Chapter 2: Speechless

CHIARA P.O.V.

I realize I can breathe freely when I see out of the corner of my eye Mr. Ferrara turn to leave, after giving me a long inspection, just like the first time I saw him at my uncle's house. I admit it, I was fascinated when I saw Wolfgang.

But even though Wolfgang Ferrara is incredibly beautiful, I know that his beauty is only a mask, because what's inside Wolfgang Ferrara is just as terrifying as the gangsters my uncle lives with. And Wolfgang must be very bad, because my uncle trusts him.

Before coming to Sicily, my father's hometown, we lived in Verona, my mother's hometown. My dad worked in a restaurant and I was studying veterinary medicine at the university. But two months after my graduation dad got sick, when my father's illness was determined to be cancer, he decided to do nothing but invite me to Sicily with the excuse that he wanted to visit his older brother and see his hometown before leaving. start chemotherapy.

So they killed my father, someone tampered with the car my father was driving. Why would someone want to kill my father? My father was not part of the mafia, he left that life when my mom got pregnant with me. But this situation only taught me that the only way to get out of the mafia is to die.

The target was us, I don't remember very well what happened, but dad saved me, he covered me with his body when someone shot and I didn't die. However, I stopped emitting sound since I witnessed my father's death and the last flashes of brightness in his eyes. That marked my mind, my heart and my soul, pain and anxiety ate away at my ability to speak. The doctor says I couldn't process the loss. He also claimed that the belt and the bruises from the trauma could be the cause of my muteness. But that's not the worst, I feel that my brightness has faded, like a withered flower with no hope of rebirth.

I can no longer speak, words have become an unattainable luxury for me. My voice has faded, and now I am mute, unable to utter a single word.

Since my father died I have also had nightmares, sometimes I felt like I couldn't breathe in the middle of the night, but I could never scream or ask for help. I had to fight it alone.

My uncle Aldo hasn't cared about me in the last two weeks that it took him to avenge my father's death, he's obsessed with that, which I don't understand, he never cared about us, he hasn't cared about me either . Then I understood that this was about respect, not because of the pain of a loss as important as that of a family member.

I live trapped in a world of shadows and fear. My uncle Aldo terrifies me even in my wildest dreams. Since my father's death, his treatment of me has become even more ruthless. I am a prisoner in my own room, and he keeps me under constant surveillance that suffocates me.

Aldo has stolen my freedom and my dreams. He doesn't allow me to leave the room he gave me. He treats me like a forgotten shadow, as if I didn't exist. And though I tried to run away once—without success, now I feel like all my strength has gone. I don't have the energy to try to escape or to face it.

Aldo is a master at breaking my heart. He knows exactly what to say to shatter my hopes. He has forbidden me to work as a Veterinarian, a passion that once made me happy. And worst of all, he has decided to snatch from my life the only hobby that made me feel alive: horseback riding. It's like he wants to erase any hint of happiness I have left.

Sometimes I wish to die, but I don't know how to carry out that wish. Aldo isn't naive enough to let me have any item that could hurt me, especially after I tried to escape. I once overheard my uncle talking to another man about my future. I'm afraid he'll use me as a bargaining chip in his dealings. I remember that the men who work for my uncle looked at me morbidly, and on one occasion, two of them tried to abuse me, but Aldo intervened and yelled at them: you must not spoil the 'merchandise'.

I look at Dad's urn with pain in my heart, but I don't hold a grudge against him for not surviving. My mom died when she gave birth to me, and when I was little my health was fragile, so my father dedicated himself to taking care of me. But I grew up, so he could rest like mom did. I don't know what is after death, but if my dad decided to think that he would meet my mother when she died, who was I to contradict him?

Today is different. For some unknown reason, my uncle allowed me to attend my father's wake. He surprised me at his unusual permission, however, he left me innocent, and I quickly concluded that it was just to demonstrate his power and control over me.

One of my uncle's trusted men, Enzo, the worst of all, approached him to whisper something in his ear. He then turned to me and Mrs. Laura.

“Go back home, I'll take care of the rest now,” Aldo ordered us. “And don't do something stupid like try to escape again, Chiara. Next time there will be a worse punishment."

The only time I tried to escape, Aldo forbade me to eat for 5 days. I nodded my head, it's the only thing I can do because Enzo began to guide us to the black Toyota with bulletproof windows.

This was my life now, controlled by my ruthless uncle.