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I didn’t know what he meant or what he was planning, but I was as terrified as I had ever been. When he took hold of my arms I screamed out.
But he merely turned me around to a blank window along one wall. He pressed a switch that looked like a light switch and in that instance the window changed so that it was no longer blank and instead we could see into what must have been the room next to ours.
In that room I saw Cornelio covered in blood and with his body bent over in evident agony. I rushed toward the window and hammered my fists against it, calling out Cornelio’s name. “Cornelio! Cornelio!”
“He can’t hear you. The room he’s in is soundproof. He also can’t see you, but lucky for us we can see him.”
I didn’t know what he had planned, but I knew that it was nothing good.
The room Cornelio was in contained a table and two chairs. On one side was a large closet but I turned my eyes away from it, not wanting to see the contents. I could imagine what it contained: weapons and implements of torture.
My whole body was cold like ice, yet I felt sweat drip down my back and between my breasts. I didn’t know how I could feel those things when I could barely breathe to get enough oxygen into my lungs.
Marco switched on what must have been an intercom and spoke to two soldiers who were in the same room as Cornelio. “Go ahead. We’re ready.”
I turned back to the viewing window, my eyes wide and holding my breath. I could no longer breathe.
Cornelio was trying to hide it, but I saw a flicker of fear on his face. He might be a seasoned soldier who had worked for my father for many years, but he knew he was staring death in the face. He was trapped and outnumbered at the hands of a cruel enemy who wanted revenge against the Società.
Marco stared at me. “I own you now, I thought you understood that. There is no escape for you, and you will never return to your family. Each time you try, more people will die because of your actions.”
“Please don’t do this. I won’t try to escape again. No one else has to die because of me. Please!”
“I already warned you when you tried to escape from your room the first time. Alas, I don’t think you learned your lesson then. I was too soft on you. I had hoped that something like this was not necessary. I was obviously wrong.”
“I understand now—I’ll do anything you ask, I promise, please...” My words were tumbling out more frantically now.
I felt bile rise up my throat. I tried to take a deep breath to quell it and keep the panic away. But it felt like trying to hold fine grains of sand in my hand—the tighter you grip, the more that keeps on spilling through the cracks of your fingers. My body was cracked now, it was no longer strong enough to keep the panic locked away in its box. The panic was tumbling out into my heaving breaths and trembling limbs.
Marco grabbed my shoulders. I tried to pull away from him. I didn’t want to watch what was going to happen next, what was going to happen because of me. But he forced me to turn toward the large window.
What I didn’t realize, however, was that the cries of pain I would hear would be even worse than what I would see.
Marco was making me watch to punish me. I understood that now. He might not beat me, but he could inflict pain on me in other ways.
I heard Cornelio cry out in anguish. One of the soldiers broke each of his fingers in turn. Then the other soldier wrenched his arm. I heard a horrific sound, and I knew he’d broken it.
I shuddered with each blow, the suffering I could hear assaulting my own ears and my own nerves. It felt like my body was collapsing, as if each strike on Cornelio’s body was attacking my own body too.
Cornelio fell to the ground, and I hoped they would leave him now. “He can’t take any more. I’ve learned my lesson, I promise I have. Please let him go!”
But Marco ignored me. I watched the soldier pull Cornelio up and punch him repeatedly in the abdomen causing him to scream out.
I could feel not just Cornelio’s pain but also his isolation—knowing that no one was coming to save him.
And I was just as isolated. No one would be coming to save me either. “Please! You own me! I understand that now.”
“I wish I could believe that.”
The soldiers continued inflicting punishing blows on Cornelio’s face and body. I heard screaming. It seemed to be coming from a distance.
I realized then it was coming from me.
It was as if the screams were taking all my energy. My legs could no longer hold me up. But Marco refused to let me sink to the floor. Instead, he held me up in his arms so that I had to watch the horror that was unfolding in the next room.
I tried to turn my head away. But he grabbed my hair and yanked my head back to the window. His grip on my hair was hurting me but I barely noticed. Soon I couldn’t see. So many tears were blurring my vision. But I could still hear the relentless blows and Cornelio’s tormented cries.
I could no longer even scream. I could barely talk. But I found the words to beg Marco. I didn’t think I would ever beg him for anything. But I begged him to stop this.
