Chapter 36
Caterina
“Mama, what does it feel like to be in love?” I asked as she brushed my hair out of my face.
She laughed, kissing my nose, and I knew the first thing she was going to say. “Vita mia, if your papa knew you were talking about love, he’d kill them.”
“No, Mama,” I giggled, “you and Papa are happy. I want to know what it feels like when I fall in love. It has to happen no matter what he says.”
“Vita Mia, when you fall in love, you will know it. There’s a feeling of intense happiness when you meet the person your heart desires. When you meet your soulmate, you will feel like you belong.”
“How did you and Papa meet?”
She sighed, laughing gently. “Our families knew each other, so they arranged a marriage between the families when I was nineteen. Your father was twenty-three and the underboss for the famiglia. I hated him in the beginning because I didn’t want to marry him.
I wanted a choice, but your papa was a pesky little man.
He stole my heart, and I knew he was meant for me.
I scrunched my nose. “Are you going to make me marry someone?”
“No, vita mia. You will be free to choose whom you marry. I want to watch you fall in love with the person your soul desires, but it won’t be until you’re thirty.”
“Nooo, Mama. You sound like Papa.”
“I’ll know the moment you find them. Remember: L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle. The love that moves the sun and the stars. They will be the love of your life, the other part of your soul. Never settle, vita mia.”
A shockwave of pain erupted down my spine as bright lights invaded my senses and made my head scream in agony.
Why the fuck was it so bright in here, and why did it feel like I went five rounds with Natalya and Spencer and lost every time?
My fingers grasped cotton sheets under me as I forced myself up, only I didn’t move.
Instead, I grunted as pain radiated through my entire body.
Strong arms held me down. “Don’t move.” Roman? What the hell was he doing here?
My eyes snapped open, pain erupting like an inferno in my head, but I forced the pain back.
What the fuck was going on? The man was above me with a solemn look on his features as he held me down.
I never expected to punch one of my closest friends, but if he didn’t let me go, fuck the pain, I would hit him.
“Roman, why are you here?”
“Cat…” And then I heard crying behind him.
“Harlow?” I grimaced as he held me down more firmly. “Roman, let me fucking go.”
“You need to stay where you are! Take a deep breath and listen to me.”
“Cat,” Elizabeth whimpered as she stepped closer to me, taking my hand. Her eyes were red and puffy with tears staining her cheeks. It looked like she’d been crying for days, and then my heart dropped. “D-Do y-you remember anything?”
The last thing I remember were the two of them in Tennessee, and me and Harlow going to dinner in New York with one of Roman’s men driving us.
I closed my eyes, evading the pain that followed.
Harlow’s face flashed through my mind, her beautiful smile and the beautiful, satin blue dress I bought her.
Her laugh—and then her scream, followed by extreme pain and then darkness.
“Dinner. We were going to dinner. There was a bright light and then pain. What the hell is going on?”
Roman sighed. “Vincenzo’s man ran his car into yours going seventy miles per hour. Your SUV flipped several times. My man died on impact, and you suffered major trauma.”
He didn’t mention Harlow. “Where. Is. Harlow?” I asked through gritted teeth, but no one answered me. “Where the fuck is my wife?” But I knew the answer.
Elizabeth sobbed more, and Roman’s face fell. “He took her.” Roman’s voice broke.
No.
“How long have I been out?”
“Almost three weeks.”
My heart shattered. “You’re telling me…Vincenzo has had Harlow for three goddamn weeks, and no one has gone to get her!”
“Vincenzo vanished. He knew this would happen, and he took proper measures to make sure no one finds him.”
My fists clenched. Where did he take her? Tears burned my eyes, but I forced them back. I kicked my legs out of bed, grunting in pain as my upper body and arm screamed in agony. This pain was nothing compared to the pain in my chest and heart. My wife was trapped with the man who destroyed her.
“You need to stay in bed,” Roman demanded. “You have a broken arm, several broken ribs, a skull fracture, and a broken collarbone. There’s several staples in your head where your scalp was split open.”
If I had the strength to punch him, I would. There was nothing that pissed me off more than men trying to tell me what to do, regardless of the situation. “Harlow is in Vincenzo’s hands again. Who knows what he is doing to her!”
I knew exactly what that monster was doing to Harlow.
She was being tormented for escaping. I’d seen the videos, heard everything she’d experienced, and dealt with the nightmares firsthand.
She was healing slowly every day, and now the progress was shattered.
He ruined everything, and I would make sure he fucking paid.
Harlow was strong. She was a fighter and I hoped she knew I was going to find her, even if I had to burn the world in the process. “I need to save her!” I shouted.
“S-She thinks you’re dead,” Elizabeth sobbed, her voice a broken whisper.
Elizabeth looked like she was on the verge of a breakdown, so I held back the bitter snap I wanted to unleash. “What?”
Elizabeth gathered herself slightly. “S-she called Malachi when it happened. S-she said she couldn’t tell if you were breathing or not.
Vincenzo, h-he s-said you’re dead before h-he took her.
” She took a deep breath; her bottom lip trembled.
“I-if sh-she thinks you’re dead, s-she wo-won’t fight.
Y-you saved her, but now she thinks y-you’re gone. ”
I wanted to skin Vincenzo alive. I wanted to watch him bleed as I tormented him for hours, but first I needed to find my wife.
Yanking the wires and the IV from my arm, I finally stood.
Adrenaline and rage were the only things that kept me from screaming and wincing in agony.
Roman tried to hold me down again, and I sealed his fucking fate.
“Get the fuck off of me! I’m going to find my wife!”
Roman pushed as carefully as he could, but I fought with the force of a hundred men. “Elizabeth, get someone in here that can knock some sense into her. Cat, I need you to stop. You will injure yourself more and be useless to Harlow.”
I fought back the tears in my eyes. I didn’t cry.
The last time I cried was when my mother died.
Knowing Harlow was back in the arms of her tormentor made my chest break.
This stupid fucking organ came to life because of her, and now I was going to lose her.
Three weeks must have felt like an eternity for her.
“She needs me!” I screamed, my tears breaking free and streaming down my cheeks.
“Caterina.” Moira’s voice roared as she walked into the room with my father behind her. “Stop. You are useless to Harlow when you are injured. I will strap you to the bed and sedate you myself.”
I glared at the woman before meeting my father’s eyes.
Seeing the look in his eyes made me break down, and I sobbed uncontrollably.
He had the same look in his eyes that he had when my mother died.
Was this how he felt when Mama died? Fuck.
But Harlow wasn’t dead. She was trapped.
She’d gotten stronger in the months she’d been with me.
Harlow was a fighter, and one thing men like Vincenzo Mancini detested was a strong woman.
My father wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest, a move he hasn’t made since I was younger.
He never showed emotion well. The only time I’d ever seen him break was when he found my mother, and his reaction was not the greatest. I held onto my father like he was my lifeline as the sobs wreaked havoc on my broken body.
Out of everyone in this room, he was the only one that knew the emotions screaming in my head and chest.
“I-I can’t lose her, Daddy.”
He ran his hands up and down my back as I sobbed into his neck. “I know, baby. We’ll get her back. Harlow is a fighter.”