Chapter 22
Isabella
I woke up in the darkness, on a bed with a throbbing ache at the back of my head. There was a low rhythmic humming sound all around me and I sat up with a start. It was like a bad dream from four years ago, like that time when we had run away from Naples. I blinked my eyes, forcing my gaze to adjust to the dark. It was true. I was in the same room, on my father’s private jet again. This time, I remembered everything that happened. I wasn’t fooled.
Sofia and I had been waiting in the apartment, where Gino and Leo had left us, thinking that we would be safe there. Instead, papa appeared with two armed men. I knew he was there when I heard the shots being fired outside our door.
Sofia screamed and I pulled her tightly to my arms. We had nowhere to go, how was I going to run with Sofia? Papa was at the door and in the next instance, he had burst through with his bodyguards.
He had laughed at me, while Sofia and I cried, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. I had tried to shield Sofia with my body, but one of the men had overpowered me and pulled my daughter away. I screamed and scratched and tried to get to her again, but the other man held me back. Sofia was screaming, her face was red, tears were pouring down her cheeks.
“Calm her down,” papa had growled, his laughter fading as he watched me putting up a fight. The man who was holding me back rammed the barrel of his gun across my head and I was knocked unconscious. This time, he hadn’t even bothered to drug me with a drink, he’d just used brute force to keep me under his control.
“Sofia!” I screamed her name, jumping out of bed. I’d just realized, in my foggy state of mind, that she wasn’t in the room with me. My heart was racing in my chest, I was shaking with fear and the door to the room opened.
Papa stepped in, with Sofia in his arms, who had a big stuffed bear in her arms and seemed happy.
“Baby!” I shrieked and rushed to her, pulling her forcibly out of her grandfather’s arms. This time, papa didn’t try and fight me, he knew that we had nowhere to go.
“Are you okay, baby? Are you hurt?” I asked her, checking the back of her head and her body for scratches or wounds. She seemed to be fine. I looked up at papa, with tears welling up in my eyes.
“Once again, Leo has failed you, hasn’t he? You should have come to expect it by now,” papa said in a low somber voice and then he slowly walked to a chair and sat down on it.
I sat back down on the bed, with Sofia on my lap. She didn’t seem to realize that something dark was going on, and I was glad of that. I wanted to do everything I could to shield her from the craziness of papa. He was watching me rocking my daughter on my lap now and his eyes were dark, staring, glaring.
“Baby, why don’t you go play outside?” I said to my daughter, who looked up at me excitedly.
“Go to the cockpit, sweetheart, the pilot man will look after you for a bit while your mama and granddad talk, yes?” papa spoke to her soothingly. He was never this nice to her, and suddenly, he had turned into the model grandfather. Sofia jumped off my lap and ran out of the room, making make-belief conversation with her brand new teddy.
Papa looked at me after she had left and a sharp smile was spreading on his face.
“How are you feeling, Bella?” he asked and I flared my nostrils angrily at him.
“How do you think I’m feeling? I am a prisoner to my own father, who hit me with a gun!” I exclaimed and papa laughed, like I had said something funny to him.
“I didn’t do it myself, I wouldn’t do something like that to you, Bella,” he said, the laughter was still in his voice. A shiver ran down my spine, at the thought that papa would excuse any behavior of his as long as he was just giving the command for it, as long as he wasn’t doing it himself. What kind of a man was he? Why had I been foolish enough to believe that my father was intrinsically a strong moralistic man, who had experienced many hardships in life?
“Why, papa? Can you please just tell me why you are doing all this? Why don’t you just want me to be happy? Why can’t you allow Sofia to just have a happy normal life?” my voice was cracking as I spoke. I knew I was going to break into tears again but I just couldn’t hold them back…as much as I tried to not show weakness.
“It’s very simple, Isabella. You should have chosen a different man,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at me again.
“So, this is all about Leo?” I asked, lifting my chin up proudly.
“Yes, and also, I will not have one of my women manipulated and thrown against me. I will make him pay for all the shit that he’s fed you!” papa was growling now and I clenched my jaws.
“I know the truth, papa, I know that you are the one who has been lying to me. You have been involved in human trafficking. I’ve seen the ledger, I’ve seen the proof. Nothing you tell me now will convince me otherwise. You can hold me a prisoner here, you can keep me locked up in your house all my life, but you will not change my mind, I will always know the truth!” I exclaimed, with tears pouring down my cheeks.
Papa was watching me with his lips pressed tightly together. There was a growing rage in his eyes and I could see that his fists were clenched. He didn’t know that I knew what he was involved in.
“What I do…what I have done all my life, is what has provided for you. It is why you had a luxurious cushioned life all through your childhood, why we live in mansions everywhere, and why you can afford your beautiful dresses and shoes and private jets!” papa spat and I snapped my face away from him.
“I don’t care about those things. I don’t want it, I didn’t ask for any of that. You are the one who forced all that on me!” I snapped and papa stood up from his chair. He was walking towards me now and I kept my face firmly turned from him.
The mattress sagged on the bed as he sat down beside me. He reached for my cheek, slowly rubbing away the tears that were rolling down my cheeks.
“You don’t understand, Bella. Your mama brought you up to be a delicate stupid creature. In this world, we have to do all kinds of things to survive. Survival of the fittest, remember? I have survived all these years because I never flinched from playing dirty, because I have proven myself to be the strongest in the litter,” papa continued and I yanked my face away from him. I didn’t want him touching me, being close to me.
“Now that you have a daughter, you will start to realize that you are willing to do anything to make her happy, to give her a luxurious comfortable life. That is all I ever want for you, Bella,” papa was speaking convincingly, in a soft voice. It was exactly this kind of talk that he had used to manipulate me four years ago. This was why I had always given my father the benefit of the doubt.
I jerked my face around to look at him again.
No more. I wasn’t going to fall for it anymore!
“What I want for my daughter, is a happy family life with both her parents. The last thing I want is for her to eat the food and wear the clothes and live in a house that is paid for by blood money!” I shrieked.
Papa let out a deep breath and shook his head.
“You have always been a weak soul, Isabella. You would have been a very different person if I was responsible for your upbringing, instead of your equally weak mama. That woman ruined you!” papa hissed and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Is that why you had her killed? Because she was too weak?” I snapped.
Papa’s eyes grew wide, I could see that he was shocked to hear that I knew the truth. Now the blinds had fallen from my eyes and he had nowhere to hide anymore.
***
“Your mama thought that she could hide it from me, but I knew all along,” papa said as I sat beside him, burning in my own wrath for him. This was important, he was finally on the verge of telling me the truth but I didn’t want to hear the actual words coming out of his mouth.
“Why couldn’t you just let her go? Why did you have to take her life?” I couldn’t stop the tears. Mama’s beautiful calm face floated up in my eyes and I remembered how much she loved me. I still remembered her face, as though I had seen her yesterday.
“She got pregnant soon after we were married, and for the first few months, I thought it was mine,” papa continued. I whipped my head around to look at him. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He was gritting his teeth. Was he talking about me?
“But then that baby disappeared. She told me she had lost the child, and from somewhere, out of the blue even though he never married, Andrei Cavallini, ended up with a newborn son,” papa continued. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Was papa telling me that Gino was my half-brother?
I stared at his face as he spoke. He was looking past me, at the wall behind me.
“I knew it instantly. She’d been sleeping with that bastard Cavallini and gotten herself pregnant. She was afraid that kid would grow up to look like Andrei and together, they decided that the boy should live with his father,” papa said and he finally met my eyes.
“I said nothing. I forgave her for that one mistake. I decided that it was Andrei’s fault, that he had forced himself on her,” papa continued and I gulped. My throat had gone very dry. I had a half-brother, Gino Cavallini was mama’s son!
“Then she got pregnant again and this time I was willing to kill her, but I waited until she had the baby and you were born. You had my eyes, my smile. I knew that you were mine and I decided to forget about her betrayal. I thought we could finally be a happy family; me, your mama and our little baby girl,” papa said.
I was watching him speak, speechless, my throat dry and chaffed. I still couldn’t wrap my head around everything he was telling me.
“Then, one of my men told me that he had seen my wife at Cavellini’s house, leaving at the dead of night, kissing him on the cheek at the door. And I knew they had never stopped. She may have had a daughter with me, but she hadn’t stopped sleeping with him,” papa hissed and he bunched up the bedsheets in his fists angrily.
“So, you killed her?” I cried and he finally met my eyes again.
“It was fifteen years of deception, of lying, of pretending to be my woman when the whole time, she was sleeping with my enemy!” he barked and I stood up and stepped away from him.
“You killed him too! You killed the man she loved and then blamed everything on him!” I screamed and papa glared at me, his lips stretched in a sour grimace.
“You think I was just going to let them go, let them live out their happy lives together? While I burned away in the corner?” he growled and I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“You could have divorced her, you could have let them be together. You didn’t love her anyway!” I screamed again and papa sighed.
“Your mama was weak, and stupid…but she was the most beautiful woman in Naples and she was mine,” he continued, in a calmer voice now.
“I don’t want to stay with you. I won’t let Sofia grow up around you. Just let us go!” I shrieked and papa shook his head.
“You are a foolish little girl, just like your mama. You think you can find anything better than what I have to give you?” he hissed.
“Leo will find us. Just like he did this time, he won’t stop till he’s found us again and the next time, he’s going to finish you. You have my word,” I screamed.
Papa nodded his head, a thick smile was spreading on his face now.
“Yes, he is going to find you. That is exactly what I want him to do,” he said and slipped his cellphone out of his pocket. I watched in confused horror as he dialed a number.
“Hello Leo,” papa said and I screamed.
“Leo! It’s me! Papa has us on a plane!”
Papa was laughing, keeping the phone away from me.
“So, now you know that I have her. If you want to see Isabella or your daughter again, come to Naples and bring two million dollars with you,” papa said and he snapped his phone shut.
I was panting hard, feeling dizzy from the horror and the exhaustion. The throbbing ache at the back of my head where I’d been hit felt even worse now. I felt like I needed to lie down.
I collapsed on the bed, my eyelids were growing heavy again.
“That’s good, Bella, you should get some rest. We’ll be in Naples soon and then you can wait and see if your big love will arrive for you or not,” I heard papa say. My eyelids drooped, I could feel myself losing consciousness. Papa was walking out of the room again but I couldn’t move, it was like all my limbs were frozen. Had he drugged me while I was unconscious earlier? Poked me with a sedative in a needle? I couldn’t put anything past him.
As I passed out into another deep dreamless sleep, I was filled with the realization that papa had set another trap for Leo. If I could, I would have tried to let him know to not come to Naples.
Leo should save himself.