-TATUYANNA >
It has been more or less 45 hours since the incident. I never slept. Ares wasn't home yesterday either, so I had the penthouse to myself and my taunting thoughts.
A bed table was set in front of me with a ceramic bowl filled with steaming pasta covered in a sauce that smelled like garlic bliss. Apparently, Ares knows his way around the kitchen. Imagine the surprise on my face when he walked in shirtless with the tray.
I didn't eat it though.
I have no appetite. I couldn't sleep either. How could I when my father might have kicked me out of his life? I don't own anything he gave me. Maybe he realized that I'm not worth the trouble or worth the humiliation. After admitting to me that he's my family, his siblings might have made him come back to his senses.
"Angel?" He knocks on the door lightly. Why does he call me that?
I clear my face of tears before telling him to come in. "You haven't even touched the fork." He grumbles under his breath while walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Can you at least eat a single fork?"
I look away.
"You're exhausted, but you won't sleep. You're hungry, yet you won't eat. You know that the Don is personally going to set me on fire if he gets wind of this, right? I'm not leaving you alone until you eat at least three forks full."
I shoot him a scowl.
He knows I want to be alone. "So you're going to use my solitude against me? What? Do you think I'll listen to you when you're involved with my father? I REFU—" Food gets shoved into my mouth, silencing me.
I pause.
My eyes widen as the flavor of this delicacy explodes onto my taste buds. Holy hell, this was good!
A very unimpressed Ares was glaring at me. "I'm not risking my life for you." He growls.
A defeated huff leaves my lips as I lean forward, allowing him to fork some more into my mouth.
After those two bites, I ate like a starved untamed animal, grabbing the utensil from Ares and completely forgetting about him.
I felt his piercing gaze on me as I ate. Right up until the last bite, I leaned back and thanked God for the meal. "Okay, at least your dad can know you ate something. Here."
He hands me a glass of orange juice and I instantly down it all. "Has your father called yet?" I pout furiously at the mention.
Right on time, my phone began ringing with an unknown number on the caller ID. The same number that has been calling me since yesterday.
99% of me knew it would be my father. Yet the 1% of me remains skeptical. I don't want to speak to him. After what he did yesterday, I don't have the confidence to face him or his voice.
"Answer the call." Ares prodded as he sat at the edge of his bed while focusing on his phone. I ignore him as I watch it ring countless times until it just stops. He must've given up. Or that's what I thought until Ares' phone began ringing.
His eyes are lazy as he flicks his gaze over to me before answering the call, completely ignoring my hushed pleas for him to not answer it. I can already hear his baritone voice as he speaks through the other line.
"She's upset." Was the first thing that comes out of Ares' lips. "She refuses to sleep and eat, but we're breaking the cycle. She just finished eating." He says, standing up and placing a hand in his suit pockets while looking at the city view.
"She'll soon fall asleep," He wore a whole suit without a blazer. Why is a seventeen-year-old dressed like this? "Yes sir." He says before the call ends, turning around and meeting my glare filled with betrayal.
"You're a traitor."
I clench my jaw, throwing the blankets off me and standing up. With no reaction, he speaks. "Your father told me to tell you that you and he are going to have to talk sooner or later." I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Talk about what? Sending me away or back to my foster house? Fine! I can go there right now and forget that he ever existed. Though I think he should be the one to put a bullet in my head if I'm just going to get kidnapped again." I spat, venomous.
His face remains emotionless, making it hard for me to read him. "Is that it? I'm getting sent back? By your silence-"
"-You will be introduced as a Torrono six years from now." He interrupts me yet again, and I do nothing except slowly process his words.
All emotion drains from my face.
Ares suddenly stands in front of me, but I don't look up to meet his eyes. I refuse to look. Just when I thought I would get away with it, like before, grips me by the jaw and makes me look up at him. My hands instantly grasp his wrists.
"If you don't have the evidence to back up your assumptions, don't believe them. They're already fuckin' up your mindset." He says, aggressively letting go of my jaw, and walking towards his walk-in closet.
I feel my knees buckle so I lean back and fall onto the edge of the bed, the realization of my father's plan dawning on me hard and fast.
A Torrono. I will be introduced as a Torronos daughter in six years. When I'm twenty-one and a young adult. I see what my father's intentions are. He wants me to face my battles when I'm older and stronger. When I'll be more solid and more secure to stand my ground.
I guess it isn't enough that I'm mature and intelligent already.
Ares walks out a couple of minutes later, wearing a tight-fitting black long-sleeve shirt and olive-colored joggers with sneakers. He walks out of the room without acknowledging me, and I decide to follow him, hoping he takes me with him wherever he was going. I haven't seen the real world in a long time. Malls, beaches, parks. I haven't seen these things in two weeks.
He suddenly stops in his tracks, making me crash into his wide back. "Move, you big bastard." I instinctively say, immediately covering my mouth with my hand. He wouldn't hurt his boss' daughter, would he?
His back muscles stiffened. I slightly shrunk back with widened eyes, watching him slowly turn around and look down at me with a scowl. His hazel-green eyes were piercing through me, and it was suffocating.
Okay, maybe I'm not so sure anymore, he gripped me by the jaw twice already.
"I'm sorry," I murmur. "Are you leaving?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood. He but rolls his eyes and continues walking to the kitchen, with me right behind him.
"I'm going to the gym." He says, pulling me by the forearm, and dragging me back to his room and toward his bed, forcing me to sit.
"You will go to sleep, you'll feel sleepy in a couple of minutes." My eyes fly to the glass of orange juice. He did not. . .
"Did you drug me, you jackass!" I exclaimed, already feeling the effects of the drug. "Foul mouth for a kid." He mumbles, pushing me under the blankets while I suddenly lose the motivation to fight.
"I'm mentally 25 years old, so I can say whatever I damn well please." I tiredly yawn, my eyes getting heavier by the minute.
"Yeah, whatever," He pulls back, and I quickly grasp his hand. "When will you be back?" My eyes are closed but I'm still half awake. "Midnight." I let go of his hand, and allow myself to drift away into the darkness.
>>>
My body jolts awake as I hear glass shattering.
My mind and body suddenly feel the familiarity of my foster house. Drunk and high foster parents, breaking their glass plates, cups, etc. Blaming me for the destruction in the morning, when other kids were living there too.
I was momentarily sent back into the past but the distinct scent of Ares' cologne pulled me back and reminds me where I am.
Suddenly, lightning cracks, a display of it splitting the sky as rain assaulted the floor-to-ceiling window. Fear pulsated in my veins, my heartbeat in my ears. Ares said he would be home at midnight.
It's around 9 PM.
I slip out of the bed, sneaking out of the room and towards the sound, hoping and praying that Ares just decided to come back earlier.
I am up against a wall slowly getting closer and closer until thunder cracks again but this time it reflected against the harsh outline of a man. A man that looked nothing like the figure of Ares.
I know Ares' silhouette like the back of my hand. This man wasn't him.
My heart is pounding so loud, I'm paranoid that the intruder can hear it. I quietly escape to Ares' room, gently shutting the door. My steps desperately guide me towards my phone, my fingers trembling as I dial Ares' number.
. . .VOICEMAIL.
I try the unknown number. The number my father called from. Someone picks up the phone and tears drip down my cheeks as relief washes over me. I remember all the time's I didn't pick up his phone calls. It suddenly felt like revenge, like he was getting me back for all the silence.
Now that I actually need him, he's the one that doesn't pick up the call. Probably just staring at the caller ID like I was, every time he tried to check up on me.
"Xavier, I'm sorry, can you please come to get me? There's someone here and it's not Ares." My voice is low and I keep looking back to make sure I was alone. The line is as quiet as a graveyard, and I'm beginning to see how this all ends, even if it was hopeless I try again.
"Xavier? Are you there?"
Every second that passed by I realized my fate was coming closer, and I had to face it. I try both numbers countlessly, praying that this was some kind of nightmare.
I don't know anyone else's number. But it's not like I know anyone other than my father and Ares.
"Dad, come on. . . please." I tightly close my eyes, letting my head fall forward. My hope is diminishing and the only possibility filling my mind is the fact that Ares could've set me up. But his words still ring continuously in my mind.
If you don't have the evidence to back up your assumptions, don't believe them.
I don't have any evidence, so I guess I can still hope. The only downside is the fact that I might feel more pain knowing I had hope and trust in the wrong people.
A scream rips through my throat, as a rough hand grasps a fistful of my hair, dragging me off the bed and out towards the balcony.
Rain quickly soaked the shirt I stole from Ares. I could barely see anything or anyone as darkness shrouded the intruder, but the vivid clutch on my throat solidified my fate.
My back was slammed against the balcony wall, knocking the air out of me, and pushing me up so that I was laying on the wall while both my lungs were deprived of air. Rain fell on my face, making it difficult for me to see.
Yet the loud sounds of cars and their struggle through traffic could reach my ears.
"Please don't kill me," I pleaded while soft gasps left my throat. "Don't kill me." I cried, trying hard to remove the man's steel grip from my throat. "Please, don't kill me," I repeat the words, no matter how humiliating it is. It's so humiliating that I claw the crap out of his wrists.
"You won't get away with this." I choke. "A whores kid has no business being involved with the Torronos. No one gives a fuck about pathetic little shits like you." He grits his teeth.
"You don't deserve to live." He spat, low and fatal and so determined to be the cause of my death.
Maybe it's for the better. I never had a life of my own nor anyone to save me anyway. Everything else was a promise of breath and never action, now that it comes down to it. I believed that I would be protected by someone I met two weeks ago.
I made myself indulgent in the hallucinations of having people that were for me when once again, I am reminded that;
no one was ever for me, and everyone will forever be against me.
Until the very end.
~~~
Hi! KIMANLYNN here,
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
This one has to be my favorite one so far, and no it is not because she {dies}
in this one. ;)