Chapter 12
Isabella
I had Sofia in my arms, while I paced around our house. I didn’t want to let her go. I could sense that she knew something was up. She kept asking me who the man outside was, and I kept telling her it was nobody. It ached me to lie to her, to deny her father from her but I didn’t know what to do.
Seeing Leo again had made me feel weak. In the past three years, since that morning we left Naples; I didn’t think I would ever see him again. I had accepted the fact that Sofia was going to be my only connection to him.
Now, after I saw him again, it felt like nothing had changed. I was still weak in the knees for him, I still felt that same rush of emotions for him. Three years had done nothing to make me want him any less.
I kept staring at the piece of paper with the phone number on it. I had placed it down on the kitchen table and now my eyes were glued to it.
When I saw him in the garden, talking to Sofia; I had panicked. Nothing was more important to me than my daughter, and I would have done anything to protect her—even from her own father. But now, when he was gone and I was alone in the house again, I wanted to hear his voice. I wished I had fallen into his arms instead of pointing a gun at him.
But how could I trust him? Did I trust papa?
I had tried to trust papa, over the years that we had been living together in this house, but I would have been lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I had always felt like a prisoner here. There was nothing I wanted more than being a family again. I wanted to give Sofia the experience of a happy family, but papa treated me like I was his prized possession. My entire life was dictated by him; where I went, who I went with, what Sofia ate for breakfast…everything!
I had tried to convince myself that he was acting this way because he was protective of us, because he loved us. But now, the more I remembered the look in Leo’s eyes, when I recalled his words about how papa had tricked me; I couldn’t help but think that my father was just a vicious man.
“Baby, sit down here, and don’t go anywhere. Okay? Mama will be back in a minute,” I said to Sofia and I sat her down on the couch in the living room.
I rushed back to the kitchen and picked up the landline phone. Papa had banned cellphones, so I didn’t have a personal number. I dialed the number on the piece of paper and heard the call go through. My hands were trembling, I was keeping a lookout for any sign of papa’s car coming into the driveway.
“Is that you, Isabella?” were Leo’s first words.
I wanted to cry out with relief when I heard his voice. He had no idea how happy I was to hear him speak, how happy I was to see him again. I couldn’t trust him yet, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t have feelings for him.
“What did you want to tell me about papa?” I asked him, gulping down my excitement. Before anything else, I first needed to figure out if he was telling the truth. Before I made any rash decisions, I needed to know once and for all, who was the liar—papa or Leo.
“Isabella…we have so much to talk about. I don’t want to discuss everything over the phone right now. Where and when can we meet?” Leo asked.
“I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to put Sofia’s life at risk before I can trust you again,” I said, in a low whispering voice. I was holding the phone close to my mouth.
I heard Leo sigh before he spoke again.
“You’re not going to like this and you probably won’t believe me. Isabella, your father was involved in human trafficking in Naples. I didn’t know about it when I worked for him, I only uncovered it after he was gone,” Leo said.
I gasped, and the phone fell out of my hand. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach, knocking my wind out. It took me a few moments to recover, before I could pick up the phone again.
“Isabella…are you there? Isabella?” Leo was shouting into the phone.
“No! That is not possible. Papa is many things, but not that!” I shrieked, forgetting all about keeping my voice down for Sofia’s sake.
“I know this isn’t easy to hear, but trust me, I have no reason to come find you in New York and then lie to you,” Leo continued.
I could feel my neck burning up, I was feverish and felt faint as I clutched the phone to my ears. I was refusing to believe what he was saying. It couldn’t be true!
“He maintained records. I found them, I have proof, Isabella. You should go check his office, go through his records here. I’m sure you’ll find something that will point you in the right direction. That will make you believe me. A man like him, who has made so much money from that business is not going to stop now,” Leo said.
“I won’t believe a word of what you say till I’ve seen this proof!” I snapped.
“Then go look for it. Please, Isabella, I’m begging you to go look for it. I just want to take you away from all that,” Leo continued and I banged the phone down. I didn’t want to hear another word. I couldn’t control the rage and sadness that was coursing through my body.
Why did he have to come here?
“Mama? What’s wrong?” Sofia appeared at the kitchen door and I rushed to her. When I picked her up in my arms, I knew that I had to uncover the truth, for my daughter’s sake.