation comes out sounding more like a question than an actual invite.

The door opens and an older lady enters with a tray on wheels. Her hair is more silver than her original black and her brown eyes look warm and soft in her wrinkled face. She is clad in a black dress that reached below her knees and a white apron above.

“Mr. Falaguerra said that you needed something to eat.” The lady gives me a warm smile as she pushes the cart into the room. “My name is Mrs. Costas and I’m the head maid here. If there is anything that you need you can always call for me with that phone.” She pointed at an old fashioned phone on the nightstand.

“Mr. Falaguerra is on number one, Luca, your bodyguard, is on two. I am on number three, the kitchen on number five and the maid quarters are on six. In the morning I will call on the phone to wake you up. When you are done with your dinner you can place the cart outside the door and someone will collect it. Is there anything more you need now?” I shake my head. “Then I bid you goodnight.” She gives me one last smile and leaves the room.

I walk over to the cart and look at the food. It’s a light chicken salad and water to drink. I know I am hungry but at the same time I’m feeling sick to my stomach. So instead of eating I take a look in the walk-in wardrobe. A nightgown is hanging in there, and a dress which I guess I should wear tomorrow. In the dresser I found some fresh silky underwear. They are not the type I usually wear, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Then I walked into the bathroom. It was just as luxurious as the bedroom with white marble floor and countertop and white tiles on the wall. A large bathtub and a walk-in shower took up most of the space.

I peeled off my clothes and took a long hot shower. When I walk into the bedroom I decide to try and eat a little. When I’m done I place the cart outside the room as I was instructed to do. I look at the bed. It looks big, soft and comfortable, but at the same time scary. It is not my bed and this is not my room. This is not the place I want to be.

But I feel exhausted at the same time so I lay down in the bed and pull the cover up over my head. The whole time I had been in this mansion my tears had been kept at bay, but as I lay down in the soft bed they fell once again and I cried myself to sleep.

Please leave a comment and vote if you like my story about Marissa and Antonio.