17. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Elise
Hell.
It’s all I can think of at this moment. I had never seen the inside of the annex where Luca tortured and interrogated. I could always hear the screams as they were dragged to their future, but to see it for myself is quite literally hell. A single, dim light sits on the corner of the wall, casting a cold glow that barely covers my surroundings. The walls are cemented, as are the ceiling and floor, and there are traces of torture lingering around me. White scratches litter the walls. Old, crusted blood that whoever cleaned this place missed sits in small patterns on the floors. And the air is stale and cold.
I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting, chained to this cot as I wait for my husband to arrive. But it’s given me enough time to think about just how fucked I am in this situation. I attempted to kill Luca. And not just in a pathetic attempt like holding a knife in front of me. I wrecked his car and left him for dead, voicing my desire that he die that night. I should have known fate wouldn’t be so kind to me. I should have known the moment I saw Ari in that diner that I needed to run. If she managed to find me when my entire family had lost their resources since my father’s death, Luca couldn’t have been far behind. But I am just as Luca says: naive. I don’t know what part of this world I was cut out for.
I tense as the heavy steel door unlocks, and in comes my husband.
Luca does a wonderful job hiding his inner emotions as he enters the room. His dark hair is pushed away from his face, but a few rebellious strands tickle his forehead as he brings a cigarette to his lips, slowly inhaling a deep breath as he watches me with that cold gaze. His hands have leather gloves on them as he enters, pulling a cart of tools I am unfamiliar with behind him.
I hold his gaze, feigning confidence, but I can tell by the way he scoffs that I am failing miserably. He continues to study me, taking another deep drag of his cigarette before blowing the thick smoke from his lungs, grappling with his self-control.
“Do you think I wanted this? Wanted you? You weren’t the only one forced into this situation, Elise. I had a different plan…a bigger plan for my family. But my father, being the traditional man he was, thought this was necessary,” he says, gesturing to me and himself.
Luca releases a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose as he looks around the room.
“All you had to do was know your place—all of you. But you just had to overstep. You just had to reach for something far above your station,” he says in irritation.
I know instantly he’s talking not only about me but my family. And as much as I want to say something in return, to defend myself, I know that I can’t. I can’t pin his mood. He should have killed me once he discovered me. But he didn’t. He brought me home. And I don’t know what that means for my future. Nor do I know what I could possibly say to set him off, especially since he entered the room with gloves and a tray of torture tools.
Luca notices the direction of my gaze, shifting his attention to the instruments behind him. He breaks the silence by laughing, tossing his cigarette to the ground to lightly stamp it out as he speaks.
“When you wrecked my car, ran from me, and told me you hoped that I died that night, did you at all bother to think about the consequences your actions would bring?” he asks.
When I don’t respond, his cloudy gaze shifts to meet mine, signaling his expectancy for an answer. But once again, I don’t have one.
“By leaving, you’ve managed to add even more gas to the flames, Elise,” he finishes. He drags the tools with him as he approaches me, and when he stands over me, he decides to speak again. “You have put me in a very fucked position. And you still have yet to say sorry.”
My eyes remain on the tools behind him, and he finally snaps.
“Look at me!” he shouts. I flinch from his tone, finally finding my voice.
“You want me to apologize for trying to kill you and escape from this hell we both didn’t want?” I say softly.
My eyes drift to meet his, and I see anger reflected at me. We are both at our wits’ end with one another. Except Luca is now faced with the decision to do as his father always wanted or grant me mercy. Judging from his decision to place me here, I doubt mercy will be at the top of his list of things to offer me.
Luca laughs, shaking his head in disbelief, but he doesn’t speak. He briefly eyes me before kneeling to my height and reaching for my cuffed hand.
“Did you know the human body has over one hundred billion nerve cells?” He reaches out and slowly grasps my shaking hand, his attention focused on my arm as he speaks.
“But out of those, only three run through your arm.” He flips my arm and trails a pattern, starting at my elbow. “The radial nerve.” He flips my arm over again so my palm faces the ceiling. “The ulnar and the median nerve.” He is tracing a pattern on my arm as if he knows where the nerves are underneath my skin.
Chills break out on my skin as I look at his mesmerized expression.
“But I don’t have to know that to make you feel pain,” he says, releasing me. He doesn’t speak immediately, and I can see he is still trying to grapple with whatever has been on his mind since he entered the room.
Finally, he shakes his head, speaking. “Just because I didn’t want this, didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to commit to you. I extended every courtesy that I would for someone I cared about to you, even though I knew your purpose. I knew getting attached would be a waste. But all you’ve ever done is see the worst in this situation, instead of the constant mercy you’ve been granted,” he says begrudgingly.
He sucks in a deep breath, closing the distance between us to kneel next to where I am cuffed. He gently pushes my hair from my face, his frown deepening when I flinch from his touch. Then, his thumb gently plays at my temple, lingering on the scar I was born with.
“Don’t you see? All this time, you’ve painted me as the bad guy, turning a blind eye to the family who has used you as a pawn your entire life.” I gasp as Luca grips my face, forcing my gaze to meet his. “But I’m the only one who would kill for you— the only one who has.”
Luca releases me, standing with his back to me. He then moves to the tools, slowly running his fingers over each as he speaks.
“If you were anyone else, I would have shot you down in that diner,” he murmurs to himself.
I tense as I suddenly notice the chill in the air. The room’s temperature is dropping, but Luca doesn’t seem concerned about it in the least. His humorless chuckle pulls me out of my thoughts as he lifts a knife from the tray.
“I would have splattered your dear cousin’s brains on the fucking table for what your family’s done,” he says.
I’m still wearing my work uniform, so the chill is beginning to creep under my skin, making me tremble even harder as Luca stands over me. I am suddenly able to see my breath in the dimly lit room. I cry out when Luca grips the front of my uniform roughly, holding the blade inches from my face. His steel eyes study me, soaking in my fear as he slowly moves it to the front of my top, using it to cut away my clothing.
My small squeaks fill the room, accompanied by tears as he leaves me in only my bra and panties, but when his eyes meet mine, I see no lust behind his gaze.
“If you were anyone else, you would have been dead a long time ago. But you’re you. And you’ve… crawled into my mind like a parasite, crumbling all my resolve regarding you,” he says.
“L-luca,” I whisper as my shivers grow violent. Luca’s eyes shift to my body, noting how cold I am, but does nothing to resolve it. It must be at least thirty degrees at this point. But he shifts, gripping my chin with his gloved hand as he speaks.
“Rooms like this are designed to derange the mind. It helps when I’m in a time crunch to get information.” Luca’s hand drifts from my chin to my arms, where chills have appeared. “The mind is a fragile thing. It wasn’t made for extreme conditions. So instead of listening to the logic part, the part that warns you not to give information that can get you and everyone you love killed, it compels you to reveal anything you can for the sake of ending the pain.”
Luca inhales a deep breath, standing. I whimper as the warmth of his touch disappears, leaving me a trembling mess.
“Unfortunately, you have no information that I want. In fact, I have all the information you need so that you’ll finally understand the position you are in,” he says.
I can barely focus on his words as my breathing becomes erratic from the chill settling in my bones. The unpleasantness of my body makes me want to scream and beg, but I don’t even know what I would be begging for at this point.
Mercy?
As if Luca would ever be so dumb to grant me something like that after what I’ve done. The sound of a lighter pulls me from my suffering, and I look up to see that Luca has lit another cigarette. I envy the small white stick as the flame kisses it, enveloping it in warmth while I shiver only feet away.
Luca takes a deep drag, his eyes never leaving me as he exhales.
“Sometimes, I wonder if my father making me marry you was God’s way of punishing me for what I’ve done. For as long as I’ve lived, I’ve hated the Trovolis. But my father insisted that it was for the good of our family that I marry you.” Luca releases a bitter chuckle, staring at the ceiling.
“I warned him against trusting you people. Someone who would do what Eli Trovoli did to your mother fears no one. Not even God. And your mother learned that the hard way,” he finishes taking another pull of his cigarette.
“He kept it a secret, you know. The truth behind her death? He used it as a ploy to get the Trovolis to go to war, but the truth is, he sent her to her death. He’d had his son by then. And needed to tie off loose ends,” he says, eyeing me.
“You’re lying!” I scream.
The tears streaming down my face leave a burning trail from the chill in the air. They don’t have enough heat to fall, so they stick to my face, leaving a frosted trail on my cheeks.
“Your father wanted power. His family is the same. I’m sure your cousin fed you some bullshit line about the family needing you now that Eli is gone even though they didn’t care to protect you before that,” he says.
“She wanted to use you, just like Eli, for the same exact reasons,” he says.
“Shut up! You’re a liar!” I screech. I lift my hands to place them over my ears, but the cuffs prevent me from doing so, holding me firm to the cot. Luca soaks in my distress in satisfaction as he stands over me.
“I’m very serious. Wanna know how I know?” he asks, kneeling before me. I shake my head vigorously. I don’t want to know, which gives Luca all the ammunition he needs to reveal it.
“Because I found the bastard child your father kept hidden. And his mother was all too eager to give me information on everything she knew for the right price. That not only included the location of the one threat to your life, but the incident of your mother finding out about the indecent affair, and for trying to get rid of his mistress and bastard, your father had her killed,” he says.
“And guess who just turned seventeen when your cousin miraculously showed up to whisk you away?” he laughs, gauging my reaction.
If not for the cold, I would throw up from the information he gave. In a matter of seconds, Luca has shattered the fragile reality I already lived in. My entire life... meaningless. Every stitch of pain Luca has suffered in the past few months is because my family is so desperate for this dream to be realized. And now Luca has located the half-brother who is a threat to my life, who is the reason my mother is dead. Even Ari, who I thought would never betray me, only showed up to take me away, probably to trade me for my half-brother’s life. And while Ari’s true intentions are an even bigger betrayal, I find myself clinging to Luca’s revelation about my father.
“Y-you knew? This… entire… time?” I manage through clenched teeth.
“Of course, Elise,” he says.
I shake my head. “…How?” I ask.
Luca’s smile widens as he crosses the room, kneeling in front of me on the cot. His eyes take in every piece of my shivering form as he places his cigarette between his lips.
“Like I would ever tell a Trovoli.” His eyes are cold as he speaks. He rises, making his way to the door, and I flinch as the lights go out, plunging me into darkness. Luca offers me no words of comfort as the heavy creak of the door closing sounds, leaving me alone in the freezing room.