~ISABELLA~ After pacing up and down, trying to calm myself down after I just signed my life away to Antonio, I took out my cell phone to call Sarah. I needed to vent, and she was the only person that I could talk to. Antonio had already left for the club or wherever, so he was not going to be around to stop me from doing what I just thought of. Sarah picked up the phone after the fourth ring. “Isabella? Can you hear me?!” She screamed from the noise that was in her background. She was already at the club and it was 8 PM. “Can you go outside? Please, Sarah.” There was a long pause before she came back on the line, and she sounded to be far from the noise. “Hey, where are you?” I went to the door, opened it, and peeked around to see if Melo wasn’t outside my door and it was clear. “I’m at Antonio’s place. Long story, but I’ll explain when I get to you.” “Oh fuck, what’s going on?” I quickly went to my closet and changed into jeans, a sweater, and sneakers. I was not
~ISABELLA~ When we arrived outside the alley behind the club, I got out of Sarah's car and got dressed in the short, black dress that I bought when Antonio took me shopping. I also put on the stilettos that I brought with me, loosened my hair, and allowed it to flow over my shoulders. I took the little make-up mirror that I brought with me and applied lipstick on my lips. I was so proud of myself as I took the face mask that Sarah and I got from a bouncer in the club. He was close to her. "Are you sure that he won't see you, Bella? This is very risky," Sarah raised her concerns as she got dressed into her club clothes. I turned to her after I was done fixing my face mask, "Relax, he won't even smell me anywhere," I smiled at her. "If he sees you, I wasn't involved, okay?" "Sarah!" I placed my hand on my waist and chuckled. "I still need this job, and I don't want to die yet," she locked the car doors, and we headed toward the back door. "He won't do anything to you a
~ANTONIO~ "Giovanni, how did it go?" I finally checked up on him after he revealed to me that Dante was after me. If he had no idea that I knew what he was up to and had hired someone to mess up around my territory, he was going to let his guard down and give me enough time to formulate a plan to strike. One thing about my line of business was that you always had to look after your back. Anyone could be your enemy with their own agendas or just be people working for your enemy who want to take you down. You always had to know the game and the rules. "He did not suspect anything. He gave me another task to be a spy around your area and find any weaknesses that he can use against you." "Oh, I see. It is very brave of him to think that he can take me down. Very well then, I want you to tell him about a fake delivery that I will be doing tomorrow at 2 PM in Columbus." "Cocaine delivery?" Giovanni asked. "Yes, Gio. A cocaine delivery. Call me if you think that he is enthusi
~ISABELLA~ I felt so sick when I realized that Antonio was the same guy that I was happily dancing and chatting with earlier, and the same guy that I had a very steamy encounter with in the restroom. I couldn't believe it. "Antonio... How?" Was all that I could utter. I was so shocked and thought that maybe I was going to wake up from a dream. It couldn't be that I had just had sex with my mortal enemy. The same man that I could never stand and promised that he would never get me. I was shocked. "I'm surprised that you still don't know the sound of my voice. Come on, angel, let's go home," he held out his hand for me to take. I looked at him and knew that I wouldn’t be able to go home with him, let alone sleep under the same roof as him. I wondered why it was so easy for me to like him when I couldn't see his face. For a moment, I missed the guy I bumped into and thought that he could be my escape for the night. I missed something that was never there. "I'm not
~ISABELLA~ When we got home, I ran straight to my room, locked the door behind me, and cried. I wondered if my father even cared about the things that had been happening to me ever since he sold me to Antonio. I wondered if he knew how miserable I was and wanted to escape. At this point, I wasn't even sure that I would be able to get away when I tried to escape from him. I guessed that Sarah was right. I should have never gone to the club. Antonio would have never found me. I would be somewhere far from him. Safe. I jumped when I heard a knock on the door. I got up from the floor, wiped my face, and opened the door. "May I come in?" He asked. He looked at me with an annoyed expression. I wondered what he was annoyed about when I was the one who was supposed to be annoyed at him. I just rolled my eyes, stood aside, and opened the door for him to come inside. I closed it, folded my arms on my chest, and waited for him to say whatever he wanted to say. "Do you real
~TOM~ After knocking off work, I went straight to Nightingale Club in hopes that I was going to see her. I found myself thinking a lot about her in the past few days, and I couldn't get her off my mind. I figured that if I found her in the club and talked her out of what she signed up for with Antonio, I was going to run away with her. It wasn't an option for me to take Antonio on because he had more power than I did. He knew people who could make my life a little difficult, so I was not prepared to risk anything. Isabella and I loved each other and had been through so much together. When her father found her a job at the club, I reacted like any normal boyfriend would. I hated to see my girl working in an environment where every man would glare at her body and fantasize about her. But when I got inside the club around 7 PM, there was no sign of Bella. When I spotted her friend, Sarah, I walked behind her at the bar and tapped her on the shoulder. She was getting drinks
~ISABELLA~ The following night, around 7 PM, I went out of my room in hopes that Antonio wasn't around. I needed something to drink and didn't want to bother the lady who was assigned to help me with whatever I needed. But to my unfortunate surprise, I found Antonio in the living room on a call. I realized that it was too late for me to turn back and decided to rush to the kitchen. I thought that I was going to get myself a drink, maybe a snack, and then rush back to my room. But when I heard his footsteps behind me in the kitchen, every bone in my body froze. "You haven't said a word to me after the incident. Are you angry at me?" He asked. I closed my eyes and wondered how the fuck I even got here. I wondered how I was even going to get myself away from him for good. I turned around slowly and looked at him, "I'm not mad, Antonio. I'm not mad that you're a murderer." He scoffed as he walked to me, "I wouldn't have murdered them on your account if you didn't run
~ISABELLA~ When Antonio and I got back from seeing my father, we found the dinner table ready for us. He insisted that we have dinner before he left for the club. It was awfully quiet, and the room was only filled by the clinking of our forks on the plates. I kept thinking about Tom and what he said. He offered to help me get away from Antonio, but I didn't know if I could trust him. "Do you like the food?" Antonio asked, obviously attempting to start a conversation and break the tension in the air. "Good. It's always good." "Tom... What did he want?" I looked at him across me, picked up the glass of wine, and sipped. "He was my boyfriend." "Was. Exactly. So, what did he want?" He asked again. I swallowed and placed down my glass of wine. "He wanted to see me." He placed his fork on his plate and looked at me. "I heard him, Angel. He wants to take you away from me, doesn't he?" "Then why did you ask?" He smirked, "I wanted to see if you were going to be honest