Previous chapter:
... the French kiss gave me butterflies in my stomach.
TEN DAYS LATER
•••••
IN THE ISOLATED ISLAND
Esmeralda's pov
Tears ran down my face as I stood before him. It has been days since I lost my husband before I lost my baby. And it was all his fault.
"How dare you facing me?" I asked him as he approached me. "No, no, no, no," he wiggled with his index finger left and right as a 'no' gesture, "I should be the one who should be mad at you."
"You're really mad, Raphael," I huffed, shaking my head, "go seek help."
"You see," he claimed, looking at me disgusted, "that's the problem with women like you, even if I show you mercy you offend me instead of showing me gratitude."
"I lost my husband and my baby because of you!" I screamed, with my hand over my heart, my heart aching every time I reminded how he shot Alessandro or didn't help me as I had a miscarriage in the cell, writhing in pain.
"You lost them because of you, if you didn't jinx my brother to bring you back, nothing of that would happen!" he hissed back at me.
Shaking my head with my tear-streaked face, I sighed, saying, "I'm not going to fight with you, you're not worth my breath, nor my energy!"
"It would be a fight you wouldn't win anyway," he claimed dryly.
"Did you come here to end me? If so, then, just do it, and bear me this," I muttered, nodding my head towards him as I said 'this'.
"No, I came to tell you that this is just the beginning of your suffering. You'll live in this island for the rest of your life, torturing yourself with the awful memories of your unborn child and my brother's death, worrying about Leonardo, before dying lonely. good riddance, Esmeralda."
Then, he turned around to leave.
"You'll pay, Raphael! Do you hear me? You'll pay for every soul you tortured and every death you brought on! If not today, then tomorrow! If not tomorrow, then another day! If not in this world, then in the afterlife! God will make you pay, and I'll pray until my last breath that when the time comes for paying for your sins that you shall pay great!" I promised him crying on my knees, my hands on the floor, balled into fists.
"I don't pay, I slay, Esmeralda," he claimed with his back facing me before walking away.
BACK IN THE US
THE GRAHAM MANSION
Calina's pov
I've had chemotherapy for the past 10 days. I hated chemo, but it needed to be done before the bone marrow transplant.
And all the chemotherapy exhausted me like hell. I just wanted to lie down and sleep after the treatment.
I got my chemo once in the morning and I could see the kids were worried as I was too exhausted to stand, my legs feeling really weak. But I didn't want them to see me weak as I didn't want them to worry about me.
Therefore, Sara, my doctor, planned my sessions for the evening, which was perfect for me. Like that, I was able to spend time with Lucy and Zia until the evening before my treatment.
Draven made sure they were busy and didn't ask about me in the evening. Usually, Zia was used to sleep with me, but now she didn't ask for me so much anymore.
After spending so much time with Lucy, they became inseparable. They also started sleeping together which I found cute.
They were like me and Adrian, like siblings, even if they were not related by blood. Thinking him, I missed him. He was like my brother.
At least I knew he was safe as Draven made sure of it. And I knew too that I had to stay away from him, otherwise I would pull him back into this life.
Sighing tiredly and stopping to ponder my head as I was getting a headache, I turned on my other side and reached out my arm, but touched a breathing thing, which startled me.
Then, I yelped as I was grabbed and pulled towards the breathing thing before being hugged tightly.
I looked up in the dark and saw amber eyes. "Draven ?" I said surprised.
"Yes, were you expecting someone else?" he asked offended. Sighing, I relaxed in his embrace as he ran his hand through my shoulder-length hair.
I loved my long hair, which I had to cut off at the end because it started to fall out after chemo too. "No, you just scared me. How long have you been here?" I asked him.
"Not long, since you fell asleep, I just wanted to watch you," he muttered against my hair, which made me smile.
"Why you creep?" I asked with a chuckle. "It's not creepy, it's romantic," he claimed with a frown.
"The big bad mobster can also be romantic?" I asked surprised, with raised eyebrows.
"I might be cold and heartless to the people who deserve it, but that's because they deserve it," he sighed, looking into my eyes.
"However, when if comes to the people I love, I wanna show love, because I care for them."
Nodding my head, looking at him seriously, I sat on his lower half and looked down at him.
"I don't think you're a monster. And I'm so sorry for hitting you, offending you, judging you without fully getting to know you, and for calling you a bastard," I apologized for everything.
"And I am sorry for what he put you through, I wished I'd get to know before him, then everything might be prevented," he said, sitting up, so he was only inches away from my face now.
"He put me through Hell, but I'd choose to go through it again if I'd meet Zia and you in the end again," I told him honestly, cupping his face in my hands.
"You know you can talk with me about the Hell he put you through if you feel depressed or suffocated," he muttered, his nose brushing against mine.
"I-I," I stuttered, looking down as my eyes watered, my past wasn't beautiful and I was afraid that he would be disgusted of me if I told him everything that happened to me.
"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. Just know that I will listen to you when you want to talk with somebody about it," he told me calmly.
"And I accept your apology. But you don't have to apologize for calling me a bastard since I am one."
"W-What?" I asked in surprise. "My mom was my dad's affair and I was the result. I wasn't planned. We could say the condom burst when he fucked my mom and I managed to swim in my mom's fertile egg," he told me pensively before smiling. "And here I am now! Thirty-one years later, ruling my father's business."
"I-I didn't know ... otherwise I wouldn't call you that, I was just mad that day," I tried to apologize again as I felt bad.
"It's alright," he said, leaning against the bedpost before looking at me. "How should you know that my mother was my father's mistress?"
"I'm still sorry, and I'm also here for you if you want to talk," I told him with a genuine smile.
"My father kept his mistresses and me, his bastard, hidden to create a good image for the press and his company. He thought I could to ruin the deals he was doing with his wife's father. And he was right, but he still kept me close, not because he wanted me, but only to use me."
"What do you mean?" I asked hesitantly, which made him huff bitterly.
"My father never loved me, he only kept me around for his other son. The son who should be in my place now. The son who should own everything I own now. The son who should have my heart now."
I gasped. His last sentence shocked me to the core. "Y-You mean--" I started, but couldn't even finish as I was too stunned to speak as I couldn't imagine a father doing such bad things to his own son.
"My mom ran away when she found out she was pregnant with me. And we could say that she escaped successfully. I think my dad didn't look after us and left us be as we didn't cause any problems. I was five, when he came to our doorstep and said his son had heart failure. My mother pleaded with him and fought him to let me go when his men took me and the result of her struggle was a bullet in her head. I saw how her lifeless body slumped to the ground. I couldn't help her, I was too young, too weak, too scared. But I'm glad I couldn't help my brother either. I was five, my brother was fifteen, my heart was too small so we had to wait a couple of years for it to grow, but he didn't survive the couple of years, he died, and I can't say I was sad because his death meant I could live."
I hugged him as tears left my eyes. "I'm so sorry," I muttered as I hugged him tightly.
"I'm not telling you any of this to make you feel sorry for me, Calina. I'm telling you all of this because I could see the hesitation and fear in your eyes when I asked you about your past," he muttered against the crook of my neck.
"I didn't know what you went through, but I want you to know that you can trust me. I won't judge you, for your past. Your past also kinda define the woman you are now, and I can say that I love what I see."
"I love what I see too," I mumbled, pulling away to look him in the eye. "And what do you see?" he asked me sheepishly.
"A man who's known to be cruel and ruthless, but also has a kind heart for women and children," I told him what I saw.
"I made a promise to myself, after what happened to my mother and wife, that I would protect children and women. That's probably also why Raphael told you not to tell me after slapping and flogging you, he knew I would make him pay," he told me in a daze, as he was in the past, as his hands traced my hips.
"What happened to your wife?" I asked him the question that I had been curious about since my arrival.
"She was kidnapped, raped, and drugged by one of my enemies. I found her and tried to save her. I took her to rehab but found her dead in the bathtub with her wrists cut when I visited her. She was pregnant at the time. They were able to save the baby. I named her after her, Lucretia. And took care of her like she was my own," he told me when I looked at him in amazement. I was shocked at the sudden news.
As I got over my shock, I said, "You mean Lucy is not ..."
"My daughter," he ended my sentence, "but I couldn't love her any more, if she was my own."
"I can see that," I said as I cupped his face in my hands once more. "You are a wonderful father. She is so lucky to have you. I am so happy to have you too. You are perfect.
It's just amazing who you were before and who you've become after what your father did to you, after what happened to your mother and your wife. You could also change for bad, but you didn't, your mother would be proud of you, your wife would be proud of you and I'm proud of you."
"Yeah right," he snorted, "my mother would be surely proud of me for killing my own father. Or tearing apart the asshole that raped my wife? I am not perfect Calina, I am not amazing, I am death."
"You're not, you're my blessing, I thought my life was cursed until I met you. You are like the elixir from the curse I was in, you made me breathe again. Your trust in me made me trust again. And your care for me made me love again," I muttered before leaning closer and kissing him.
"Love who?" he asked into the kiss.
"You." Because he made me love myself and body again.
"I love you too," he said and my heart skipped a beat, as I felt butterflies in my belly.
"And I promise you, that I won't let you down, I'll always be there for you, and I'll be the wrath of everyone who dares to hurt you, or even make you cry, your past is over," he claimed, getting the blog out of the drawer from the nightstand that I used to write for Zia in case something happened to me as I felt down with Raphael.
"You read it?" I asked him with a frown. "The kids brought it to me, thinking it was a Fairytale," he told me. "Yeah, Fairytale," I huffed at the irony.
"But it will be, I'll make sure of it," he told me firmly. "You didn't read it?" I asked, still not getting if he did or not.
"Only the first words to know what it was, then I stopped reading it as I knew it was private, but the tears on the page were enough for me to know it was about your pain and suffering," he told me.
"It's about my past, and I'll get rid of it, as I want a future with you, without including my past," I decided, "I'll burn it."
"Or you can lock it up in the room in the last floor, where I also keep all my past locked up," he suggested. "You mean like combine our past in a room together?" I asked him with a small smile.
"Like we'll do it with our future," he claimed, his hands caressing my thighs as I was straddling him. "Alright, let's go," I agreed, pecking his lips before getting off him.
As he got up from the bed his phone rang. "You go first babe," he muttered, looking at his phone, as he handed me keys, "I've to take this call, it's about an important puppet, I mean package, but I'll join you as soon as I end the call."
Smiling happily at the amount of thrust he put in me by handing me the keys to a room where he kept his past, I kissed his cheek as he took the call, before leaving the room.
Relaxed, I headed to the last floor before going up stage down again where I saw two doors. Not really knowing which one was the one he meant, he tried to open them first normally, but they were both locked.
Then, I decided to open the first door with the keys. As I opened the door, I frowned as the room was pitch black. Looking for the light switch, I found it on the right side, turning the lights on.
And I gasped. That was definitely not the room he described. In the middle of the room was a white bed, on the headboard of the bed it said 'cloud' with the number nine under the word.
The white fluffy looking walls were decorated with whips, chains, robes, and toys. The ceiling was a full mirror.
With my jaw, hanging to down to the floor, I still tried to process where fuck I entered. And I don't know how long I glared into the room like an idiot. But his voice behind me, startled me, and brought me back from my shocked stance, as I heard him say, "Wrong room, love."
"What is this room?" I asked him stunned, pointing inside the room. "I call it the cloud nine," he said, looking at me intensely, "where I made all my lovers fantasies come true."
"All your lovers?" I asked him with a frown and a hint of jealousy in my voice. He nodded his head.
"You'll still meet them?" I asked him, tilting my head. "No, when I'm settled down, then, I'm not interested in polygamy," he said relaxed.
"Good," I said bitterly, looking back into the room, thinking about how many women he had in here, feeling a knot in the pit of my stomach at the imaginations about him and another woman in this bed.
"Are you jealous," I heard him ask, turning back to him seeing him looking at me amused.
"Yes," I didn't even try to hide my jealousy. Sighing with a smile, he approached me, before grabbing me by my waist and pulling me closer.
"You don't have to I'm all yours," he said with his forehead touching mine, "and if you'll feel better we can get rid of this room."
Biting my lips, I looked into the room, before looking back at him with a sheepishly smile, and shaking my head, saying, "If you already have a room like this, why not use it insert of getting rid of it."
"You're serious?" he asked me with an excited smile on his face. "Yes, but the bed will change, and all the toys!" I listed him my wishes.
"Deal!" He immediately agreed with a smirk pecking my lips.
"You know what? If everything goes tomorrow and Sarah says I am well to have your bone marrow transplanted in me, if I'm healthy again, why don't we celebrate it here?" I asked him, caressing his chest.
"Why do you have such good ideas today?" he asked me back, making me chuckle. "And regarding the tests, she already came today and took blood samples, and examined you in the room we've here, as you were on medication and asleep."
"What?" I asked surprised. "Yeah, knowing you're tired from all the medication, I didn't want to drag you around, that's why I told her to come," he explained me.
"Thank you." For caring for me.
"That's not all, she called me later afterwards, telling me you're healthy enough to receive my bone marrow."
I gasped in joy hugging him. I would really be healthy again. I would live, I would not die.
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