|Rocco| I was coming back from a meeting when I sighted her on the road playing with a dog. I had searched for her for several days but no one knew where she was hiding. Now that she had appeared right in front of me, I wasn’t ready to let the chance slide. My presence must have startled her because she stepped back with each step I took nearer to her and almost fell into the ditch. I didn’t know when I rushed forward to help her even though I was leaving a safe distance because of the dog since I was allergic to their furs. “Come work for me”, I stated my offer but she responded that she would be crazy to do that. I had grounded her against her will and even threw her out as if she was nothing so her reaction was expected but I really needed to have her around me. I was losing focus and interest in everything I do because I couldn’t stop thinking about her. “You can come up with what you want and we will review it together. I promise it won’t be like the last time”, I added but o
|Irena|I never expected to run into Paul in that part of the city. He lived with us when we were in high school and we grew up together before we moved. We were neighbors and attended the same school even though we were not close at first.His stepmother was a wicked entity who frustrated the life out of the poor boy. Paul was very calm and easygoing so he wouldn’t even tell his father about the situation of things whenever he comes back from his trips.This abuse continued until the day he almost lost his life by freezing to death. He was thrown out by his stepmother and left to sleep in the cold staircase. The snow was heavy that night that he lost consciousness. His lips were blue and swollen by the time he was found by my mother who quickly rushed him to the hospital.Throughout his stay, the stepmother didn’t even bother to look for him or visit him so my mother decided to take him back to our house where he made him stay with us till his father came back. She explained everythi
|Irena|Ever since I met Paul, he has never rested over my mother’s case. He was always calling me to confirm one thing or the other. In less than three days, he had discovered many things that we missed and planned to visit the murder site so that he would find out more.“I think we will have to ask your mother some questions. That will help the investigation. There were many things that were overlooked during the initial investigation”, he said to me that morning, and I didn’t waste time.I rushed to the prison to see her but, to my surprise, I was denied access. I threw a fit, pleaded and did all I could, but the answer remained the same. I couldn’t see her till further notice.Pacing up and down the prison’s grounds, I thought about several options that might help, but none came until one person came to mind.“Rocco!” His men denied me access into the Villa and I didn’t have his number, so I had to wait all morning in front of his house, for him to leave his house. He finally cam
Only the sound of running water was heard in the room where I was thrown. I couldn’t understand what was happening and why I had to be treated that way. So many questions ran through my mind as I silently waited for what to come next, but nothing or nobody seemed to be there with me.“Where is Rocco? Does he even know about this? Do I have to go through this truly?”, I muttered to myself as I adjusted my bum on the cold floor.For several hours, the sound of running water continued and everywhere started getting chilly. I was in a big polo shirt, so it didn’t take much time before the cold got to me.“Hey! Is anyone out there? I am getting cold”, I called out with my teeth clattering, and the cold was getting unbearable, but only silence bounced back at me.What seemed to be another two hours passed by, but nobody came in. This time, I was shivering hard already. I was on the verge of passing out when I heard the door open and got dragged on its hinge.“Finally”, I thought, and waited
He had the habit of always walking closer to me in silence whenever I asked a question, or he wanted something from me, but I had not learned how to stand my ground and not get afraid of him. He was scared no matter what. No one knew whatever was going on in his head and for someone like that handling a gun, I surely had to be extremely careful.“Do I have to announce to you that I am coming to my house? Get out of the way”, he growled and walked past me, deeper into the garden.“He could have just walked without intimidating me. My heart almost jumped out of my heart”, I sighed in relief before resuming my play with Rex, who was happy to see me.I didn’t know that he had made provisions for my dog to be brought to where I was. I couldn’t help but blush at his thoughtfulness.“At least, he’s considerate”, I pouted in happiness.I noticed that he had been washed and taken care of. He was also fed and even had a cage but was put on a leash in order not to wander around, and I couldn’t s
|Irena|I knitted deep into the night because I really didn’t like the choice of clothes Bojana picked for me aside from the suits. They were too short and hugging my body in ways I was not comfortable with. That was the reason why I decided to get my knitting materials.The movie I was seeing was also addicting that I didn’t know that it was few minutes to five in the morning. I was already struggling with sleep, but I wanted to finish the top I was knitting before I found myself snoring already.Since I slept deeply, and I was insanely tired, I couldn’t hear the continuous knocking from Rocco until he broke the door down and rushed in.“Are you okay? Is something wrong? You are not dead, right?” his questions filled the room and I couldn’t open my eyes anymore in embarrassment.I had woken up at that moment but the position I slept in was not palatable. I was exposing all my thighs and panties under the short night gown. It would be a great embarrassment if I moved or tried to adjus
|Irena|I was so pissed off with the way he slapped Rex away from my hand. I only wanted Rex to greet him, but he just went on to hurt my poor baby. Rex had to run away and hide in his house because of the shock and I had to do a lot of work before he came out to me once again.“He could have just walked away. Why would he do that to my poor baby?,” I sniffled, trying to suppress my tears.“I thought he was not as bad as I had thought, but he keeps proving me wrong. How can anyone even be hostile to animals? He’s taking his mafia’s boss title too seriously, if not, why is his heart so dark and terrible? Oh my poor Rex”, I kept lamenting as I took care of Rex by rubbing its back slowly.Rex fell asleep so I decided to take a walk in the garden to calm myself down. I had taken a three-minute walk when I came across a crystal clear river flowing gently. The fishes were visible and having their quiet life. “What can I do to be free and happy like these fishes? They don’t even have to wor
|Rocco|It was another night of pain for me. I had yelled at her for wanting to die when I myself do not want to live daily. I understood her pain and everything she was going through because even if our situations were different, the emotional pains it left was the same.I couldn’t imagine how she was coping with her mother being in prison for several years. When Richy brought her profile, I realized that she had gone through a whole lot in the span of those years.Since I rarely have a soft spot for people, I usually do not care about them but she was different. Something about her was soft as snowflakes and screamed to be protected. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to protect her without looking weak.To hell with love, it makes you vulnerable and I cannot afford to be someone like that. At least, not at the moment.That night’s episode of nightmare was terrible. I woke up to all my bed drenched in my own tears and a figure collapsed on my bed, under me.“I didn’t call f
I just realized that we haven’t really discussed Auntie and who exactly she was. She got introduced to me by my mother, and I grew up relying on her when we moved to the town. She helped me so much and brought me to stay with her when my mother got arrested for murder.We didn’t have any situation or opportunity to talk deeper about her, and I had always felt too comfortable to be bothered by all that. All Auntie did in her entire life was cook. She would cook even on days when she was sick to the bones.There was a time she collapsed while cooking because she was doing it nonstop. The funniest thing was that there was no customer to eat all that she had cooked because it was midnight. I came out to have a glass of water and saw her cooking aggressively before she passed out.“You should have just taken it slow. Why were you cooking this hard?” I scolded her as I attended to her in her room“I have to prepare it for them. If not, they might stay hungry the entire year,” she groaned in
The stare of horror on their faces showed how scary my screams and dripping palms were. We all stood there looking at each other, my body trembling with hatred and disbelief. I couldn’t comprehend all that I had just watched. A head banging headache swept me off my feet as my chest rose and fell.Before I knew it, I was on the floor with dim eyes. My body couldn’t bear the weight of oppression from my emotions. I had broken down once again.“Let’s help her up! Irena!” Auntie’s scream barely kept me awake before I passed out finally.I woke up to the fluid being passed in my body and saw the same doctor that treated Rocco during the first gunshot standing close to the door and discussing with the men. I couldn’t hear what they were discussing, and I wasn’t even in the right frame of mind to eavesdrop.“We will talk more about it when she wakes up,” was another line I heard before I slept off again.I woke up to see everyone having dinner, and they all rushed to my side when they saw me
|Irena|I realized they were trying to distract us as I cried in the morgue. My mother’s body was filled with several marks that had come from bullying and torturing. It was then it dawned on me that all those bruises I saw when I last visited her were from the maltreatment she had been facing in the correctional center.“What a foolish daughter I am. I didn’t even think deeply into what the bruises could mean. How did I end up believing that she only tripped and wounded herself?” several thoughts filled my mind as we headed to the center to get the rest of her thingRocco held me in his arms as Paul drove the car silently to the location. His soft but huge arms were rubbing my shoulder to keep me calm, but I had so much going on in my head even though my mouth was not moving.The guards at the center were taking longer than usual to attend to my request until Rocco stepped in. I had previously told him to wait for me in the car while I go alone to get her things but when I saw that t
“We have to move faster than their investigations. We have done a lot to keep this buried for years. They cannot just come to ruin all our hard work at this point,” one of the men sitting at a round table with sushi and several sashimi dishes glaring at them.“That’s why we have been taking them out one after the other. We cannot allow any loophole in this operation. One of our men is on the way to give us the report on the progress of the operation,” another responded, reaching for his cup for a drinkThe other men released a uniform groan as they released their ties, buttering their frustrations. They had all been unsettled ever since Irena found the files they had been searching for all year. They had turned the house upside down over and over but none of them could find where her mother kept it.“We already concluded that she didn’t have the file. I don’t understand how that bitch managed to hide the file till her daughter found it. We even had the inmates bully and beat her just
|Irena|I couldn’t believe all that I had just heard. My head tried to process it over and over but it felt like it would explode if I thought about it too much. What in the world happened to Rocco? How did he manage to stay calm in all of that? What was the reason behind him keeping quiet and holding back for so long? I had millions of questions running through my head but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him any.“You smart fool!” those were the only words that flew out of my mouth softly. I couldn’t begin to imagine the pain he had been enduringThe day I showed him the picture of my father, his father was also there. How did he not react? Why did he not explain to me and bore the hatred from me? I had hurt him with my words and actions but he never for once tried to bail himself out.“Why did you not tell me? Why did you not point it out that your father was also a victim of Bruno? How did you even manage to stay in that hell and pretend as if nothing was happening?” my tears flowed
It was around the fourth year of my stay in Italy. At that time, I had bonded with everyone in the villa and became a legal member of the family. My father had started taking me to meetings and made me handle some of his tasks because of how good I was.I couldn’t hide my extreme hatred and disgust at first. It was too hard to pretend. The person that killed my mother was the one I had been adoring, worshipping, and calling father all these while. No doubt, he was also the one that killed my father. He ruined me and my family and also had the nerve to play on my memory.“Is something wrong? You haven’t said anything much or even trained for days ever since you woke up. Are you mad at me for hitting your head on the pole?”Bojana couldn’t stop feeling bad because she thought my attitude changed due to the incident but after assuring her that the accident was not the issue and that I just needed some time to myself, she decided to let me be till I would come around by myself.It took me
Of course, he was happy at the proposal but he was also someone else’s slave so the uncertainty of his master releasing him was the biggest obstacle.“Thank you..” His eyes lit up with happiness; everyone could tell that the offer gladdened his heart so there was no way he could even turn down the offer or say he wasn’t pleased with it“Once again, thank you for the offer but.. I don’t know… I am” his stuttering got in the line of his statement as he hesitatedHe didn’t want to upset both his master and his new savior. Thankfully, the person he saved already knew what the problem was so he came to the rescue“What? Are you afraid of your master? Do you think he won’t let you go?” he asked and Kovac nodded immediatelyHe had just said what was bothering him and with the look of things, it seemed like the Savior already thought of it too and how he would handle it.The man’s huge hands brushed his hair slightly in adoration as his lips curled into a smile for the first time he had ever
He woke up to find the ship fighting for balance in the middle of the sea and after a slight interrogation from two people, he found out that the ship had been sailing for almost a full day and he had been out the whole time.Rushing to the other side of the ship, he tried checking everywhere to see if there would be any face he could recognize but no one seemed familiar until he ran into one of the men that came to Mateha’s house. If he had his memories intact, he would have bolted from the scene before the man saw him, but unfortunately, he got captured before he could even say a word and was locked in the storage for the rest of the day without any food or water.The second day, he was dragged out by one of the hefty men, with his face looking like an overgrown garden because of the multitude of beards attached to his chin. His head was long and high in the center, making everything about his visuals traumatizing.“You think you can go anywhere? We own you now! We are your boss!” h
They marched back into the town and were led by the boy in the hood who knew Marko’s house. Unknown to them, Andrej had told his wife that if he doesn’t come back within the hours of one and two in the morning, she should flee with her son, Kovac.“I think something must have happened; we need to escape right now,” she tapped Irena’s mom, who had dozed off while waiting with her.They didn’t waste any time and rushed up to pack after waking the kids. Thanks to Kovac’s mom, they were able to escape before Bruno’s men came to the house.“Find them! Don’t ever let them get away!” His voice trembled with every word that came out of them as he gulped down the alcohol from the bottle in his hand every minute.They searched for them but couldn’t find them until they had to withdraw at daybreak. Unknown to them, they were hiding at the grandma’s house till the coast was clear. Early at dawn, they rushed to the dock, Marko told them, and took the first boat to Kovac’s town, where they settled