~Isabella~
"What did our parents ever do to you? Our siblings? What did they ever do to you?!"
"Nothing! And that was where they went wrong! They did nothing! Nothing! Father thought I wasn't worthy enough. He thought I was just a boy. Despite being the only son, he never considered me his son, never considered me his heir."
I closed my eyes as tears rolled down. This was too much. Too fucking much. "Our father loved you. He loved us!"
"He never did."
I couldn't believe I was crying right now. How could he? This was all too much. "So...you framed all that. I watched my family collapse before my eyes. And you, they took you away with a bullet stuck to your shoulder. I wanted to do something but I couldn't...there was nothing I could do."
"There was nothing you could have done."
"So you would have murdered me too?"
"If I wanted to, I wouldn't have sent Lucas to recruit you."
I sighed, closing my eyes. "Antonio, I can't believe this. And mother? What did she ever do to you?!"
"That was where Lucas went wrong. I told that motherfucker to take the woman hostage but what did he do?! He murdered her in cold blood. But you don't have to worry, because I have already taken care of that. He's paid for it already."
"Antonio...you..there is no word on earth I can use to describe you right now. It was you. All along it was you. And I brought it up on myself to avenge you. To avenge the death of your family! You took your own family, Antonio! You murdered our father, killed our mother and ended our sisters, how could you?! What kind of a monster are you? You made me an orphan. You made me who I am today, Antonio. You shattered my dreams, you killed my heart and melted every single love in my soul! You are nothing but a selfish, monstrous, greedy, self-conceited, ungrateful, merciless, good for nothing piece of shit, you bastard!"
His hand came down on my face in one second. "Don't make hurt you, Isabel. Trust me, you wouldn't like that."
I spat and tilted my head back to face him. "Trust you?" The word tasted like venom on my lips. "I gave up on trust the day you decided to murder your family and shatter you sister's heart! I can't..." My voice choked with tears. "I can't believe this. You did all this for what? For our father's wealth?! For money? You chose money over your own family?! What kind of a son are you?! You turned two families against each other all because of money?! I stand in mother's shoes and I curse the day you were born!"
"Enough! You've said more than enough now."
"Sir," the door opened and a man stepped in. "We just retrieved this." He handed something over to Antonio.
Luigi's watch.
The pieces were beginning to fall back into their places.
"So that was the reason those men took me.." I found myself talking. "They kidnapped me because I knew your real name. They took me because they knew that I knew you were Antonio and not Luigi! You own the fucking watch! You are Luigi, Antonio. How could you?"
"That's it. Put her to sleep now." He said and started for the door.
"You bastard...I shared everything with you. Everything including blood and here you ripped everything apart. Shattered our bond like it was never there, spilled the blood of your own fami---" that was the last thing I said before I felt a sharp sting on my arm, darkness followed.
~*~
"I'd suggest you take a bite from that food, Isabel. Unless you want die of starvation."
"I rather die than touch anything that comes from you." The pain emanating from all parts of my body was becoming unbearable. I didn't know if it was because I was starving or maybe, something else.
Antonio moved to my side to stare at the wound on my arm. "Still think you don't want to get treated for this?"
"Don't fucking touch me," I lowered my head to stare at him. "Why don't you just kill me already? You've already taken everything away from me, just kill me now!"
"Not everything," his jaw flinched, a sign of anger. "All except one."
"If you touch Shayne, I swear that I'll find you wherever you may run to. I'll scorch this Earth for you and I'll send you back to hell myself." I gritted out.
To my surprise, he stood up and bursted into laughter. "See, I knew there was something going on. Lucas was right. You do have feelings for him, don't you?"
"You're in need of a doctor,"
"Oh, I certainly will need one," my brows shot up automatically. "For you. Now look where that stupid love of yours for that son of a bitch has ended you. You love too easily, Isabel. You need someone to teach you how to harden your heart and make it impervious to those shits."
"Like the way you taught yourself how to murder your own family?"
"You know you've got to stop saying that. I've gotten over it a long time ago, why haven't you?"
"So you sleep at night? Alone in a bird's nest all covered up? The devil doesn't haunt your soul?"
"Absolutely, not." I tried shifting backward when he moved closer and knelt in front of me. Lifting one finger, he grazed my chin, slowly. "You see, that love is what will bring him to his end."
"Italians," I chuckled and spat. "I've heard enough of that already."
He watched me with disdain. "What did you say?''
"Boss!" The door bursted open and one of his men stepped in. "We've got a problem."
"What is it?"
"He's here."
I didn't know what was wrong with me but all of a sudden I felt my heart racing like never before. Shayne is here. He came for me. I still couldn't believe what was happening.
"Take her," he got up, pulled out a gun and started for the door. "One wrong move, just knock her out or something. But don't hurt her. Not a drop of blood on her skin."
"Yes boss.''
Even as they untied me and picked me up from the chair, I still couldn't muster the strength to slap these bastards in the ass. I was too weak. Drained. Tired. And in need of a good night rest.
I could swear a bullet swept past my head just now. Cos that's what I've been hearing for almost twenty minutes.
"Over there!"
Another gunshot was fired and the men that were put in charge to guard my ass, took to their heels with me still in their hold.
Someone pushed the man that carried me and before I knew it, they were in a tumbling mess on the floor. I used that opportunity to grip the other man and strangle him, after which I took to my own weak heels.
And just as I stepped out of the premises, I saw him. Shayne. He didn't see me because he was too busy aiming at Antonio who just about to get into a vehicle.
"Shayne, no!"
And just as I got to where Antonio stood, a gunshot was fired. My arms were still wrapped around Antonio tightly as I slowly tilted my face to stare at him, hoping I wouldn't see blood drop his lips.
"Isabella.." I was about to drop to the ground when he caught me. "No. You can't...you can't do this to me!"
"Just go."
"Isabel..."
"Go. Please."
He placed me on the floor and got into the car, not without turning around and for a moment, I saw Antonio. The real Antonio. My Antonio staring back at me with tears in his eyes. He was still in there. Whatever Antonio must have done to himself, his humanity was in him, buried deep, somewhere it couldn't be reached. And just like that, the car maneuvered and it sped off as endless gunshots were fired at it.
"Isabel..." I felt Shayne behind me. "Bels, stay with me. Stay with me, okay?"
I felt numb. I couldn't even move. I just kept staring at him. Lifting my left hand, I touched his jaw. "Let him go, please."
"Isabel..."
"For my sake."
"Isabel," he lifted me off the ground. "Stay with me, okay? Just don't give up now. I didn't..I didn't mean to hurt you, please stay with me."
Why didn't I realize this sooner? So this was what those puny fools kept calling love. God, please. I wanted to close my eyes but I was scared that if I close it, I wouldn't see Shayne again. I wouldn't see him again. Not in this lifetime. I was scared that this would be our last moment together and for that, I said,
"Live..." And just like that, I closed my eyes and surrendered to darkness.
~*~
Yeah, you know that saying that says, your life flashes before your eyes at the point of your death, but ugh, no life flashed before me. As if there was really a life to flash. To make statements clear, I'm not zooming to no man's land anytime soon, yeah, infact I'm trying to get these damn cuffs off of me, get down from this fucking bed and go look for Antonio. Yup, that is what I've got in mind.
"You know it's pointless struggling, why the struggle?"
"I'm not in the mood to talk to you." I replied, still struggling with the cuffs. There was a big thingy around my neck so it was difficult for me to see the state my body was in since I was in a lying position but nevertheless, I knew I still looked like shit. "Why did you bring me here?" I craned up my neck to look at him.
He was posing by the door, looking so damn clean in a sweatshirt and pants while I was here, probably looking like shit. "It's the safest place I could think of.''
"Yeah. More like there isn't a cell to dump me into." Damn, I ache all over. "After you shot me."
I felt the bed dip beside me. "Yeah, I shot you. So what?"
"So what? You've got to be shitting me." I couldn't exclaim because of the pain. "Motherfucker, you're paying for this as soon as I'm free."
"A good reason why you'll never be free." He got up from the bed and strode to wherever he came out from. At least, that was what I was imagining. "I'll send someone to bring you food. Just sit and eat like a good little girl. Don't bite her hands off."
"That word you said," I tried sitting up, damn, I couldn't. " take it back."
"What word?"
"The stay with me' word." My neck was in a position to crane and look him up in every direction. "Cos I'm not staying with you, Shayne Walker. And you better get these off me!" I applied pressure to my stomach because of my yell and in a flash, I saw Shayne hovering over me and checking for blood.
"You really are concerned, aren't you?"
He glared at me. "I shot you. It's my responsibility to care for you."
I spat. More like the word was an abomination to my eardrums. "You should never say that again."
We were in that position for almost two minutes when my voice cracked into a sob. "I thought we shared the same blood. We skydived together, played together, ate together, stayed up late together, did so many things together. So everything we did, every little thing..was all a sham. One part of a big charade. The one I trusted, shared everything with and thought I owed my all is now the one person that completely ruined my life."
"Isabel,"
"No, don't do that. I hate being emotional. It sucks. Don't comfort me, it disgusts me."
"Yeah and that...."
I flipped him over so he was the one lying on the bed. "You shouldn't let your guards down, Shayne Walker." I said, now the cuffs were on him.
"I let you take me down."
"You shouldn't do that. Because someday, I'd want to kill you. And I won't hesitate."
"Thanks for the notice. Get these things off me now?"
"Ever be betrayed before?"
"Countless times."
"By a relation? What did he do? Did he end up killing another person you loved? Or maybe, he shattered your dreams and destroyed something in you, you know can't be replaced by taking the life of that person?"
"Isabel," I didn't know he had taken the cuffs down till I felt his hands on my face. "Look at me."
I obeyed. I looked at him. Directly into his eyes. I saw nothing. Probably because I was broken. Completely shattered inside. And as I stared at him, I felt tears sting my eyes.
"He's not worth it."
"The damage's already done, Shayne. There's nothing you can do to stop it now."
"Isabel, listen to me...." In a swift motion, I swiped out his gun and got off me, pointed it at him, before pointing it at my own head.
"I thought you'd kill me. Guess, I'll have to do it myself now."
"Isabella..."
"No! There's nothing left for me in this world anymore. Whether I live or die, it doesn't matter. Antonio is still out there, I let him go, if I live he'll still find me. And there's Conner, if I live, he'll take me in, and what about the people planning on killing me, and there's you..I don't know the fuck you're planning on doing but whatever it is...it won't restore me. It won't bring back my family."
"Do it."
"What?"
"Shoot yourself. Go on, do it." He was towering over me now.
"I should...don't test me, Shayne."
"You know I know what it is you're planning on doing. So get on with it."
"You don't know what you're saying.''
"The fuck I don't."
I didn't even know what I was doing but whatever I was doing to my mind, it was crazy. And it would kill me if I don't. With my jaw clenched, I moved for Shayne and landed my fists on his face. "You bastard. You caused this! If you hadn't dragged me to a corner, maybe, I would have been by Antonio's side. Maybe, we would still be together right now and maybe I wouldn't have found out the truth. Why did you have to spoil things?! Huh?!" I was furious. If I ever lay eyes on Antonio, I wouldn't know what I would do. "You're an ani---" the next thing on my mouth was his.
When we broke away, no doubts, something in me calmed down. But that didn't stop me from harboring what I had in my mind.
"I'll always be there when you need me, Isabel. And right now, you need me. Which means I'm not leaving you no matter what you do." He gripped my jaw and cupped my face. "Now shut the fuck up and get your ass back on that bed while I go get something for you to eat. Understand?"
~*~
Anna.