Twenty Seven
LIANA
It’s been a week… A full week of being Mrs Vitale and already, I feel more at home here than I ever did with Gabriel. Dario’s done everything in his power to make me feel comfortable, even throwing me a bone or two when they’re amidst their regular sibling banter. I feel like I’m no longer an outsider to their secrets, their love or their silly little fights. And even though I have everything I could ever want, I still feel like something’s missing from my life.
Every spare moment I have, I spend with Apollo and Ace in their new cell. It’s like they were never apart. They continue to bicker and bite each other’s heads off, even in their hellish conditions, almost as if they feel no change in their friendship. And lucky for me, I get to watch it all, and then head back to my doting husband.
It’s a strange feeling to be wanted, needed … He never makes me doubt his love for me. It’s like as soon as we exchanged wedding rings and vows, a new and improved version of Dario appeared, making it almost impossible to hate him. While I still hold a grudge against him for what he’s done to my brother and Savio, he shows such deep regret in his leniency to them, that I can’t stand to hate him. He may be a bad man, but since I’ve been around, it seems that man is fading away, being replaced by one influenced by love.
Kissing Dario’s cheek, I say goodbye and briskly walk to the Soldier’s House. Dario’s stuck in a meeting where I’m not needed, so, as usual, I’m spending my free time with the guys.
All I want is for them to remember something—anything that will help set them free—but even with the aliases Ciro presented to them, their memories are still foggy. Out of the dozens of names he found, they vaguely remembered two. They were the two with the least amount of activity in their backgrounds. It’s possible they were only used once, which doesn’t give us much to go on.
Approaching their cell, I hear their muffled laughter from behind their door and a smile widens on my face as I open it. I watch as they both retreat from each other as far as their chained legs will let them, blood smeared across their fresh white shirts.
“What the fuck are you two doing?!” The words come out as a high-pitched whine as I take long strides towards them. My legs feel weak and my adrenaline skyrockets as their heads whip in my direction.
“He started it,” Ace says defensively, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“He’s a fucking liar,” Apollo says, mischief in his voice and wicked smile spreading across his lips.
“I don’t care who started it; I care who threw the first punch. So who was it?”
Quickly, they both point fingers at each other, a soft laugh passing through their lips.
“Like children,” I mutter under my breath. “Like two fully grown fucking children.”
“Why don’t you join us, Lia?” Ace says. “Like old times.”
“I’m not a child anymore and this visit isn’t to catch up on lost time,” I say, forcing back the urge to knock them on their asses like I used to. “I need you two level-headed for a minute. I need you to think back and remember.”
“Remember what exactly?” Apollo asks.
“Anything,” I say, exasperated. “Those two names you pointed out had shorter files than most, meaning there’s nothing that ties them to what we need to find the man we’re looking for. We need you to remember more.”
“So it’s ‘we’ now?” Apollo scoffs. “You’ve been married a week, Liana, don’t get ahead of yourself.”
I tilt my head back at his words. “Where’d that come from?”
“I’m your family, not him, but all of a sudden you two are a ‘we’? Tell me, what have I missed in my time away?”
“You left me to chase a fantasy with Ares,” I spit, my right eye twitching through the anger. “You chose to leave your ‘family’ to be with someone you’d known for a few months. You were supposed to protect me and instead, you only cared about yourself and your future with him. Well, I guess if you lost one and threw away the other, you weren’t much of a man, were you?”
His jaw clenches, but he says nothing, determined to keep his harsh words to himself.
A weak laugh slips from my lips as I swipe angry tears from my eyes before they have the chance to slip free. “You were supposed to protect me from this exact situation. You were supposed to intervene as best you could, so I, at least, felt loved in some sense of the word, but instead, you left without a trace. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead, and if it wasn’t for this situation with Dario, I still wouldn’t know. He cared about me enough to show me what it was he did for a living, which led me straight to you, and all you care about is my phrasing of words?”
“You have to understand—”
“Understand what, Apollo? That the only man who has proven to love me time and time again is someone I met a couple of weeks ago? It wasn’t my father, the person who was supposed to love and care for me through any situation. It wasn’t my big brother who left me to deal with him alone to chase his boyfriend and not even try to make amends with him after storming out like a little bitch. No, Dario fixed everything that you two broke.”
“Liana!” Ace’s loud voice echoes around the concrete chamber. “That’s enough!”
“It’s not enough, Savio. It’ll never be enough!” I spit before turning back to Apollo. “To understand my pain, you have to live through it yourself. But every single decision you ever made, including leaving me with a man who broke my heart, led me to Dario and for that I suppose I should be grateful. But how could I ever be grateful for having to grow up without you there?”
“Liana—”
“No, don’t you dare apologise. We both know you meant every single word you said… I just really wish you didn’t. I wish you could take it all back, because the last thing I wanted was to have an argument with you. I wanted you to see the real me, the person you knew before you left, rather than the woman I’m becoming by being a Vitale wife. But you couldn’t help yourself, could you? You couldn’t let me relish in what could’ve been. You had to ruin it.”
“Don’t you dare open your mouth unless you understand what she’s saying, Apollo,” Dario’s voice commands from behind me.
I spin around on my heels, his face comforting me. I didn’t hear him come in, but now that he’s here, I don’t feel quite so tense any longer.
“I know this is a difficult situation you’re in, but be glad you’re dealing with her and not me or any of my brothers. I’m sure you understand how they work by now?” They both say nothing, nodding their heads to his words. “Then be glad that Liana still loves you both. If I had it my way, she wouldn’t step foot in here again because you’ve upset her. But she’s her own person who still loves both of you, and she’d have my balls if I prevented her from coming down here. But I swear to fucking God, if you so much as make her heart hurt like this again, I will kill you both without a single ounce of hesitation. And I really don’t want to do that, because she’ll hate me for the rest of her life. And I’m sure you know her love is enough.”
“I’m okay,” I breathe, glancing up at him.
His lips turn into a heartfelt smile and he inches closer, placing a comforting hand on the small of my back. “Go ahead,” he says. “Finish telling them what you came here to say.”
I swallow back the lump in my throat and wipe away the tears that have since slipped free. “I need you two to try and remember anything about the aliases you pointed out. No matter how small or irrelevant it may seem, I need you to tell us everything.”
“Fine,” Apollo says, sitting himself down on the floor. “Alfonso Barone was a sketchy guy I only met once. I could tell he was old and had a beer belly, but not much else. He wore a long trench coat and a mask, so his facial features and what he wore were hidden. I figured it made it easier to deal with him because if I’d seen his face, I might’ve punched it once or twice.”
“His mask slipped once, though,” Ace chimes in. “The only thing I could see was a small scar on his forehead. It looked fresh.”
“Okay, what about Armando Giordano?”
“I got a better look at him,” Apollo adds with a smile. “He was slim and clothes always looked so dishevelled. His hair was always well kept though.”
“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?” I screech in disbelief.
“We told you we didn’t know much,” Savio shrugs.
“Think back,” I urge. “Close your eyes and think back—”
“What good will that do?” Apollo scoffs. “We’ve told you all we know.”
“What good will it do?” I retort. “I want to exonerate you two, to release you so at least the people you love know you’re alright. Don’t you want to at least know that they’re okay too?”
Savio immediately averts his eyes from me, staring up at the corner of the ceiling as if it’ll make me go away. He’s a strong guy; I know that much for sure, but the death of his family is something that still haunts him. The memory of finding them makes it almost impossible to get past it.
“I know your family would want you to get out of here alive, Ace.”
“What do you know?” he scoffs, a breathy laugh slipping free. “They’re dead and they’re not coming back, Liana. I know you know that. Don’t make me relive it by mentioning them.”
I offer a tight-lipped smile, silently apologising.
Taking a deep breath, as if to compose himself, Ace closes his eyes. “It was a year after our last encounter with Alfonso that we met Armando. He was strange and kept to himself, almost like he didn’t want to give too much of himself away.”
“Is there anything you remember about his appearance, or did he disguise himself too?”
He shakes his head, his eyes squeezing tighter. “He preferred to stay in the shadows. He never wore anything to hide himself as far as I could tell.” His head twists slightly and his brows furrow.
“Wait,” Apollo says, his face mimicking Ace’s. “He had a scar.”
“Shit,” Ace breathes, his eyes pop open. “It was him. Armando and Alfonso were one and the same.”
“How can you be so sure?” Dario asks, stepping closer to him.
“That scar. I noticed it immediately, but it never clicked. It was small, but looked… painful. It was kind of jagged, like someone drew a zigzag on him, but with something sharp enough to leave a mark.”
Apollo laughs, his brows still furrowed. “He’s right. And now that he mentions it, I’ve seen it a handful of times on different men. It’s impossible for them all to have identical ones, right?”
Dario nods once. “Impossible, yes. No scar is the same. Even if you tried to replicate it, there’d always be a flaw or two.”
“I-I’m sorry, I can’t remember who they were—their names, I mean. The ones you gave us sounded so out there and unique that I would’ve remembered. It’s possible he abbreviated them or shortened them, but I just don’t remember.” Ace nods as he agrees with Apollo’s statement and apology.
Dario exhales. “Would you be able to draw this scar?”
“Maybe, but I’ve never been very artistic.”
“I second that,” Ace says, pointing his thumb to Apollo, and they share a half-assed laugh. “We can both draw one, though. They won’t be exact, but hopefully similar enough to help you know what you’re searching for. You could take the sketches and draw various examples. Maybe something will lead to the man you’re looking for.”
“I’ll be back later… alone. I’ll bring pens and paper for you to sketch,” Dario states.
I look up at him, but he says nothing, glancing down at me with a smile.
“I’ll see you two tomorrow?” I turn around to face them with softened features and watch as they nod in unison.