Tears were falling down her eyes, and she stepped away from her chair and walked to her desk to grab some tissues. Her sniffles were enough for me to want to leave, "why would he do something like that to her?"
"Because of me."
"You should not blame yourself."
But I should.
"Because of evil, because they were greedy bastards." She sits back down and looks me right in the eyes, her fingers fidgeting around with her skirt.
"Did you-did you step down?"
"No, I had another plan."
SONG: FALLING APART BY MICHAEL SCHULTE SLOWED AND REVERB
Again. They forced me to watch it again and again. Every day is a fresh assault. They intended this to make me loathe her, but it hasn't. Darren slams his head against the wall for the hundredth time, "I have a plan." I whisper.
He turns his face to look at me, "I thought we already had one."
"Darren, I need you to protect them. Protect them with everything you have." Darren shook his head, walking towards me.
"No, Luca. No!" I lift myself up from the ground, it has to be done. This is the only plan that would work. I could never let anyone take after me because of one silly mistake of mine. If only i knew the future, maybe things would have been different. Amara safe. Anna alive. Nora safe.
"When they take us to watch the film, you will stay. You do not come. You will go and get the car ready, and then head to the camera room. My father has his hook ups at nine p.m. Be in the camera room, the code is 432156. Hack the camera system, make everything normal. Put in an old tape. I will go and get Amara, and Nora. Head to the car on the east side of the house. And you drive. You fucking drive. I have to get them out of there, and we need to do this."
"But you can die..."
"Keep them safe, promise me to keep them safe." Darren opens his mouth, looking down at his hands. "Darren, I need you as my second in command. This has to be done."
"What do I tell them? This is not the plan we planned. It was meant to be me."
"Nothing, just keep them safe with your life." I hand him the letter, I wrote earlier. "If Amara gets pregnant by any chance, give her this letter and tell her that i have never loved anyone more than I have to her. And whatever happens, she could never come back to Italy every again. I have a bank account under your name in Spain, it has over one billion dollars. Enough for her to not work."
A knock on the door reminds me that I have to still go, Darren tucks the letter into his pocket. I'm already prepared. A proposal that would ruin everything, and one that Amara would rather die than accept. But I promised her safety, and not only did I fail, but I also ruined her dignity.
I head down the hallways, looking back at Darren who shook his head. I give him a soft smile as the door opens, and I see my father walk in with seven men. But he noticed how unbothered I was, "Chain him."
"No need, I'm not fighting anymore." I return, acting unaffected as I did my cufflinks, and straightened my tie. My father rose a confused brow, before a smile struck his face.
"We'll see." We exit out of the room; I see the same nurse who sedated me following but at a distance. I can do this; I have to do this. I see my father enter a pin to the CCTV room. 432156. We enter the room and I settle down without being told before my father presses the red button.
I see her.
She isn't paying attention to me, but I am. When I go to see her, she has almost given up, but I need her to believe in what I'm about to do for her.
My father can see every emotion I'm feeling through my face; this was the longest I'd ever had to act, and it wasn't pretty. I got out of the leather chair, "stop it this instant, I accept your deal." I speak, my father raises a brow. "Stop it before I refuse." He immediately waves at the guard; he speaks into the intercom and the beating is stopped.
My father stands up, his cane thumping onto the marble flooring.
"You will marry the woman I want you too, produce an heir for the mafia and then I will let her go."
"I will." He nods. "But no beating until then. Nothing, not a single strand of their hairs touched."
"Deal, but if one thing goes another way. They both die." He shakes my hands and exits the room; I look down at my watch.
8:55pm
I watch everyone leave and I make my way out of the room, I look to the side and see Rodrigues giving me a slight nod from the end of the hallway. I continue my path down to the chambers of weapons, I type in the same code and the doors open.
I slip inside and grab two silencers, slipping them into my back pocket.
I breathe in.
This is for her, Luca.
I go down the stairs, reaching the basement door which I easily open. I then close it behind me and grab the silencer pistols before taking down the two security guards at the end of the hallway.
I cling to the wall, watching their bodies crumble.
"What the hell happened?" I hear a voice and do a quick side glance to see seven men playing cards. When I glance down at the rounds in the silencer, there are exactly seven of them. One for each individual. I reload it.
I push myself first and murder all five men, while the other two rush at me. Before kicking the man in the face, I conceal the gun in the back of my pants. I elbow him in the neck, and he stutters backwards, gasping and grabbing his nose. I take his rifle and shove it into his stomach before pressing the trigger, and as he slides down my body, his eyes explode from his head.
"Who are you?"
"Luca." Her eyes brighten, Nora smiles.
"Mummy told me you'd come and you did."
"Now Darren!" I shout, I look to the camera and see the red dots no longer there.
I shoot the other man just before he pressed the call button, his body fell to the ground. I picked up the key to the cage and rush towards them. I unlocked Nora first, watching her cries stop as she engulfs into my arms.
"I knew you'd come." She whispers, I kiss her forehead. I graze her hair, brushing my thumb over her cheeks to make sure she is not hurt. She looks exactly like Anna.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know..."
I turn my head, and suddenly my heart breaks even more. It's worse.
"I need you to stay in the corner, let me help Amara." She nods her head; I unlock Amara's door as I push myself inside. Stepping over ripped clothes, I see a half-naked Arabella on her final moments. I drop to my knees and brush her hair. "Amara." I spoke her name; she does not respond until I shake her slightly.
"No... stop..." She groans.
"Amara it's Luca, I need you to wake up for me." She lifts her body slowly, her eyes closing and opening recurring. Blue and black. She was indescribable.
"L-Luca?" Her eyes slowly widen in shock.
"Come on." She yelps in pain as I slide my arms beneath hers and yank her up from the ground. And when I see blood all over my bare body, I feel a wave of remorse wash over me. Blood leaks down her legs. My lips quiver slightly, but i cannot look upset in front of her.
I hurry out of the cage and approach the back entrance, the only thing she was wearing was her panties. "I thought y-you gave up..." She whispers.
"No princess, never on you." I grab onto Roses hand leading them towards the exit. She strokes onto my unshaven beard. She sobs into my arms, which I promised I would not let happen. Then the bullets start flying, and Nora clutches my legs. I pull my rifle from my chest and aim it at them.
Caleb and a few of his men are there.
I push the door open and sprint outside, Nora slung over my shoulders. I pulled the remote from my jeans and pressed it when I noticed Darren standing near the car.
The explosion scorched the air and earth, robbing it of all life, all the way down to the bacteria. The dreadful reverberation followed the sound of the bomb, as if it were God's agonising cry.
The explosion ripped through the air, as if it was determined to ruin the universe by ripping away every atom.
Nora holds my shoulder as I approach the car, and I help Nora in the back, allowing Rodrigues to fasten her seat belt before placing Amara in the front. I take off my Blazer and drape it around her bare body.
She grabs onto my arm before I shut the door, "aren't you coming with us?" She whispers weakly, I sigh, looking back to see no one there as I crouch down.
"I can't Amara, I have to stay."
"No, you don't, you have to come, they'll hurt you."
One thing I loved about her, one thing she caught me on. Was her love for others, she has been through so much, so much yet she is speaking of me getting hurt. I stroke her face; she holds onto my wrist tightly, afraid that if she'll let go. I'll be gone.
"I need you to go with Darren, he will take you somewhere to change, he has money, enough to sort you a life without worry. I need you to move on with your life, I need you to live a life with happiness, find love and be free."
She shakes her head, tears falling from her eyes.
"No, no I don't want to, I need you." She grabs both sides of my face, her tears falling onto my skin. I hold onto her wrist. Her forehead presses onto mine. I take the last moment of her touch in. "I need you...please...don't leave me again."
My eyes water with tears.
"No, you do not princess, you do not need me." I whisper, her lips inches away from mine.
"I do...I love you."
"I love you too, I love you so fucking much." I take of my necklace from around my neck, before revealing the engagement box, her eyes widen as she looks at what's in my hand. I take out the ring and add it to the necklace.
"No, no Luca, please don't...please don't do this." I tie the necklace around my neck before taking out the ring I was supposed to wear. Adding it to her necklace with the lotus flower.
"I will never love anyone like I did with you, but I will not harm you for my needs." I whisper, she shook her head repeatedly, tears falling down her eyes as I press my forehead against hers. She presses her lips against my own. As her tears touch my cheeks.
Show me your silvery tears, the ones on the skin of your heart. Show me your rainbow tears, the ones that come when you see the sunshine through the storm. Show me the tears that are cried beneath what the rest of the world can see, what the eyes miss yet love renders visible.
The bravest thing you will ever do, sweet love, is to show me your tears, for what is tearing you apart cannot be a part of you, but something to be healed in the gentle ways of our kind.
"You promise to find me, you promise-"
"Amara."
"No Luca, I will not leave unless you promise to find me once everything is safe." I knew I could not. Because it would never be safe. Suddenly bullets go of, I turn to see a hundred men before facing Amara.
She shakes her head and I slam her door.
She bangs onto the window; I turn to her pressing my forehead onto it as she does too.
"I love you." I mouth, looking into those beautiful eyes once more. The eyes that saved me from trouble. Her bright eyes. Ones I would never be able to forget, I give her a soft smile.
Suddenly, I feel a bullet pierce my chest. I watch her bang against the windows, i choke out blood. Allowing it to spill from my mouth as i drop to my knees, tears filled her face as she screams my name. She bangs harder onto the window, tears falling roughly down her face. She tries to open the door; I hold onto my chest.
She slips out of her seat and crawls towards me when she finally opens the door. Her hands touch my chest as I hang on to it. She kisses my lips, tears fall down her eyes, relieving the pressure.
Her words are illegible as I trace my fingers through her hair. I stare into her eyes, trying to remember the colours all over again. Brown. Green. Perfect.
Her kisses push on every inch of my face as she pulls my hair back. "I love you." She shakes her head, crying into my neck. Her hands pushing down onto my wounds.
"Luca...Luca baby...don't leave me..." She cries, trying to drag me away from the gunshots and towards the car. She grabs my hands and settles it onto her stomach. "I think I'm pregnant, our baby Luca, me and you." Darren wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her, she yells and fights him.
Darren drives away.
Forever and always. Something we once said. But how could forever be? Time changes. And regret proceeds us.
But I know something that will never change.
My love for Amara Grey.
And my child.