Chapter 71
Harlow
For years, I dreamt of the moment Vincenzo Mancini would pay for all the destruction and pain he caused in my life, and now it was finally time.
He thought he broke me, destroyed me, but the funny thing about broken things, was that we fought back as we slowly piece ourselves back together.
And I was piercing myself back together.
It was a slow process, but tonight, I would move my progress forward. He wouldn’t control me anymore.
He once owned my fear, but now, I owned his fate and he would bleed.
The last time I was in this basement, it was when Caterina killed Michael and now we were killing the man who started it all…
together. Vincenzo looked like shit, and I was being nice.
Two months of continuous torment did that to a person.
I would know, but his torment was more physical than psychological and emotional.
He had to have feelings and a heart to suffer any other way.
He was dangling from the wall, his toes barely scraping the ground. When he heard us walk in, he lifted his head. Even in this state, he smirked. “Harlow…bellissima. Come for one more ride?”
Caterina stabbed him in the shoulder, and Vincenzo grunted. “You don’t get to say her name anymore.”
I stepped closer to him. I wanted to be strong, needed to be strong, but holy shit I was terrified.
Shattering could happen later when he was dead.
This was the moment I wanted, the revenge I craved, and the closure I finally needed to move on with my life.
Hell, even if I still had nightmares and I was still mortified, at least I knew the boogeyman was dead and it was only my mind.
With him dead, I could step closer to healing and having the life I was meant to have with the woman who saved me and my family.
“You ruined my life. And I never understood why.” I took the knife from Caterina’s hand and I stabbed him in the stomach. The knife barely breached, so I had Caterina help me. She placed her hand on mine as I pulled the knife out and stabbed him again. “You said it was love, but that wasn’t love.”
“It was, baby. The best kind of love,” he sputtered.
“Love doesn’t hurt.” Stab. “Love doesn’t break you.” Stab. “Love doesn’t make you wish for death.” Stab. “Caterina is the embodiment of love and when we finally kill you, we will live our legacy and you will be nothing.”
“I still win,” he taunted.
“No, you don’t. In the beginning, you took everything from me, but she gave it back to me. My mother. My grandmother. My freedom. My body. My control. And now look at you? Pathetic.”
“You call me pathetic, but I still have victory. You’re weak, Harlow. You can’t even kill me without her.”
I glanced at Caterina who was standing a few feet from me. “It’s not about killing you. It’s about reclaiming the parts of me you took. Each cut. Each stab. It’s a part of me coming back because you didn’t win.”
I stepped to Caterina and whispered, “Bring me a crowbar and the babies.”
She was hesitant to leave me alone with him, but she did. “Look at her, leaving you. Why would she want you?” he spat.
He was scared, but he wouldn’t show it. Vincenzo didn’t like the fact I was the one tormenting him.
I knew all the ropes. One reason I asked for the crowbar was because of what he allowed a client to do to me years ago.
He said I liked pain, and his patron beat me with a crowbar before using it on me.
Trevor was one of those sadists who got off on my pain, so if I didn’t scream, he threatened to turn me “into a puppet” with said crowbar.
Now he would know my misery in that moment, and if I ever found Trevor and his friends, let’s just say, they would meet the same fate.
“You’re a whore, Harlow. I hope Caterina enjoys my sloppy seconds.”
I cocked my head to the side. “And whose fault is that? Huh? You want to throw around insults when you were the one who put me in your club. You let your friends, your men, and whoever paid the most rape me!” His jaw flexed.
“You’re talking about Caterina, but who had me after I was brutalized in the club?
Who had me after his men took their turn because they did a good job? ”
I grabbed his jaw, digging my nails into his skin. Being this close to him scared me, but he couldn’t hurt me anymore. He didn’t deserve to know anything, but he would die regardless and Caterina would be the only one in my bed.
“Caterina knows how to please a woman. She can make me scream her name without hurting me. And you know the best part? She cherishes me like I am the most beautiful person she ever laid eyes on. My body isn’t the only thing she wants. It’s a bonus, but she loves me.”
“Damn right, I do,” Caterina chimed as she stepped back into the basement with the crowbar and our babies. “Now her screaming my name is a bonus.”
I walked up to her, grabbed her by her suspenders, and kissed her.
Nothing about it was gentle, soft, or healing.
It was possessive, devouring. A show. One Vincenzo didn’t deserve, but I was proving a point.
I wanted him to watch. Caterina kissed me like I was her oxygen.
I tasted desperation, fury and love wrapped together in one amazing kiss.
I broke the kiss slowly, gazing into Caterina’s eyes before facing Vincenzo again.
“See that?” I asked him, smirking as I swiped my thumb over my lower lip.
“That’s what an all-consuming love looks like.
” His jaw tightened as I stepped closer and grabbed his jaw.
“You never owned me, but I think a part of you believed you did. And I’ll be honest, a part of me did, too, but it took Caterina showing me love and freedom.
By giving me the choice. And now, you get to die, knowing you didn’t break me.
I am loved. I am happy. And I have someone who sees past the scars, past the trauma, and loves even the darkest parts of me. ”
I grabbed the crowbar from her. The time for being sappy was done.
It was time to finish what we started and finally end his reign of terror.
I stepped behind him; Caterina walking towards the chains as she raised him up.
She didn’t know why I wanted the crowbar.
There were still some parts of my trauma I haven’t shared with her. She was about to find out now.
“You remember when you allowed one of your paying customers to use a crowbar on me?” I hissed, the painful memory playing in my head. Caterina tensed behind me. “Now it’s your turn.” I probed his asshole with the pointy tip of the crowbar, and Vicenzo screamed.
“W-wait, I-I have information.”
Caterina let the chain fall down slightly as she stormed back towards him and grabbed his hair, jerking his head back. “Why would we care about anything you have to offer? You are nothing but a pest on the bottom of my Louis Vuitton.”
“I have a daughter.”