14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Serena
F inally, having gathered the strength to see Gio, I walk up to his door and knock. My sister-in-law Everly opens the door with a shocked expression on her face.
"Serena? Are you okay? Where have you been?" she spits out quickly, while hugging me tightly.
"Can I come in and talk, please?"
"Of course. Gio, your sister is here," my sister-in-law calls from the front door.
"Serena?" Gio comes running, grabbing me and gripping my arms. "Where the fuck have you been? Did he hurt you? Why would you marry a stranger?" My big brother bombards me with questions I knew he would ask.
Tears well up in my eyes and my nose burns. I try to hold them back as I say, "I thought he loved me, G."
The words are lies, but the tears are from the pain of knowing Emilio doesn't love me and never will.
"Where is he? I've been looking everywhere so I can kill the stupid fucker."
"Please don't. I… I…" Tears I can't hold back any longer cascade down my cheeks.
"He left you?" my brother asks.
"I think he grew tired of me. One day he just disappeared, and I have only seen him once since. I woke up, and he was in my room." I don't explain to Gio that it was Emilio's bedroom and not mine. He doesn't understand the situation or what I'm up against.
"I'm so lost. Serena, why would you marry someone without telling us?" Gio prods for answers I can't give him.
Not wanting to start a war or put my family in danger, again the lies just fall out of my mouth.
"I didn't want you or Dad to control who I married."
"But you know the tradition! You know it was for your own safety and security that we match you in an arranged marriage to a high-ranking official in the mafia. We have enemies! Now you've hitched yourself to this asshole no one knows. He's a fucking ESPOSITO, Serena! What the fuck were you thinking?" Gio hollers as he paces the floor in front of us and tugs at his hair.
Keeping my eyes on the floor as my cheeks heat and I lie to my brother again, I try to justify my actions. "I didn't know he was Mario's son, and you've never told me very much about what happened with him."
"His daughter Carla was the match Dad set up for me to marry. I hated her, and she was a horrible person. When I fell in love with Everly"—his eyes fall on my beautiful sister-in-law—"they kidnapped her. Put her in a shipping container they were selling that was full of human beings."
I gasp out loud, and Everly explains quietly, "That's where I met Samirah."
Samirah is my other sister-in-law. She is Marcello's woman, and I love her dearly, just as much as Everly.
"Mario and Carla ran the trafficking operation and were going to sell Everly to get rid of her. They thought if she was out of the way, I would marry Carla."
Drawing in a deep breath, I realize something. "I don't think Emilio knows what his father was doing. They had never met before. By the time he found out who his father was and came to meet him, you had already destroyed Mario's empire. I think Emilio is missing a lot of the facts about what happened."
"I'm going to kill him if this is some ploy to get back at us for killing his piece-of-shit father. Shooting him in the kneecaps would feel great right about now. Wait until Marcello gets ahold of him. He'll be hamburger meat."
"No, please. Gio, I married him because I love him. Please don't start a war over my reckless decision."
The sad part is, I think I might truly love him. The man kidnapped me and stole my virginity, and I'm sure he flaunted the bloody bedsheets in front of my brothers. It would have been done even if I had followed tradition and married in an arrangement set up by my brothers and father. Still, I can’t help but feel degraded and embarrassed.
"Serena, you are no longer considered marriage material by the outfit. You will not be considered for any matches," Gio explains.
"Of course not. I'm already married. He'll show up eventually and we'll work things out."
"It is bullshit that women are valued for their virginity and sold like cattle to the highest bidder. It's disgusting," shouts Everly. "Gio Martinelli, you better have learned your lesson. My daughter will never be traded and sold to the highest bidder. Fuck the mafia."
Gio realizes he is on the losing end of this argument and stays silent while his wife rages.
It doesn't take long for Gio to inform my parents that I'm home. Sam and Marcello are out of town, but he calls them with the news too. Within just a few minutes, my mother and father knock on Gio's door. They both gather me up in their arms. My mom is crying tears of relief.
"We didn't know what was going on. All the boys told me was you had gotten married, and I knew you would never willingly do that without including me."
"Mom, it was very spur of the moment." I pat her back reassuringly as I hold her close. I know this is breaking her heart. Not being able to admit that I didn’t have a choice makes my heart hurt, and I know she is heartbroken thinking I deliberately cut her out of my wedding.
From the other side of the room, I see Gio roll his eyes. "Very spur of the fucking moment."
After leaving Gio and Everly's house, I attempt to get some work done. Our family is very close knit, and I knew that there was no way that Gio wasn't going to call Marcello and my father. I just hope I can juggle all these men before they kill each other.
I try to do damage control on my reputation, since I disappeared for over two weeks and had events in the pipeline to get started on, I get to work. Thank God I didn't have an event planned during my absence.
I send emails, book appointments, and make phone calls. Clients think I was battling a severe case of the flu during those two weeks, and most are forgiving but concerned. This temporary reprieve allows me to throw myself into my work.
Working overtime, I'm exhausted all the time and unable to do anything after I get home at night except shower and fall into bed. Every morning, I wake up more nauseous than the day before, but I know it’s certainly not the flu as I told my clients.
Tonight, I'm tossing and turning and can't get to sleep. The memory of what happened yesterday keeps running through my mind. I can't stop thinking about the flowers I received and the note that was attached. But most of all, I worry about what I discovered afterwards and what it means for my future.
As I approach my front door, I am surprised to find a bouquet of black roses waiting for me, their velvety petals shining in the evening light. Their beauty captivates me. I don't want to look away, but I carefully extract the accompanying card. Its white surface is a contrast to the vibrancy of the flowers, and I ponder who could have sent this thoughtful gift. Emilio? Maybe he misses me as much as I miss him.
The card reads:
Serena,
Next time you leave someone on the side of the road, make sure they're dead. I could go to the police, but what fun would that be?
See you soon.
As I stand in shock, tendrils of fear and dread wrap around me, sending chills all over me. My hands lose their grip, allowing the vase of flowers to fall and hit the porch. The glass vase shatters in the still of the night.
He was dead. I just know he was. There wasn’t anyone else there that night. How could anyone know what I did?
It was an accident; I just made a terrible mistake. Whenever I think back to that night, these are the assurances I tell myself. But deep down, I know I’ll regret that night for the rest of my life.
After getting the broom, I clean up the broken glass and toss the flowers in the garbage. No way am I taking them inside of my house. It seems the stalking has started again, and I still can't figure out who it is. It's definitely not Emilio; he would have wanted me to know it was him. After I return the broom and dustpan back to the house, my hands are still trembling.
Should I call the police? No. If I called the police, I would probably go to prison for killing someone and leaving the scene of an accident.
Calling Gio and Marcello and telling them what happened isn’t a viable option either. They will want to know why my husband isn't fixing the situation, and I'll have to come clean on Emilio kidnapping me and forcing me into marriage.
That leaves my missing husband. But he’s made it perfectly clear he doesn't give a flying fuck about me. I haven't heard from him in weeks.
Unable to contain the nausea that's crawling up my throat, I run to the bathroom, kneel in front of the toilet, and empty the contents of my stomach. I’ve been feeling like crap for days, and now my stalker has reappeared and shaken my resolve. For someone with so much family, right in this moment, I feel so very alone.
After stripping off my clothes, I step into the shower, allowing the hot water to cascade off my body and loosen my tense muscles. As I'm rubbing on my body wash to cleanse my body, I notice my breasts are sore. Very sore, and extra sensitive to the touch.
I'm not an idiot. I have two sisters-in-law who both have babies. Plus, my period is a couple of weeks late. I'm exhausted, have sore boobs, I'm nauseated all the time, and I’ve now started vomiting. My mood swings are off the charts, and I started crying for no reason three times this week. Yeah, I don’t need a pregnancy test to prove what I already suspect.
I've been taking my birth control pill, but I missed a few when Emilio kidnapped me. I started taking them again as soon as I could, but I guess it wasn't soon enough.
Emilio wanted me to be pregnant with his heir, but he doesn't want me as a person. If I'm having his baby, I can't let him find out. He'll take the baby from me if he knows, and he’ll raise it to be his little mafia soldier. He already threatened to lock me up if I were to ever fall pregnant, and I don’t doubt him.
This child could prove to be the bargaining chip he needs in his campaign against my family. No. I can’t allow him to use an innocent child in that way.
Over my dead body is Emilio Esposito getting access to my child.