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“Very well,” he says.
I see him press a button beneath his table, and I brace myself for the impact. If this is how I must die, then at least it feels like a noble death. There has been little meaning to my life until now, and every choice I’ve made has led me to this moment.
But the bullet never hits me. Instead, a team of officers stream into the office and before I can make an argument I feel handcuffs wrap around my wrists.
“Edoardo Lorenzo, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Aria Morino,” the officer says.
“Oh come on, Gabriele,” I beg. “Can’t you rather just have me killed?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gabriele says with a shrug.
His body is masked by a puff of cigar smoke as he starts to laugh uncontrollably. I have failed. This was the only plan that I have and it has backfired. Gabriele has once again managed to take from me the only thing that has brought me joy in my life. He has stripped me of my freedom, and taken Aria from me, just as he did with Auriet .
And I fear that just as before, he will get away with it, and I will spend the rest of my life in jail.
As I am being dragged from his office by police officers, I watch as he slides a large wad of money across the table towards the supervising officer.
“Push back his hearing by a month, won’t you?” Gabriele asks the officer in charge.
“You got it,” the man says before stuffing the money in his pockets.
I am dragged to the police station and put in a cell. The cell door slams shut. It is a sound that I hoped I would never hear again. But I don’t think of my past as I feel the cold concrete all around me.
I think of Aria. She is expecting me back the day after tomorrow, and I won’t show up. Nobody knows that I’m here, and I wore a large hood over my head so that my man stationed up the road wouldn’t know that it was me. If Gabriele gets his way, she won’t hear anything about this until it shows up on the news.
At that point it will be too late.
Chapter 11
Aria
Myfeetareburning.I’ve been walking through this market for hours and I’ve never been more bored in my life. It is the same market that I walked through with Edoardo, but now it seems so dull and uninteresting.
Looking through all the items for sale, even with a pocket full of cash, seems so tedious now. I haven’t spent a single penny on myself. All I’ve done is buy a few items that make me think of Edoardo. They will serve as gifts to thank him for my time here.
It does seem a little silly to be buying him gifts with his own money, but I think it’s the thought that counts. The island had seemed so intriguing, fun, and interesting, but as I turn back to make yet another lap through the market, it seems so unappealing now. It really feels like there is nothing to do here now that Edoardo’s left.
The sky is blue and the clouds are pretty. There is a beach with perfect white sand to push my feet into. But when I’m doing all of those things on my own, they aren’t nearly half as exciting. All I feel right now is the exhaustion of walking around for so long. Perhaps I should just head back to sleep the rest of the day away.
I just don’t understand how the island can take such a different shape. Yesterday it seemed like paradise to me. Now, it seems like just another lump of earth surrounded by any old body of water. As I make the short walk back to the villa, I can’t help but hope that Edoardo may be there to greet me when I get back.
Ah. That’s what it is. The island feels different because my experience of it has changed. The realization that I miss him hits me like a piano that a cartoon character has dropped from the sky. Today is a dull day because he isn’t here with me. That is the only thing that has changed.
My disappointment at arriving back at the villa and finding it still empty seeps through me and sours my mood entirely. I collapse onto the couch and listen to the waves as I do my best to convince myself that I haven’t developed feelings for such a powerful man.
The breeze that washes through the windows chills my skin and it takes my mind back to the night we spent together in this villa. I had forgotten all about my worries that night. For the first night in a very long time I didn’t feel afraid.
I wasn’t worried that I might have done something wrong to upset someone. I wasn’t concerned that I might wake up in the morning and see my father’s angry face. Those moments that we spent, being intimate together, have been some of the most peaceful moments in my life.
But as I reminisce about it all, I am reminded of the reason Edoardo isn’t here with me. The message he received on his cellphone … It was so late at night, ithadto have been important. I saw the way his body language changed the moment he read it; I’ve seen that look before, with Aldo.
It happened right before I discovered that I was one of many women who frequently shared his bed. Edoardo is a powerful, handsome man. He could have any woman he wants, and however many he wants. I wonder if he really does have a business meeting, or if perhaps he has gone to see another woman. To make her feel as special as he has made me feel.
This shouldn’t even concern me. I can’t be certain that he would evenbewith me if I wasn’t pregnant with his baby. Had I not been kicked out of my house with nowhere else to go, would he have cared about me or this baby at all?
Since he’s taken me in, Edoardo has shown no sign of being dangerous. Sure, there have been moments where he’s shown that he knows how to use violence to get what he wants, or to make a point. But those moments have not been unprovoked, and their ultimate goal has been my protection.
In fact, he has been nothing but good to me. I’ve spent a lot of the time in his company afraid of him, and he has proven to me that I have no reason to feel that way. He has been kind and generous, and nothing other than that.
