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“Don’t you try to convince me that he’s a good man! He fucking took you from me and raped and manipulated you, Lori. It’s worse than I thought!” He roars, my heart shattering even more inside of my chest, the remaining pieces falling into the depth of my stomach.
“No, I swear. He’s not who you think he is. That’s not what’s happened—”
“Enough!” He shouts, his anger silencing me.
He sighs and rubs at his face, removing his hand from my arm to retrieve something from his pocket.
“I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to do this. I’m so sorry, baby girl,” he says, kissing my forehead just as a needle stabs my arm, ice cold liquid seeping into my veins.
My eyes start to droop close and I can’t move my lips or even swallow. I can’t scream, I can’t protest. I can’t tell him that he’s wrong, that Marco isn’t the man that he thinks he is. He’s the man that I love, the man that I was finally able to trust. I can’t do anything. All I can do is fall into the sudden darkness that completely overtakes me.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Lori
When I awaken, I realize that I am in my old bedroom. The walls are still pink and I can see the outline of the abundant butterfly stickers that I put up during elementary school. While I should feel comfortable being here, I feel nothing of the sort. Instead, I feel groggy. I feel out of it and the more I try to remember what happened before blacking out, the angrier I get. My father refused to listen to me. He treated me as if I was a child again, as if the reason I was kidnapped in the first place wasn’t even his fault. This business has always been uncaring and ruthless, I guess I just tried to imagine that my father wasn’t the same.
I get up from the bed, my legs feeling like dead weight as I try to get my blood flowing. I make my way to my door, but when I try to pull it open, I find that it is locked. Not even just locked, but deadbolted. My fingers travel the crack of the door, fury boiling inside of my blood as I feel the cold, metal locks lining the frame. I curse and move away, marching to the window. I try to lift it, but all of my effort is useless. The only window in this room is also locked and it has officially confirmed that I’m being held hostage in my own fucking home.
“Are you kidding me?!” I scream, pounding against the window until my knuckles get sore. I drop to my knees on the bed, my head in my hands as my frustration spreads throughout my entire body.
“Why does this keep happening to me?” I whisper, feeling more betrayed than ever before because this time, I’m not being kept away by some man, I’m being kept away by my own blood.
I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised. Their needs for keeping me safe have always resulted in keeping me away. They did it when I started losing my vision. They bought me a nice, lonely loft apartment in hopes that no one in their business would get to me. Look how well that turned out. Now, they’re keeping me away because of their previously failed attempt at keeping me safe, only this time, the monster they tried to keep me from has found his way into my heart. Now, they’re keeping me from him and the love we shared.
Well, I guess it’s more like the love that I have for him. Marco never told me he loved me, never even alluded to it. For all I know, I could’ve really been just a toy to him, but I refuse to believe that. I felt his touch, felt the need and the care in it towards the end. He let meseehim. And now, he’s alone. Both of his parents are gone without any knowledge that both he and my family are innocent. The real people that caused this entire mess are probably still roaming free and I’m stuck here. The real murderers are the cause of all of this yet here I am, screaming into my pillow while Marco is probably off burying his mother, hating me even more than he did before because it was my family that took her life.
I hear the locks on my door start to click and I sit up immediately, my eyes landing on my eldest brother, Carmelo.
“Hey, little one—”
“Don’t you get all soft with me,” I hiss, rising from the bed and marching towards him, my finger jabbing into his chest as he winces.
“I know all of you locked me in here. So, don’t you dare try to play nice right now. Papa fucking sedated me for Christ sake—”
“He had to! You were being irrational!” Carmelo growls, his hands going to my shoulders.
I move away from him, my eyes wide with fury.
“I wasn’t being anything of the sort. I was trying to figure out the mess that your business got me into. I was trying to talk to him so that maybe we can stop this unnecessary war with the De Vico’s once and for all, without any more bloodshed,” I say and he scoffs.
“Right, you were trying to save your precious knight in shining armor. Who, let’s not forget, stole you right out of your own home and held you hostage, doing God knows what to you,” he seethes, rubbing his face as he paces in the doorway.
“Regardless of who is really at fault for this war, Lori, he is still a monster. He has been and will always be the scum of the earth—”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” I shout and he laughs right in my face.
“Look at you, little sister. You’re pathetic. You’re still manipulated by the puppet master himself, defending a man that took you away from your family. That took advantage of you,” he says. I freeze, eyeing him carefully as his words sink in.
“How do you know that he took advantage of me?” I whisper, a large puff of air leaving his chest.
“I know enough, Lorena. I know more than enough and with the knowledge that I have, trust me when I say that you will not be leaving this room until his soul is wiped clean from this earth.” His words hit me like a bullet, sinking deep into my chest until it shatters into a million little pieces.
“He’s not a monster, Car. I swear, he’s a good man,” I whisper, hoping to God that somehow my brother will listen to me, that someone will listen to what I have to say for once.
“He may do things unconventionally, but he’s pure. He has a heart, that whole family does,” I say. He chuckles darkly.
“That family is now non-existent because of who they are and what they do,” he says.
