Vienna's POV
The next morning we did miss the sunrise...well all thanks to Mr. Knight...I swear, this man does what he says. But on the brighter side, thankfully, we did manage to leave the bed before it was noon.
After having breakfast on the yacht itself we got off the boat for a while to go for some sightseeing and my goodness! Santorini is such a beautiful place...the colourful hotels...the amazing food and not to forget the history and the culture of this place...everything is just so simply amazing.
Also the locals are very humble and welcoming here.
After a bit of sightseeing we went for some shopping as obviously we didn't pack any clothes with us.
"How's this" I asked walking out of the trial room like a ramp model, dramatically posing for Ryan who was sitting out.
"Sexy..." He replied shortly, glancing up from his phone.
"But where are you gonna wear this" He asked his gaze traveling on my body up and down.
I was wearing a short, shimmery black coloured dress with spaghetti straps and a deep v-cut neckline, it reached just below my butt, covering the necessary areas, though it wasn't too tight like your typical party wear dresses but instead it was kind of loose.
"To some party or some club maybe" I replied twirling around, giving him a better view of the dress.
"Ah...no. Vienna. You are not wearing that...thing anywhere" He said firmly.
"Go change" He ordered in his usual and familiar demanding tone as I shook my head slightly before walking towards him.
"Why not? You said it yourself that it's sexy" I replied sitting on his lap, encircling my arms around his neck as he exhaled a sharp breath.
"Yeah it is sexy but it's not for everyone to ogle" He said placing his hand on my thigh.
"Baby..." I spoke only to be interrupted by him.
"It's barely even covering anything...leaving very little to the imagination..." He paused.
"Do you really wanna go out wearing that and be lustfully ogled by every single guy that you pass by?" He asked sarcastically.
"If yes, then fine let's buy this" He continued with a hint of anger, without even giving me the chance to speak.
I know he's just saying that because he knows I'll be saying no and also that's the exact answer that he wants to hear...but I love teasing him...so here we go.
"Okay let's buy this" I replied with a shrug, pressing my lips together to hold myself from laughing at his face.
"Are you kidding me" He mumbled unbelievably.
"Come on, love. I was expecting a no" He said almost pouting.
"But you got a yes instead. So now let's buy this" I replied.
"Yeah right, in your dreams" He said sarcastically.
"You are not wearing that...I won't buy you this tiny piece of cloth called dress" He added determined as I burst out laughing.
"Oh baby..." I mumbled still laughing.
"You are just so adorable sometimes" I added stealing a quick kiss.
"I already knew this would be your exact reaction to this dress. I never wanted it in the first place...I was just teasing you" I said getting a hold over my laughter as he looked at me in disbelief for a moment before rolling his eyes and shaking his head.
"Aren't you acting a bit too smart these days" He said caressing my thigh.
"I don't need to act. I'm smart" I replied grinning.
"Now I'm having second thoughts actually...maybe I should buy you this dress, you look ravishing in it, but it can only be worn in the privacy of our room" He said with a smirk.
"What do you say" He asked teasingly.
"No..." I replied chuckling and shaking my head.
After shopping, we went for lunch and then a bit more sightseeing but since I wanted to see the sunset so we returned back to the yacht before the sun was down.
Alexander suggested that we should watch the sunset from the yacht itself saying that he would sail us to the perfect point from where the sunset is breathtakingly beautiful, so hence the reason why we returned to the yacht early.
"So beautiful..." I mumbled as Ryan stood behind me with his hand resting on my waist.
"It's strange how the sun has it's own grace even while going down" I said as Ryan just hummed in reply.
Later that evening after having dinner as we sat in the peaceful silence of each others company, gazing at the stars, tearing my eyes away from the shining, mesmerising stars, I looked by my side only to see Ryan with a kind of distant look on his face.
"Hey..." I mumbled tracing my index finger on his jaw, making him look down at me.
"What's wrong" I asked concerned.
"Nothing..." He trailed off.
"It's just that...being here, on this yacht, reminds me of my dad" He said a moment later.
"This yacht was a gift from him...he even taught me how to sail..." He paused.
"And now coming back on this yacht once again reminds me of all the good memories I had with him...and at the same time coming back here also reminds me that he's not with me anymore...that I don't have a father anymore" He continued and though he tried to mask up his emotions but yet I could clearly see them in his eyes.
He terribly misses his father...he might be a grown up man now...but yet he feels incomplete without his father...he was so close to him, even more than he is close to his mother.
"I know you miss him baby...I'm so sorry for your loss..." I paused embracing him tight resting my head on his chest.
"I know the kind of pain you are going through right now...I have experienced it too and I won't tell you that someday this pain will completely vanish off, because it won't...as no matter how old we grow Ryan, we'll always feel incomplete without our parents...but it might get easier with time...we just learn to live with it...as deep down we know that death is also a part of life and there's nothing that we can do about it" I continued and sighed deeply as I recalled my father.
Ryan just hummed in reply and caressed the back of my hand with his thumb as I just smiled at his action...he knows what I'm thinking and feeling right now...but I also know that he won't ask anything about it...I mean anything related to my father's death.
This topic did came up a few times between us when we initially got together in high school but my silent reaction to it was enough for Ryan to understand that this isn't something that I'm ready to talk about yet.
But I think I'm ready now...I need to share this with someone I trust.
"Ryan..." I called out softly.
"Hmm..." He hummed a reply.
"I never told you how my father died..." I trailed off.
"Yeah. You always brushed it off" He replied with his arm still wrapped around me.
"Do you wanna tell me now" He asked softly while gently caressing my arm as I just hummed absent-mindedly.
"My father had a decent job and so did my mother, she somehow managed to work even after my birth but after Sophia's birth, the work load at home got double...sending me to school and at the same time taking care of a little baby was tiring her out so she decided to quit her job and stay back at home to take care of me and Sophia...but a few months later this resulted as a pressure on my father as now he was the only one earning for for our family..." I paused.
"But yet the four of us were happy with whatever we had and then my younger brother Alex, arrived in our lives...I still remember I was so thrilled to have a little brother...we all were happy...or so I thought" I continued.
"One sunday morning my parents were taking us out somewhere, I had no idea where we were going but yet I was just so excited about it that I missed the tension lingering on my parents faces...their gloomy eyes. I was too young and oblivious to sense the tension lurking around in my home from the past few days" I added.
"We all got in the car and were waiting for my father as he was still inside our home getting the last bag...and suddenly I remembered that I forgot my favourite stuff toy in our backyard while playing there...I quickly got off the car and ran inside the house as my mother yelled in a panicked voice at me, asking me to come back right now but I didn't listen..." I paused with a dry chuckle...oh I so badly wish I had listened to her that day and hadn't gone back inside.
"I went straight to the backyard to get my stuffed puppy and on my way I saw my father in the kitchen switching the lights off, he saw me too and just shook his head with a smile knowing that I forgot something and said that he was waiting for me and asked me to be quick..." I paused yet again, feeling a lump in my throat as I was on the verge of tears.
"And as I found my stuffed puppy, I bend down to pick it up and the moment I got up my eyes witnessed the horrible scene that I have been trying to erase off my memory since years...the scene that I wish I had never witnessed...the scene that is still fresh in my head as if it happened just yesterday..." I trailed off as the tears that I have been holding back, began to slip down my eyes uncontrollably.
"What was it? Love" Ryan asked softly.
"M-My dad..." I stuttered, trying to gather some courage to repeat whatever I saw that day.
"H-He was on his knees...w-with a gun pointed on his head...there were two guys...the one who held my father at a gun point was saying something but I couldn't hear it and the other one looked stoned...though I couldn't hear their conversation but it was pretty clear that my father was begging them to spare his life...but..." I paused sobbing and shaking.
"B-But they didn't...they didn't listen to him...they didn't stop...they shot him...t-that guy shot him right on his head. Ryan...they shot him...and I-I saw it all...I stood there watching my father's blood splattered all over the floor as his life was snatched away..." I continued.
"I stood there frozen as his lifeless body fell on the floor...my father who was smiling at me just moments ago was now lying on the floor dead..." I trailed off sobbing as Ryan held me in his arms, rubbing my back soothingly as I cried my heart out.
"I couldn't even utter a single word...I was shivering so badly...imagine an eight year old watching her father being brutally killed" I said a few minutes later.
"Sometimes I feel like my mother and my siblings were lucky enough to not having to witness such horrible scene...and sometimes I even regret and curse myself for going back inside...only if I hadn't gone back...I wouldn't have had to witness my own father being killed in front of my eyes...or maybe only if I hadn't gone back inside, we would have left before those guys arrived" I added.
"The guys who shot my dad seemed to be in a rush I guess, so they didn't even look around the house to see if there was someone who witnessed their crime or maybe they were there just for my father and not his family...whatever the reason was but mine, my mother's and my siblings lives were spared that day" I continued.
"The following months were kind of a blur. After my dad's funeral, we shifted to my mother's home town, Calgary. Years passed and slowly everything was falling back into place...but there was a chaos inside my head...I wasn't even able to sleep peacefully as whenever I closed my eyes...that dreadful scene flashed inside my head...my mother sensed my misery and that was when she decided that we should talk about whatever I saw that day..." I paused recalling the day my mother and I finally talked about that dreadful incident.
"I told her everything and we both cried our hearts out and that was when my mother told me everything...that how that day we weren't going on some picnic...but moving to Calgary forever...running from the local Mafia gang" I continued.
"Apparently my father was in debt to the people who killed him. The company that he worked for was going in loss, so they cut off half of the salary of their employees and after Alex's birth, along with my family's happiness, our expenses got doubled too...my father was struggling to provide us a good life...so he borrowed some money from the leader of the guys who killed him and couldn't return it on time...hence the reason why they shot him dead" I said.
"One day when my father revealed it to my mother that he was in debt to the Mafia and how they have given him a certain period of time to repay their money or else they would kill him, my mother came up with the plan that we all will run somewhere far away to save our lives...so that's what we were doing that day...and the rest is history" I added with a sigh.
"Fortunately that day when I ran back inside the house, my mother saw a car arriving and assuming it was the people from the Mafia gang, she drove a little far away from our house...it was hard for her to leave her husband and her eldest daughter in danger but she had no other choice...she had the responsibility of a three year and a two-three month old baby, on her shoulders...so she did what she had to, to save their lives" I said with a slight shrug.
"Do Alex and Sophia know all this" Ryan asked.
"I was eleven when I got to know everything and the day that I saw my father being brutally killed was the day that I lost my innocent childhood...and I didn't want my siblings to lose their childhood as well so I asked my mother to never tell them anything about my father's death" I replied.
"Also they were too young at that time to remember anything so they just know that our father died due to some disease" I added.
"Ryan...ever since that day...I have been so terrified of guns and anything or anyone related to the Mafia gangs...there's still this eight years old little girl inside me who shivers just at the sight of guns...just at the thought of bloodshed...just at the thought that I might lose someone..." I paused touching his stubbled cheek gently.
"That I might lose someone I love once again...I can't afford to lose you baby...I love you so much...I don't think I can handle losing someone I love, once again" I continued.
"I would lose my mind..." I whispered resting my forehead against his, closing my teary eyes.
"That's the reason you were running away from me..." Ryan mumbled almost as if talking to himself as realization hit him.
"Yes..." I murmured out a reply with a small nod.
"This is why I was running away from you...I was running away so that I never had to face that kinda situation ever again...where I have to mourn the loss of my loved ones" I added.
"Baby...I have loved you with every beat of my heart and that's never gonna change...and I'm willing to sacrifice everything dear to me...I'm willing to conquer my biggest fears and insecurities if that's what it takes to be with you but..." I paused, looking up into his eyes.
"But on one condition...that you'll never leave me...ever..." I continued.
"Vienna...sweetheart, just listen to me carefully...I'm well aware that the kind of life that I live is dangerous and risky..." He paused cupping my cheeks.
"But I'm not going anywhere...ever...I'm never gonna leave you...no matter what...I promise you, love" He continued, placing a soft kiss on my forehead.
•••
Hey guys,
So sorry for taking such a long break...but anyways now I'm back.
Coming back to the chapter...
So from the very beginning of this story most of you might have hated Vienna for constantly trying to run away from Ryan and of course that's totally fine...
But now that you know her end of the story as to why she did what she did...so I just want to know your opinion on her now.
Anyways,
Please vote, comment and share.
Until next time.
Love,
Crystal ❤️