~Silas POV~
"Some vacation you have booked. This is part of the fake marriage thing right?"
I slam my car door shut, and because I'm quiet while walking to the doors of the mansion, Renzo takes it as a reply and laughs like a Goddamn clown.
"Huuuh, so we've gotten to that part of the story? Is that why you've stopping coming to the club to get laid?"
"Fuck up you pervert, and go deal with what I just told you. Chicago has to be perfect. I find a flaw, I'll wring your little neck."
He lets out a loud snicker. "Just the sweetness I admire from you cousin."
Shutting the phone, I step out the rain into the house and pause, adjusting to the temperature change. It looks like Catalina misses Colombia, cause she always has the damn heating turned up.
Speaking of her, I expect to find her at the bottom steps strapping her shoes but the lobby's empty. I'd been at work for an hour and she's still not ready?
You wanted a wife Cavallaro. Deal with it.
My glance flickers sideways and I stalk towards the kitchen archway, entering the dim room and stopping by the sink to fill a glass of water.
Once drinking it I set the glass down and step away from the counter, heading back to the lobby.
Before I reach the marble staircase, something twinkling from the floor pulls me to a stop. I'd have stepped over it, but the familiarity of it strikes me enough to pick it up.
Her earring. I know it's hers because only she would wear baby pink in this house. Bianca spat on the colour.
Speaking of my sister, she walks in from the living room making a tapping show of her heels.
"Where's Catalina?" I ask blankly, not lifting my gaze from the tiny pink earring in my palm.
Bianca stops by the living room door, dressed in whatever trampy pvc dress is in style today. "She hasn't been here for a while actually." She says quietly, and when I meet her gaze she only holds it for a second before it drops to the floor.
My eyes narrow in suspicion, and when she tries walking off I stop her by her arm.
"What do you mean."
She swallows, unleashing a second of anxiety in her throat before it's gone. An alarming bitterness banishes the fear in her eyes, and my pulse stands still. "I told you you'd be the biggest sucker for love, didn't I?"
At first I hope she's joking, but when seeing that psychotic gleam in her - one every Cavallaro inherits, I know. I shouldn't have left Catalina home with her.
I throw her arm away and head for the staircase, forcing myself to go up at a normal pace. All I can hear is my jagged breathing and the sound of my footsteps the closer I get to the top. My fingers tense when I see mine and her bedroom doors. I tell myself she's fine, that she's in her room putting stuff in her hair but fuck, something about this feels off.
I open my bedroom door, but its empty. Storming out, I throw her door open and dart my gaze towards every corner of her bedroom - over the unmade sheets, the vanity scattered with make up...I even check the bathroom and the walk in wardrobe. Nothing.
I find myself lost in the middle of her room, for the first time ever not knowing what to do. She could be kidnapped, held hostage and for all I know my sister is the culprit of it all. But then again Bianca wouldn't cross me like that.
What if she's far? What if she's hurt? The walls cave in. I stare at the bed, and that's when I see the paper on the bedside table. Snatching it, I unfold the note.
Silas,
I'm the only one to blame for this. I shouldn't have let you get between me and my goals knowing I was going to walk away, but I did. And now I'm here, writing this note because I'm too scared to admit out loud what everyone already knows; Money will always the most important thing to me, and I can't handle risking my future for something that was never truly real.
You always knew one day I'd leave.
It takes a second, two seconds before something breaks in me. Something I never knew how soft it'd become until I heard its shatter. I sit at the edge of the bed, hunched. Clinging onto a lined piece of paper that has more authority over me than anything ever had.
I read the note again, and again, and again before its mush in my hands.
Bullshit. She doesn't know how to run, I hadn't taught her that yet.
I stand, check the entire mansion door by door with the same determination I only had when I was a kid and searched for my Mama on the pier.
I search the guest rooms, the bathrooms, the store rooms, the living rooms, until the impatience in me makes me ravenous.
I found Mama floating in the water.
And my wife? She could be in a worse place for all I fucking know. I brace my palms on the cold kitchen counter, refusing to look at the sun setting behind the window.
The silence stings. My ears ring with taunt for a sharp second before the glass on the counter a flies across the room, smashing apart against the wall. "!"
Glass scrapes against my hearing. All I can think of if the fact that she ran away. Nobody had ever took my for a fool, so why now? Why her?
My blood burns hotter the longer I stand here, and the second my phone rings I pull it out expecting her name to be on the screen but its not.
"Boss?" One of my men says across the line.
My voice comes out course and low. "Tell me."
"I don't know how to say this...Your accounts have been raided. Ten million was taken out today from the bank, and...and it was your wife."
"She was there?"
He waits a long time before answering. "Yes boss, she was there."
"Why did you hesitate?"
"I didn't-"
"If you or anyone else has the balls to lie to me, I'll finish all of you. You fucking hear me?!"
"She-she was really there. We went to the bank where the transaction took place and showed the employee a picture of Mrs Cavallaro, he confirms he saw her come in."
And other than me, she's the only one allowed to take money out from my account. Cazzo.
The tightness in my expression fades for a second. I underestimated her. I treated her like she was normal, and not like she was raised by the leader of the fucking Colombian cartel.
How long had she been planning this? Since the wedding? It doesn't matter.
All of it was fake. This morning, last night night....Every fucking moment we've had since our marriage began.
I shut the call and dial Renzo, who picks up instantly.
"Silas... I heard about-"
"I'm on my way. Start the search for Catalina, and I don't want a corner of the city unmissed. She's one woman, she can't go far."
"On it." He briefly pauses. "And...and when you find her?"
Then even her precious money won't be able to protect her from me.
~Catalina POV~
"Objection! All of this is Pietro Cavallaro's doing. That hijo de puta (son of a bitch) had me arrested because I was falling in love with his stupid son!"
Eyebrows rise from all around. The entire room falls silent after my sudden outburst, even I'm shocked. I guess it'd been gathering for a long time.
The jury, the barristers, the audience or whatever you call them all stare at me like I'm a psychotic killer.
The jury drops his pen, rubbing his head. Sitting there in a silky black robe with white hair contrasting his dark skin, he probably thinks he's the King. But I grew up around people of authority, I know how to crack them.
"You...you can't object." He says. "Sit down Mrs Cavallaro."
Sighing, I sit down but the jury has another instruction.
"Now stand for the verdict."
Trying not to clench my teeth I stand again, my cuffs clinking against the wooden table.
"Do you plead guilty or not guilty?" The judge asks, and theres only one answer I can give.
"Not guilty."
He raises his brows as if he'd never seen a case like this one, and then shuffles through some papers before lifting one up. "With the DNA found at the crime scene, your lack of alibis, and the footage showing a woman of your exact stature leaving the crime scene, the proof of the twelve murders is definitive. Catalina Cavallaro, your verdict is..."
I hold my breath. I'd dreamt up so much hope about this day since my arrest a week ago, I was floating in the air.
"Guilty."
If only I knew then that dreams are made to be shattered.
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Authors note: Today I have no excuse as to why I posted so goddamn late. This is why I stopped updating my other stories while doing this one, because my concentration is zero on one story let alone three 🥲 Next update will be in 1-2 days, I won't let you down.
Ps* sorry for any spelling errors.