To Love in Full

Chapter 52: Piggesnye

"Son, put down your gun," Atlas whispered to him as he turned towards me and anxiously waited for my response.

"Files were missing from the safehouse..."

"...she tried to tell me that she wasn't the one who had stolen them..."

"...but I didn't believe her." The last sentence left my lips in a hushed tone, completely blending into the silence of the room, as I was ashamed with what I had done.

"Where is my daughter, Nicolo?" Atlas asked as I watched him press his lips into a line, attempting to contain himself from an angry outburst.

"I have given her up to Cairo," I admitted with remorse laced within my voice.

"No, no, no," Alexander mumbled to himself while we watched him collapse back into his chair as panic began to settle within him.

"You sent her to Cairo," Dante stated in disbelief as he began to lean in closer to the table.

"Do you know how many of his men we killed in Greece?" he asked harshly and I glared at him for thinking that I have not thought about the consequences I would have to bear.

"She told you the truth, yet you easily denied all trust in her?" he continued to question me as if these thoughts never occurred in my mind since I have lost her.

"I was looking out for this family," I stated angrily.

"She is family!" he yelled back as many of my men flinched in fear once he slammed his fist onto the table.

"She was nothing but good to you!"

"She was nothing but good to us, all of us!" he continued to yell as his chest heaved up and down from the rage that consumed him.

Dante had always stood by my side since the beginning of my leadership, I have made many mistakes during our time together, but never once has he been this angry with me. I gave him a somber look as I knew this situation became a reminder of Catalina, but I couldn't stand to look at him any longer as I was beginning to feel sympathetic.

"You are so quick to judge, so quick to put blame on someone, when deep down inside you know that Arabella would never do anything to hurt us."

"My daughter, Catalina, was only a child when she passed away," he said as his voice began to tremble.

"She lost her life to the mafia, but she was innocent!" he raised his voice and looked around the room, but no one had the strength to look him in the eye.

"And it hurts..." his voice fell quietly as I watched a tear fall from his eye.

"...it hurts to wake up every damn morning knowing that I am still alive on this Earth without my daughter, knowing that I could have done something to save her," he seethed while returning a furious glare.

"I know you've grown close to Arabella..." he began to say as his voice broke under her name.

"...but Nicolo, for your sake, I am praying that Arabella is still alive, because I would never wish this type of pain or misery upon our worst enemies," he asserted angrily as he immediately stood up from his chair and slammed the office doors shut once he left the room.

I looked around at my men and saw that they gazed back at me with shock across their faces. Atlas and Alexander had followed Dante out of the office and I somberly watched as Gabe silently comforted Manny.

I dismissed my men from the room as their heavy and morose presence hindered my thoughts of forming a plan to save Arabella. I have come to a realization that the moment I made the decision to not trust her words, she had possibly lost all respect for me, all of her affection towards me.