ERICA“Are you really okay?” Ami asked for the hundredth time since I came to live with them yesterday.I smiled at her. But I doubted I was able to pull it off. I hadn’t slept last night and whatever fitful sleep I’d gotten, for once it didn’t bring me dreams of Antonio, but of monsters in the shadows. It happened because I came face to face with the man who had introduced me to those monsters in the first place. He was there. In Gabriel’s home. Under the same roof as me. The thought made me shiver and Ami squeezed my fingers, comforting me without knowing what affected me. I met her gaze and she asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”I felt my eyes prickling with tears. Ami knew about monstrous fathers but I couldn’t bring myself to share what my father did to me. Antonio knew because he wouldn't leave it alone. He was stubborn and arrogant and obsessive to a point that no one could stop him when he puts his mind to it, just look at me— I was in love with him, needed him like air a
ERICA“Little devil....”My hand shook terribly as I lifted it, afraid to find out if it was a trick of my brain and at the same time dying to touch him and feel him to know that it wasn’t a dream. That it was real. The moment my fingers touched his cheek stubbled with days worth of beard, I broke into sobs. Sobs of relief, happiness and the pain of all the days that I spent without him.My knees gave out in utter relief as my heart screamed in gratitude toward whatever god heard me and sent him to me. Finally. His strong arms wrapped around me, breaking my fall and he gathered me in his embrace. His deep voice settled into my heart like a soothing balm. “My little devil...”More loud sobs left my mouth, shaking me to the core with their intensity, the tears making it hard to see him but I could feel him. He was real. He was here. “Antonio...”I cried, my hands frantic as I touched him. “You came. Oh my god... It’s really you... You are here!”He nodded and in one swift move he lifted
ERICA Unlike me Antonio slept fitfully. His sleep was riddled with nightmares and past memories. I knew it because I woke up twice from his distressed murmurs and the way he tensed in his sleep. The first time I didn’t want to wake him up but then the second time when I realised he was dreaming about me, it broke my heart. I cried as I heard his tortured groan and his whispered words filled with so much pain, that he didn't want me to leave him. I had to wake him up then, and I did so with gentleness that he deserved. When he opened his golden eyes to my soft touches and saw me, I watched relief filtering into his gaze. In his eyes I saw that he was also afraid of the possibility that this might be a dream. I kissed him with everything I have and when we parted, breathing heavily, I couldn't stop the rush of words that came out without a pause, “Ti amo, my Antonio. Ti amo tanto. Non voglio passare nemmeno un secondo della mia vita senza di te. Voglio essere tutto ciò di cui hai bisog
ANTONIOI hated to see tears in her eyes, unless she was crying from the pain followed by pleasure by my own hands. “Please, don’t...” She whispered so sweetly, her fingers digging into my shoulders as I held her by the waist. She refused to let me go, and to be honest I fucking loved this clingy side of my wife. She was adorable.If I could, I’d have spent a week locked in that bedroom, drowning in her. I'd have gorged myself up in her sweet taste without a pause until the hunger had satisfied of the last ten days or bundled her up and took her back to Italy, but there were things I needed to do before that. Our morning haze was broken by Amelia, she had come with her husband, Raphael Wolfe. But unlike him, she had come inside the cottage and knocked on the bedroom door, making it impossible to ignore her and stay in bed. Now, we all stood outside the cottage and I could feel Raphael’s eyes on me as I bid a short farewell to my little devil. I needed to have a word with Gabriel and
ANTONIOHissed conversation filtered through my brain pulling me out of the darkness. I heard the argument for a few seconds, gathering that Z was admonishing Summer for making him do this which made the possibility of Summer doing this without her husband’s knowledge a fact. When I opened my eyes I took in my surroundings, noticing the wide expanse of concrete floor with upper head lights and lifts at my back. They brought me to a fûcking parking lot. Hilarious. Z was the first one to notice that I was awake and I glared at him as pain throbbed at the side of my head where he had slammed the gun. Behind him I noticed two other men who stood sentry, probably guards Summer involved in her scheme without making her husband suspicious.“I should have killed you that day.” I said, noticing that they had used thick ropes to tie me to the chair. If I put my mind to it I was sure I’d be able to loosen them enough to slip out of them.“Pity, you didn’t.” He responded, crossing his arms over
ANTONIOI could feel my pulse slow as the cold started to settle in my bones. I heard someone shout before the water stopped. I blinked to get rid of the black dots and the blinding pain in my head. When I gathered my senses I looked at Summer, saw her red face, her teary eyes and I pitied her then. I pitied the elder sister standing in front of me, because I knew what it feels like to fail your younger sibling. But I also hated her. I hated her because I loved my little devil too much to not hate her sister for not protecting her.“You’ll never be the man to deserve her. I won’t ever trust you with my sister. I am going to save her from you. I won't let a monster like you to take her away from me. I won't let her saddle herself with a man like you who had twisted her mind that she didn't know right from wrong. She thinks she's in love with her rapist.”“Silence!” My roar echoed through the parking lot, Z shifted behind her, pulling her back. He was the one who had stopped the water.
SUMMERThe pain was encompassing bigger than anything I had ever felt. I want to die. Kill that vile piece of shit and commit patricide. I didn’t know how to survive with this knowledge. It was eating me from the insides like a poison injected in my veins “No!” I screamed, giving my pain an outlet as I threw the lamp against the wall of my bedroom. I hated myself so much in that moment, I wanted to grab a piece of that glass and end my existence.How did I not know?How could I not know?My sister. My little sister that I loved with everything in me and yet I was unable to protect her. I didn’t protect her when she needed it the most. Antonio was right. It hurt. Hurt more than the time when I suffered the miscarriage which had sent me into depression coupled with Erica’s kidnapping. But the miscarriage was a possibility, I had known it could happen and I was kind of prepared for it but I wasn’t prepared for this heart gutting pain that almost incapacitated me. I didn’t know what to
ANTONIO“I know nothing can bring back your sister and give you the justice you want, and I am really sorry for that.” Gabriel’s blue eyes showed the sincerity of his words as he apologized for the eighth time now. He cleared his throat and added, “As for Mac, we have decided that he would be accompanying you to Italy. He’ll be your shadow just like he has been mine and he’ll protect you for the next three years, if you’ll accept it.”I looked at the mammoth of a man, he even has a few inches on me and for the moment all I could think about was not the fact that he shot at my sister to protect his boss/bestfriend but that he drûgged my little devil. He was an accomplice when they took her from me.When I didn't say anything, Gabriel said, “I would prefer to not have any animosity between us for the sake of our wives, and move on from here and now. Erica is my little sister, I don’t want to hurt her more than I’ve already done in my ignorance and I'm sure both the sisters would prefer