|Rocco|The shock on my face was too much to hide. I never expected such an attack. Even the grip I had on her hand softened immediately and she used that opportunity to remove her hand from mine.“What do.. what are you… I mean, what do you mean by that? My father killed yours?” A successful statement struggled to find itself out of my mouth. I was really dumbfounded.The only thing I knew at that time was the fact that Luca was responsible for the murder instead of her mother. The investigation to get several pieces of evidence was still underway so I didn’t tell her yet. This new revelation got me wondering how her father killed her dad and why.“What do you mean? Can you explain in clearer terms? I really cannot understand what I just heard.” I had to let her know; my brain refused to digest it because it was too big.She left the room in silence and my shoulders dropped in defeat. She only made me realize the reason why she couldn’t laugh with me anymore, so dating was out of the
|Irena|I knew I had to tell him sooner or later. I wouldn’t be able to hide it forever, so it was a perfect opportunity to pour out my mind when he grabbed my hand. His face said it all; he couldn’t do or say anything after the revelation. Truthfully, there was nothing he could ever say to ease my pains, sorrows, or hurt. His father had committed a heinous crime, and there was no way I was going to overlook that just because I loved him.I stomped out of the room to see Bojana texting someone furiously, but I didn’t care about her. I just walked off to join Auntie in the restaurant like I had always done. I needed to be apart from him before I did anything crazy. The extraordinary pain I was feeling inside was too much to explain, but I just had to carry the cross of the cruel fate.“Are you sure you don’t need to rest? You look like you might faint any moment from now,” she turned to me. Her forehead was folded with concern as her hand roamed my face and neck to check how I was feel
Ever since Rocco was brought to my house to live with us, something caught my attention, but I displaced it because I didn’t want to look jealous of Bojana’s closeness to him now that they all had one room to share.The very first time was when I came out of the room to have a glass of water on their second night in my house. She was sitting in one of the chairs and didn’t expect that someone would come out at that time.Immediately my leg connected to the small chair on the way, which I didn’t see because of the sleep in my eyes; she jumped up in horror and clenched the phone to her chest.“I didn’t know that you were here,” she was firm but the challenge of trying not to stutter was evident in her voice.“I didn’t have to announce my presence everywhere, do I?”Even though I was half asleep, my mouth wasn’t tied, so I fired back at her. She didn’t have the right to tell me how to walk in my own home when I was only providing shelter for them. I heard her whisper a low “I’ll call you
|Rocco|Lately, I had observed that Bojana had been a bit weird. She had been hiding little information from me and would step out to take her calls, respond to her chats, and was unusually quiet. I was tempted to ask her, but I knew if she wanted me to know, I wouldn’t have to ask, so I decided to let her be and wait for her to come around by herself.That very day, she woke up very early and rushed out of the house that she had to meet with someone after helping me dress the wound for the morning.“Did you not get a good sleep? Your eyes look puffy,” I remarked, and she only shook her head before muttering a low “I am fine. I guess I need to take more rest.”We left it at that since I didn’t want to probe her too much. No matter how close we were, I still needed to maintain the boundaries of taking care of our personal issues whichever way we deem fit.“I will be going home today,” I continued.Without stopping, she responded that she was already aware of that because Martins told h
|Rocco’s Past|That very day, the rain poured like it would flood the whole city. It was like never before; everyone wondered why there was so much rain at that time considering the festival was always held during the dry season to avoid any disruption of rain.The street bubbled with several foreigners mixed with the locals as they all trooped into the shrine where the statue was kept to make their wishes. The Azum festival was the biggest festival that had ever been celebrated in the entire country. Everyone dipped their hands into the yellow cauliflower mixed with dye at the different bowls placed at several joints in front of the shrine as a form of sanctification before entering for the celebration.The priests had finished the prayer rites, gave rules and guidance, dos and don’ts, the places off limits, and every other thing they needed to know before declaring the festival opened for the year.“It’s so crazy. People are really here from all the corners of the world,” the man wo
“You have to kill Bruno on sight if catching him alive proves difficult,” their boss instructed them before dispersing them.Bruno Lorenzo had been a terror in town ever since he got the backing of the high-ranking people in power. His brutality was concerning, and something had to be done to it before he wiped away the entire city.Every single day, he would kill nothing less than two people in the most terrifying way. He once had someone covered alive with acid and threw the body out in the rain without a proper burial. Everyone knew he was the perpetrator, but nothing anyone could do about it.“Everyone is afraid of Bruno Lorenzo because no one wants to lose their lives,” one of the police officers remarked as they deliberated on what to do about him.“He seems to be on a psychopath level. How can anyone even do this?” Andrej remarked as he went through his profile“He’s got to be kidding me,” Marko exclaimed, flipping through the page ferociously.“Unbelievable right? That’s why w
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
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
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