26. Gianna
Chapter twenty-six
Gianna
It was never my intention to have sex with Luca, but I can't be near him without losing all control.
He has always had this effect on me and I can feel myself not holding back any longer. Especially now that I have found out he wasn’t the one behind my father’s death.
I need to let Giovanni know so we can finally find out the truth about everything. The murders and attacks. Someone is trying to hurt both of our families. Finding out the truth could change everything.
As much as I tried to convince myself over the course of these last few hellish weeks, my feelings for Luca never died. I only tried to push them away, but they are back and have settled into me. Although they still don’t replace the deep hurt he caused me. It isn’t easy to just forget it all and carry on with the life I once dreamed of having with him... and our daughter.
My mind’s troubled by how things will pan out. Will Luca and I still have a chance to be together with our daughter even after all the hurt we’ve both caused each other and ourselves?
What are the chances of a future together like we both wanted before everything got so messed up?
It’s a lot for me right now.
I take out my keys from the back pocket of my jeans. A black-tinted car passes by my side as I unlock my car. It almost feels like I’m being followed.
I hastily slide into my car, opening the safe to check if I still have my gun around. It might sound crazy but I somehow knew Luca wouldn’t hurt me. He didn’t when he had the chance.
As I start the engine, my phone starts to ring out loud on the other seat. It’s Mateo again.
Oh, fuck!
I had failed to return to him yesterday, as planned. How could I when I almost lost Giovanni and Madre and he was all suspicious?
My stomach feels sick as I ignore his call. This can’t be good. My phone’s ringtone goes off again, almost immediately. I grunt as I answer the call on the second ring.
“Mateo, I–”
“Where are you?” His voice sounds different this time. Enriched with anger.
I look outside the window instinctively in an attempt to check if he is nearby, watching me. My throat turns dry when I see no one, but the eerie feeling that came with the question sends a shiver down my spine. “I... why’d you ask?”
The phone beeps as he ends the call abruptly.
Dammit.
Does he know I’m here? Am I being followed?
I step on the gas as I drive back home, carefully watching the side mirrors so he doesn’t catch me by surprise. Somehow, he terrifies me more than Luca. I have no fucking idea what he is capable of doing to me.
The gates open wide as I honk twice. Giovanni is standing outside, pacing the space frantically with his fingers running through his hair as I drive inside. He looks pissed. Mother is beside him, equally looking troubled.
Something is fucking wrong.
My heart skips a beat. We had discussed my daughter’s safety earlier, as Mateo seems to be a threat now. Giovanni and I aren’t quite sure yet, but I’m not taking any wild chances with my child.
Giovanni now believes Mateo was behind the recent incidents and he wants to have the marriage deal canceled. I have no idea how Mateo would react to it so I had Dorothy take Sophie to the safehouse before I left the house. We were to meet there, where Sophie and I would stay till it all goes down.
“Fucking find her!” Giovanni barks at one of his men as I get out of my car.
“What’s happening?” I ask him.
The men scurry back to one of their trucks, sliding into their seats hastily.
“Giovanni?”
“Anna,” my mother says softly, trying to reach for my arm. Her face drawn together with a concerned look on it.
I move back a little, staring at Giovanni instead.
His forehead is drawn together with concern written all over his face. He doesn’t look at me as he curses in Italian and hisses roughly.
“Answer me!” I yell. My heart is pounding in my chest.
“He fucking took her.”
It feels like my world stops for a moment and all I can hear is everything falling to pieces.
Oh God.
“Anna, please,” my mother says. Her eyes getting teary already.
“What? Took who?”
Please don’t say Sophie. Not my baby, God.
Giovanni grunts more curses. Mother tries to touch me again but I stop her before she does.
“Leave me alone, Madre !”
“Fucking answer me!” I yell at Giovanni, grabbing a fistful of his shirt.
“Sophie, but I pro-” he says, barely a whisper. His eyes are full of pain.
My ears are deafened by my own screams as I lash out with angry fists at his chest. I’m crying hard. “Not my baby!” I scream repeatedly.
I feel my mother’s arm on me as Giovanni holds my arms. My head falls on his chest as I continue to cry my eyes out. He pulls me into his arms and lets me cry on him.
I can feel my heart shattering. I’ve lost my world and it’s all my fucking fault. I should have gone with her. Oh fuck, I hate myself.
“I promise you, Anna. I’ll get her back. I’m not stopping till I do.”
“Who did this? Who fucking took her?” I pull myself from his chest. My daughter needs me. She has been my strength for too damn long; I’m not losing her now, or ever.
“Mateo.”
That fucking son of a bitch.
“I’m going to fucking kill him.” I angrily pull my arms away from Giovanni’s grip and begin to leave hurriedly for my car.
“Anna! Anna!”
I ignore his calls and my mother’s as I slide into my car, locking the doors before he gets to me. I’m not letting him, or anyone else, stop me.
“Open the door, Anna!” His growls are faint with the window rolled all the way up. He is pulling the handle hard as I start the engine.
I can’t just stand here and do nothing with my child in the hands of that son of a bitch.
“Anna!”
I put the car in reverse hurriedly.
Some of his men stand in my way as I try to drive out of the gate. Giovanni has instructed one to close it but I’m faster, stepping on the gas as I make my way through. The men run just before I hit them. I’ve been protecting her all my life and I’m not stopping now.
***
“Show yourself, Mateo!” I yell as I run to his front door. His men are behind me, keeping a close distance, but they don’t touch me. “Open the fucking door!”
The door flies open a second later. A short man with a full beard and a scarred face appears in front of me. His dark brown eyes stare at me with contempt.
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?”
“He will be with you in a minute,” he replies, making way for me to enter the house. I don’t think twice as I barge into the house, yelling his name. The man reaches for my arms with a cuff.
No... no... not again.
I’ve had enough of being cuffed in Luca’s home. I’m not going to be Mateo’s prisoner, too.
“Let go of me!” I’m fighting him back but his grip is strong on my wrist. “I said, let go!”
His face lights up in rage as I punch him. He lets go of my wrist and massages his jaw with his fingers for a moment. “Bitch!”
“Argh.” I shriek as he slaps me hard. My hair covers my face as I tilt to the side from the impact. My eyes squeeze shut as I hold back my tears.
I need to find Sophie. I need to get my daughter back.
He takes both my wrists and I don’t resist this time as he cuffs my hands to the back.
“Is that you, Gianna?” a voice says, coming down the stairs.
I recognize it. It’s deep with a calming timbre yet so commanding. “ Figlio di puttana .”
“I knew you would come here.” Mateo walks down the stairs with a frown spread on his face. His eyes bore into mine with anger. It causes goosebumps on my skin.
I swallow a gulp, panting hard as he takes slow steps to get to me. I’m frozen in the spot with the man still holding my hands. I wiggle them but he doesn’t let go.
“You didn’t keep your part of the deal, Gianna.” Mateo’s blue eyes are piercing as he moves his clenched jaws.
Oh, fuck.
“Mateo, please. I just want to see my daughter. Please."
His checkered, short-sleeved shirt fits his broad body frame and muscular arms, revealing his inked arm. He has his left arm in his pocket.
“You fucking lied to me.” His voice is raised now.
It makes me flinch in fear.
Oh God, please.
“Sophie has nothing to do with this. It’s me you want and I’m here. I’ll stay. Please just let her go.”
“Where have you been, Gianna?” He finally closes the distance between us and touches my face with the back of his fingers.
I squeeze my eyes shut, turning my head in the opposite direction.
“Where were you, baby?” he whispers, his lips merely inches away from the shell of my ear. I squeeze my eyes shut even more, unable to form words. He knows. He has to.
Mateo coughs out a cold laugh.
“Mateo, I beg of you.’
“Fuck, Gianna.” He grabs my jaw and squeezes hard. “I fucking saved your life and this is how you repay me?”
“Y-you’re hurting me.” My words don’t mean anything to him as he squeezes harder. His fingernails digging into my skin. He doesn’t break his gaze.
“He had you as his fucking prisoner, Gianna. Then I saw you come out of his fucking house again,” he says, through gritted teeth. My cheeks are starting to get wet as tears fall freely from my eyes. “All I wanted was for you to be mine. Yet you fucking betrayed me and lied to me.”
“I'm... I’m so-sorry,” I cry.
His eyes flick to my lips and he licks his bottom lip.
“It’s too late for that now, Gianna. You’ve left me with no other choice but this.”
Before I can comprehend what’s happening, Mateo crashes his lips on mine and begins to kiss me.
I’m crying harder as I let him do this to me.
He isn’t gentle with the way he takes my lips in his and hurts me with his teeth, biting me more than a few times.
In this moment, I can’t think of anything but how to get his fucking lips away from me. I hate it. Fuck, I hate him. Long, painful seconds pass before he finally stops.
“Get the papers, Rico. Gianna here is about to be my wife.”
I can’t believe it. I thought my heart couldn’t be shattered into more pieces than it was before, but it just did.
“Yes, boss.”
Rico leaves my arms and disappears into a room at the far end of the living room.
My tears don’t stop as I stop holding them back. “W-where is my child?” I ask.
“Safe with me. You couldn’t possibly think I would do anything to hurt my stepdaughter.”
“I want to see her. Now.”
He walks to the side of the room, sectioned off as the bar. Stacks of expensive bottles of a variety of liquor are neatly arranged on the open shelves.
“You will soon enough.” He takes a clean glass from the marble-tiled counter and a bottle of red wine. “I’d like to have more children.” Mateo smirks as he pours himself a glass. “Sophie should at least have a brother to inherit my business.”
My stomach coils in disgust. The thought of having to have him inside me and birthing his children irritates me so damn much. It almost makes me puke.
“I’ll marry you on one condition,” I blurt.
He takes a little sip of his drink and stops to watch me.
“You can have me all you want if you let my daughter go. She doesn’t have to be a part of this.”
Mateo makes a clicking sound with his tongue as he shakes his head in response. “Now, you don’t make the terms here anymore, my love.” He takes another sip. “I do.”
Rico walks out of the room with a file in his hand and hands it over to Mateo.
“Get the child,” Mateo orders.
Rico disappears again, leaving for the stairs this time.
“This right here will make our marriage legal. And you are going to sign it.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Well...”
Rico reappears, not alone this time, but with Dorothy holding my baby.
“Sophie! Dorothy!”
Dorothy’s eyes are swollen. She looks like she has been crying. Her lips are still quivering as Rico holds a gun to her head. Sophie looks terrified with her arms wrapped around Dorothy’s neck.
“Mama! Mama!”
“You’ll never get to see your child again.”
I return my gaze to Mateo. His eyes display no emotion. I’ve lost my fight. Fresh tears cloud my vision as they prepare to fall down my cheeks.
“Your freedom without ever seeing your child again, or you become my wife. Pick now.”