Chisa
VICO’S DEAD.
Dead.
Vico’s evil, and he’s dead.
It’s all I can think of as I stare at his dead body on the floor, a pool of blood growing underneath it. I’m pretty sure I’m in shock because I can’t seem to stop staring while his words keep playing in my mind like a broken record.
If I have to kill Rica next.
He was the uncle my baby girl adored, and yet...
If I have to kill Rica next.
He said the words so, so easily that you just kinda knew he meant it.
If I have to kill Rica next.
It means nothing to him to take a child’s life, even if that same child loved him—
“Chisa, guardami!”
I feel like I’m waking up from a long dream as I find myself staring into Marcello’s dark eyes, which are frantic with worry. I realize he’s taken off my gag, he’s released me from my restraints, and now his gaze is roaming over me, scanning for injuries—
“I’m fine,” I manage to whisper.
“You’re bleeding,” he grates out.
I only realize it’s true when he touches the side of my head, and I wince at the contact. That must be where Vico hit me earlier, to knock me unconscious. “It’s fine, it’s just—”
“Camillo—” Marcello, however, is already talking to his brother. “My wife needs a doctor.”
I shake my head. “I don’t...” I stop speaking.
Wait.
Wait.
Rica.
And now it’s my turn to be frantic. “Rica—”
“She’s safe with Daniele,” Camillo says.
Oh, thank God.
Thank You.
Thank You.
I don’t even realize that relief has me swaying until I feel Marcello start to lift me in his arms—
“No!”
I cry out in panic, and Marcello stills, his face turning ashen. “Chisa—”
I look away because I can’t bear to look into his eyes while knowing...
“I’m s-sorry.”
I hate that I’m fighting back tears again.
“I think I just need—”
“I’m sorry I doubted you.”
The hoarseness of his voice makes me bite my lip.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I made you cry.”
And yet...he’s doing it again.
Right this very moment.
He’s making me cry because...
“It’s not your fault,” I whisper.
This is exactly what I feared.
I told his mother not to tell him I cried, but she obviously did otherwise, and now...
“You don’t have to feel guilty for not loving me.”
This is exactly how I expected Marcello to react.
“So please—”
I manage to get to my feet while carefully avoiding his gaze. I look around and realize that Camillo’s already left. It’s just the two of us, and I guess that’s for the best. No one wants to have an audience while—
Marcello cups my face, and I just...panic.
I struggle and try shoving him away, but he’s not letting go.
He’s forcing me to look at him.
“Please.” And that’s how I end up begging yet again. “Please stop.” But this time, I’m begging for the opposite. I just don’t want to see him again. I don’t want to be ever reminded—
“I know this isn’t an excuse,” he says hollowly, “but I was raised to never trust my heart.”
“Please just stop—”
“My father would actually beat us black and blue until we swore we’d never forget.”
I want to cover my ears. I don’t want to hear this. I can’t.
“Evidence over heart,” he continues doggedly. “Blood over heart.”
I can only keep shaking my head because he wouldn’t let go. “I don’t care!”
Marcello flinches at this, but I try to convince myself I don’t care about that either.
“I know it’s no excuse,” he says again. “But that’s why it was so easy for me to think you betrayed me. It was what I was trained to believe—”
“Just please, p-please stop it!”
I plant my hands against his chest and just...push.
And Marcello, even though he’s big and strong, powerful and dangerous...
He looks at me like I’ve just ripped his heart out.
“It’s not normal, okay?” I sob out. “The way you can’t seem to trust me...it’s not how a man in love would ever do. So just stop feeling guilty about this and let me go.”
I take one shaken step forward, thinking that this time...
This time I can leave...
“I can’t.”
Because he’s blocking my way, and he’s speaking to me in a tone so vicious and violent—
“I know I should. I know I owe it to you. But I can’t.”
That it should terrify me to death—
“I’m sorry. I’m a selfish bastard who can’t let you go.”
Especially when he suddenly has my back against the wall—
“I would rather lock you away than let you go.”
And he’s snarling all these things out like a madman.
“I’ll love you more and more until you forget I’ve ever hurt you.”
He’s saying he loves me like he wants to kill me.
“I’m sorry, Chisa, but I just can’t let you go.”
He’s saying he’s sorry like he’s threatening me, and that’s when I realize...
That’s when I start crying harder than ever because I finally understand...
“You can ask anything of me, I will do it. Except let you go.”
Marcello Bastianelli isn’t selfish, and so that’s not the reason he can’t let me go.
“You can cut me a thousand times...”
Rather, my husband isn’t a normal man.
“Make me pay for my sins however way you want...”
And that’s when I finally understand he’s telling the truth.
“I love you, Chisa.”
He loved me, and that’s why he had such a hard time trusting me.
“I have always loved you.”
It’s what his father taught him, but now...
Marcello inhales sharply as I cup his face with shaking hands.
“Ti amo, Marcello.”
I’m going to teach him what it really means to—
Aaah.
I forget what I’m thinking as his lips capture mine.