I stand in front of the mirror in the living room and fix my tie. I took the day off but I still told Aria I'm about to leave for work. I need to sort some things out and she doesn't need to know about this. She had enough painful encounters with her family so I don't want her to face them ever again. Except for her father whom I'm seeing today.
"Enzo?"
My heart stops at the sound of the nickname she started using recently. It melts me away from the way she says it so softly but also brings painful memories. My mother used to call me that. Her little Enzo. But I'm glad that, that nickname has a nice picture connected to it now.
"In the kitchen baby," I yell from my spot where I'm making my cup of coffee and soon see my beautiful little woman. She approaches me and I immediately leave a passionate kiss on her lips making her smile.
"How did you sleep?" I wrap my hand around her waist from behind as she is preparing breakfast for us.
"Really good, even though our nights together always leave me sore the morning after but the amazing sleep I get from it makes up for it."
I see her blush because of what she just said and I love that I still have that effect on her. She might be shy and innocent looking but she definitely isn't when we're in the bedroom. And the fact that she blushes just by talking about it amazes me but I love it.
"I mean we did say we have to practice baby-making." I leave a kiss on her neck to tease her and smile at the thought of the mini versions of us running around the house.
I really want to build a family with her so I can't wait for us to have our first baby.
"Anyway...how did you sleep?" I chuckle at her attempt of changing the subject but don't think of a positive answer.
I could barely sleep last night. The thought of me going to see her father and talking to him behind her back kept me up all night, but I have to do this. He has to know.
"Good." I lie.
...
After we finished with our breakfast, I kiss her goodbye and head over to my car. I put my briefcase on the passenger seat even though I don't need it today but I had to take it so it would be more believable that I'm going to work.
When I put my seatbelt on, I turn on the ignition and drive off the driveway in reverse. I try to collect my thoughts and think about how I'll bring this conversation to her dad.
He has to know what has been happening while he was away. He has to know what his daughter went through because of his wife. I just won't live with the fact that that woman is still living like a queen when she deserves nothing. His other daughter isn't any better for just staying quiet but her mother is a bigger problem.
After what I saw and heard what Aria has been through I've been seeing red just at the thought of her mother. So I decided if she doesn't want to tell her father about it, then I'll do it. He deserves to know and he needs to do something about those two horrible people.
Flashback
Last night after our first intimate night I saw faint scars on Arias's back while we were taking the bath.
I didn't want to question her then because I didn't want to ruin our moment but I knew I needed to talk about it with her. Those scars didn't look like some scratches she could've done herself, it looked more serious than that.
At that moment I couldn't think of anything or anyone that could've done that to her, but then I remembered our conversation about her mother and everything just clicked.
Today I saw those scars again while she was changing her clothes. It makes me mad just at the thought that someone could hurt her like that.
"Baby?" I brush my index finger over her hand that is laying on my chest. "Hmm" she lifts her head a bit to have her eyes on mine.
"I want to talk to you about something, but if it's too hard or it makes you uncomfortable we don't have to." I make sure that she knows I won't push her to talk about something if she doesn't want to.
"Okay...talk about what?" She props her head on her elbow and waits for me to continue.
"Yesterday I saw you have scars on your back. I saw them today when you were changing as well so I...I want to talk about that, but only if you want to."
She nods her head and heaves a sigh before speaking. "I got them from my mother."
She confirmes my thoughts and I feel anger consuming my body. My hand that holds hers automatically tightens but I try to stay calm while she explains everything.
"She would always get mad when I didn't do some chores. It didn't matter if I wasn't feeling well, she didn't care about that, she would even punish me even if I didn't do everything perfectly, and that was the case one day.
I was cleaning the whole house one day because she had her friends coming over, and I left the cleaning of floors for the last task. By the time I was almost finished with the cleaning, I was exhausted and I felt like my body would give up any second so I just swept over the floors just to make them clean but I didn't waste much time on it since I just wanted to sleep.
So after I was done I went to bed. But my mom came shortly after to drag me out of it and yell at me because I didn't make the floors 'sparkle' from how clean they are, as she would say. I tried telling her that I'm tired and that I can't do it anymore, but she wouldn't listen.
The next thing I know is, she grabbed a belt from my closet and started whipping me with it. She didn't stop until I passed out on my bedroom floor. The next morning I woke up in so much pain but she didn't care about that like always and made me clean the floors again until her friends arrived. So yeah...that's how I got them."
My heart breaks hearing what that horrible woman did to her and I wipe the tears that are sliding down her cheeks. That woman deserves to go to hell and I'll make sure she gets it while she is still alive.
End of flashback
I tighten my hold on the steering wheel as memories of that conversation come up and I'm more determined with my decision of going to talk to her father. I don't know how he doesn't know what's been going on and why she didn't tell him but I could only guess it would make things worse for her.
I make a turn to the left and park my car on their driveway. I turn the ignition off and make my way to the front door. I wait a couple of seconds after ringing the doorbell and the door soon opens to reveal the person I don't want to see right now because I'm not sure I'll be able to hold myself back.
"Lorenzo, what a nice surprise." Laura chirps. "Are you here to see my daughter?"
I scoff internally. Is she fucking serious? The only time I would want to see Caterina is to teach her a lesson about how she should treat her sister. Those two women disgust me.
"No, I'm here to see Mr. Rossi," I say coldly.
Her smirk immediately falls but she moves away from the door and lets me in. I don't even make it to the living room when Caterina's voice makes its way to my ears.
"Lorenzo? What are you doing here?" Her eyes travel along my body, a little smile forming on her face as she crosses her arms over her chest. "You got bored of my little stupid sister already?"
She fuels my anger and it takes all in me to not go over to her and choke her till she faints.
"How can I get bored of the woman I love." I smile as I talk about Aria but I see Caterina's smile fall and anger floods her eyes.
"You what?" I turn towards their mother who looks like she's seen a ghost but I ignore her and walk closer to Caterina. "You better watch that tongue of yours. It might cost you your life." I whisper and make my way towards Mr. Rossi who stepped out of his office.
"Lorenzo, what brings you here son?" He smiles and pats my shoulder. "I need to talk to you about something." He only nods and invites me into his office. I make myself comfortable on the leather chair and wait for him to close the door and join me on the other side of his desk.
"So, what do you want to talk about? I can tell it's something serious by the look on your face."
I nod and start talking. "Yes, it's about Aria."
His posture immediately changes from relaxed to alarmed and he puts his hands on the desk, giving me his full attention.
"I...I talked about your wife with Aria and I don't know if you know this, but they don't have a good relationship." He only nods his head and looks down so I continue.
"I didn't know how bad their relationship was until I saw the scars on her body."
His eyes widen and he immediately looks up at me. "Scars?"
I nod my head and heave a sigh. "Yes, she has them mostly on her back. She told me how your wife made her do all kinds of chores around the house and how she would always get punished if she didn't do something right. All of this was happening while you were in Italy and I guess Aria didn't want to tell you so she wouldn't make things worse."
I try to calm myself down. Just the thought of her enduring such pain just because she didn't want to cause problems just shows how strong she is. I thought I didn't have an easy life but she definitely didn't have it any better. And my heart breaks to think someone could do such things to such a precious angel.
"Oh, my little angel." He lets out and I see some tears running down his face after I told him everything I know. There is probably more that Aria didn't tell me but this is just enough for him to do something about it.
"I can't believe this. If I just didn't work so much she wouldn't go through all of that. Oh, God."
I keep quiet because I don't know what to say but let him calm down before he speaks to me again.
"Thank you, Lorenzo, for telling me this. I will take care of them now. Laura won't get away with this, and I'll need to talk to Caterina as well."
I feel pleased with what I hear and stand up to leave and let him deal with this. He hugs me, patting my back and I do the same before exiting his office. Both Laura and Caterina are sitting in the living room. Their eyes on me the moment they see me.
"Leaving already?" Caterina voices out but I ignore them and open the front door so I could go back to my woman. I'm glad I did this but I still feel pissed and I know she will be able to calm me down with just her presence.
I heave a sigh when I close my car door and turn the ignition on so I could drive back home.