I Chose You

Chapter 27

"Mmmm..." She moves her head.

"Emilia are you..." Oh no, what am I thinking? She can't see me here with her tied up like this.

"Mmm." She lifts her head and slowly tries to open her eyes but the lighting is too bright. I watch her blind trying to adjust to the light. "L... Leonardo," she whispers. And gazes at me before looking a little confused. 

"Scott! Turn the lights off."

Emilia's POV

I'm having a bad dream. I'm tied to a chair and I can't move my hands.

"Mmmm..." All I need to do is wake up. I feel so tired and hot. I must be sweating. How long have I been sleeping? I can't believe I am having a nightmare. Did I go to bed early?

"Emilia are you..." Is that Leonardo? He sounds worried about me. Oh no... I am sleeping in his bed again? I'm sweating all over his covers. Oh, he's going to be so mad at me.

"Mmm." I try to open my eyes but the light is too bright. Why on earth does he have the lights on? Is he watching me sleep? Creepy. So creepy.
I open my eyes trying my best to adjust to the bright light. 

"L... Leonardo." I look up expecting to see him. But instead, I meet a familiar face.

"Scott! Turn the lights off."

Scott?

Where am I? And who is Scott?

The lights go off and it is super dark. I can't see a thing. At that moment I recall everything. And my heart sinks did he do this to me? Is he working with these men? I wish I was dreaming and I could just open my eyes and have it all go away.

Am I hallucinating? Or did I catch a glimpse of Marco? Or am I just not coping with this crisis? I know I haven't been feeling well these past few days. But that doesn't mean I would see something that is not there.

"Marco..." I say in almost a whisper. I take a deep breath. Waiting to hear his voice.  "Marco. Marco, are you still there?" I have this fear that he will respond and it could crush my soul. I sit waiting to hear from him and he doesn't say a word. Instead, I hear footsteps walking away.

His leaving? 

No. No. No

"Please!" I beg, "Don't go." I say a little out of breath. To my surprise, he stops and it's quiet. I have to think of something to keep him here with me. "Water... I-I need some water. Please." But in all honesty, I didn't have to think hard because I was thirsty. He doesn't say a word and I hear his footsteps again as he leaves me in the dark.

I close my eyes and tears run down my cheeks like a never-ending waterfall. I can't believe his leaving me here.
A few minutes later I hear footsteps again and I open my mouth to say something but I stop myself.

"Here. Open up. Your mouth. The water. You asked for." I finally hear his voice and I let up a loud cry. "Shhhh." He whispers. And I hear none of it. My cry grows louder. "Emilia, you have to be quiet."

What?

I can't believe him right now. How dare he even say that? Am tied to a chair and his working with these men who did this to me.

His hand covers my mouth. Finally silencing my cries. I move my head trying to get his hand off my mouth. "My brother thinks I left and if you continue to cry like this he will come and check on you." He says. "I will remove my hand from your mouth. Just don't scream. Okay?" I nod my head and he lets me go.

"Can you turn on the light?" I ask. Not expecting him to listen to a word of what I just said. He sighs and tells Scott to turn the lights on. I see his face and I feel at ease but my heart breaks. He looks uncomfortable like his out of place. Like when you have a planting you like but you can't hang it up because it just doesn't fit with everything else around it. Marco was that painting, beautiful but out of place.

He is squeezing the life out of the bottle of water in his hand. I meet his gaze and he looks away. "Can I... Drink that." I gesture to the bottle of water. "Oh, of course." He steps close to me and I open my mouth.

And I drink.

I drink like my life depends on it.

I drink like I draw life from this bottle.

"Am sorry about this," Marco says as soon as I finish the bottle of water. "I had no idea my brother was planning to do this to you. If I did I would've stopped him. Trust me."

"I don't trust anything right now. Kinda hard when you're tied to a chair in some dark dungeon."  He gives me a small grin and hate that it immediately reminds me of the night we met.

I will never see Marco the same way again, not the way I saw him the first time we met. He's the same person but somehow he is different. He has a dark side to him and he hides it well.
But I don't know him. He fooled me once and he could be doing it again so I have to think of something, a way to convince him to let me go.

"What am I doing here Marco?" His surprised by my question. He swallows. "My brother wants Leonardo." He breathes out, "So he's using you to get him." I can't help but roll my eyes.

Are you kidding me?

I shake my head and chuckle at how ridiculous this is. "You know when he stays." I find myself saying. "You drive me home! You drive me to Leonardo's house! But you let them do this to me. Why didn't you just show them where he lives."

"I was protecting you." Oh, my gosh. I can't believe this man. "Oh, while I guess congratulations then you did a fantastic job at that."

"That night at the club, my brother recognized you. And he thought it would be a great idea to kill you." He says and I am in complete shock. "His way of sending your husband a message. Why do you think I dragged you out of the club that night? I was trying to protect you."

Should I believe him?

"I was hoping he would forget about you. But how could he when I hadn't forgotten about you myself."

His words went in one ear and out the other.

I can't believe my luck, even if I manage to survive this and tell Leonardo the truth about who I am. I won't live in peace. If I only knew I would have never taken a single photo at that stupid wedding.
Now every one of Leonardo's enemies has a face of who Emilia is and they all think it's me.
Now I know why she went through all the trouble of hiding who she is.

"Marco you have to let me go." He is completely shocked by my request. Does he think I wouldn't try for my freedom? He shakes his head. "Please. You don't understand, Leonardo won't come here." I pull my arms as hard as I can trying to free my hands. But the only thing I manage to do is cut my wrists with the rope. 

"Stop that." He says with a cold expression. Oh, screw you, Marco. Am not listening to a word you say. I carry on and try twisting my wrists. It only leaves me bruised and bloody. "You're hurting yourself." He holds my hands to stop me from moving. He gives me a hard gaze and we lock eyes. We stay like that, him hovering down on me and his strong grip pinning my hands down. His eyes change they go from hard to soft. He looks away for a second and we lock eyes again.

"Your husband," I swear I saw a flash of pain in his eyes when he said that. "His coming." He slowly lets go of my hands like his warning me not to do that again.

I wish I believed in Leonardo the way these brothers seem to. Only Zack can convince him to do something. What if he doesn't know? How long will they keep me here?

Antonio will have his way.