"Sir, are you sure this is the right address?" The taxi driver turns around, looking confused as to why are we in the middle of nowhere.
"I am, you can leave." I hand him a hundred dollars and get out of the car as fast as my body allows me to.
The image of the broken door and the trail of blood at Mia's house hasn't stopped spinning in my head, and every time I called her, her dad, or Rick it just got worse because I couldn't reach anyone. Sometimes I would see her there, lying lifeless on the floor, others I would see her begging me for help, and the worst one was when it was her holding my body while I was the one to bleed out. My mind was playing sick games with me at the worst moment.
As soon as I hear the car driving away I start my way into the single small metal building ahead of me. I'm at an abandoned construction site, there's nothing but a road, some trees, old machinery, and the metal cube in the middle.
This is the place Matteo got arrested that day. This is where his life changed and I'm guessing the place where my life will change too.
Maybe it won't just change but end, because if my father, or whoever he is, has done something to her I would never be able to forgive myself. I wouldn't be able to live in a world without her, she is my everything. She is the one good and beautiful thing I have left in this misery I call life.
If she dies, I die.
With every step I take, the more anxious I get and I can feel my heart beating faster against my chest. I feel like there's no oxygen left, like I'm underwater and no breathing technique will help. All I can think about is her, my body screams for her, she is my safe haven, and all I have done was put her in danger. If only I had let her go sooner. Things would be a lot different...
Reaching for the door handle I pray to whatever is up there that I'm not too late and she is still alive. I would give my father everything he wants just to let her go, everything. The business, the house...
My life.
And when the cold metal meets my burning skin and I open the door to what might change it all forever I'm surprised to find it empty. There's barely any light and the only thing inside the four silver-coloured walls is a table and a computer.
She isn't here and neither is he.
The pre-paid phone starts to ring again and I slowly reach for it inside my pocket, my hand shaking.
"Where is she?" That's the first thing I ask the moment I accept the call.
"You came alone, I always thought Matteo was smarter but he had always been gullible, I knew him falling for a woman and leaving everything behind was an option, but you? I thought that after your wife died you would finally give up on love, and focus on what truly mattered. I guess I overestimated you... but truth be told, I should have known, if my life were as miserable as yours I would also enjoy a young woman warming up my bed." I try to ignore everything he is saying, not let his words affect me.
I quickly get out of the small building and start looking around the area, going in circles searching for him because if he knows I'm alone that means that he can see me, and if he can see me it would only be fair for me to be able to see him too.
"Where are you? I'm here already, stop playing and tell me where she is." My eyes move from side to side and in every corner I find a place he could have hid her in.
"Where is who?" The sound of his voice is now distorted, and it takes me a second to figure out why. And it's because instead of over the phone, I hear those words coming from behind me and I instantly turn around.
When I do, Lorenzo is already staring at me with the blue eyes I had always, without a doubt, thought were mine, a big smile plastered on his face. He is standing there like a fucking puppet, just a few feet away from me when in fact he's the one pulling the strings right now. His hands in his pockets. And even though it's been years since I last saw him he looks different - the air of superiority he always carries around is still here - however, it doesn't feel the same.
"Hello, son." He breaks the silence, his smugness just getting bigger, while he doesn't fail to emphasize the latter word.
"Where is she, Lorenzo?" I don't know why or how I found the courage to do it but for the first time in my life I address him by his name like I should have always done, because that man, no matter what blood says, has never been my father.
Rick has.
"You are truly blind, she is not here boy, she never was." His smile just grows bigger, until it reaches the point of him almost laughing while the confusion comes washing over me.
"You knew what her room looked like and I saw the blood, don't play with me and tell me where the fuck she is." My tone gets louder as I give a long confident stride in his direction.
"I had people on her, watching her movements and the idea was to take her but then an ambulance appeared, followed by Rick, and my plan went puff." That smile from a little ago is still on his face, while, like a child, he tries to convey the word puff to me using his hands. The anxiety that was boiling inside of me, reached its maximum the moment this bastard uttered the word ambulance. However, he just continued his monologue, obviously enjoying the suffering he just caused. That he continuously causes. "They fucked up my plan so I had to improvise, and well since they left the door open I helped my way inside, the blood was already there, it was perfect. For a second I thought you would figure it out but once again, I gave you way more credit than I should have." He explains unbothered while also giving a step closer in my direction.
"An ambulance?" Those two words were the only thing my brain choose to retain, those and also blood.
"For looking so in love you sure leave her unattended, what kind of man are you?" His smirk is bigger than ever.
And what's worse is that I don't think he is lying because everything he is saying makes sense. If Mia got hurt it would explain why neither she nor Tomás answered my call and if Rick was also there it means that all this... it was just a trap. One I fell directly in.
He used Mia to get to me.
As if he could read my mind he continues after a moment of silence, "You finally figured it out, took you long enough. How many times did I tell you, boys, women are an asset, first, you make them fall in love with you, then you marry them, and lastly, you fuck them and wait until they finally give you kids to keep the bloodline going. If you allow yourself to fall, to feel, everything goes to shit." He keeps getting closer, his stride slow yet confident.
And after hearing those words, I feel like a little kid all over again, walking on eggshells around my father, scared of speaking up, frozen on the spot while he screamed at me, hoping that he wouldn't cross the line and words wouldn't turn into punches.
That's what my life was like for eighteen years, it was just fear filled with all sorts of hatred that I couldn't let float to the surface. But I'm not a kid anymore, what's more, I'm finally not scared anymore. That kid is gone. It has been long for a very long time.
"Did he tell you?" He asks, changing the subject, and I look at him confused so he explains. "Rick, did he tell you?" And that's when I get what he's asking me.
I want to deny knowing anything about it in case it is another trap but I think that the look of shock on my face was sadly a pretty clear giveaway.
"I bet you would have loved for him to raise you, your real father. Rick, the righteous, caring man. Your mom sure loved him."
My real father?
"You knew?" I ask the obvious in hopes he will give me some more context.
"Of course I knew, do you think I'm a fool? In their defense they hid it pretty well at first but come on, I'm not an idiot. I may not believe in love myself but I can distinguish the emotion once I see it and they had too much of that for me not to notice."
"And you let it happen?" I ask in shock because in what world does a man like him allow this? He is sick in the head.
"Of course, why wouldn't I? I never gave a fuck about your mother, she was a major pain in the ass, and Rick had her pretty entertained for me, it was perfect. All I needed was an heir, but it had to be my blood obviously, so since at first I wasn't sure if you were mine I waited for Matteo." Another step closer.
"Then, I told your mom to choose between Rick or you and your brother, she could be free if that's what she wanted but she wouldn't have any of you, especially not Matteo. And well, I guess I won't be spoiling anything if I tell you she chose her sons." He explains it so casually, as if he hadn't made my mother's life hell.
"And you let Rick stay as one of your men for so many years?"
"I had to, he was a reminder, the moment your mother chose there wasn't a way back anymore, I warned her that if she ever got close to him again I would kill him. And oh, believe me when I tell you, I never saw one of those love-sick glances ever again, or at least not from her. Your mother could be very obedient when she wanted to, ask your daddy. I'm sure he knows."
"He is actually my dad?" I hate that it's him I'm asking but I have to know.
"You don't know? I guess she never got to tell him, or you, how unfair. But yes, he is your dad. Why do you think Matteo was born? Does it look like I wanted a big fucking family?" It's confirmed, this man should be locked up in some psychiatric hospital because the smugness never left his face while he was talking, in contrast, it just got bigger. He was feeding off of other people's torment, in the past it was my mom's and Rick's. Recently it was Danielle's and Matteo's. And right now it was mine. And I didn't have enough in me to hide any emotion I was feeling.
"Why didn't you just give me up? Why did you allow me to stay?" If I'm not his son, why keep me around? He could have abandoned me, killed me even.
"The same reason I allowed Rick to stay, you were my biggest leverage, Carlos, don't you get it? I needed your mother to obey me, to behave like a perfect little wife. And a mother? A mother would do anything for her child, so I used that. One wrong move and you would pay the price, controlling her had never been as easy once you were born. And luckily, Rick and I shared many assets so you looking similar to him also meant you looked similar to me. No one would suspect anything and I had all the fucking power."
His hatred for me, the favoritism he always had with Matteo, now it all makes sense.
But there's still something I don't understand.
"Why would you come back then? You had been gone for years, Matteo had the business, I was just a mere second, you got what you wanted why would you come back? Why would you go after Danielle leaving Matteo without options so the only way out for him would be prison? Why come after the business you so hardly wanted to protect? Why come after me? If you had never actually cared?"
"I just wanted to play with my boys one more time." He whispers giving one last step in my direction and my whole body tenses.
What?
"Your brother, all he wanted was freedom, he wanted to choose his future and he did, until now. I took that away from him like he took the business away from me. And you? All you ever wanted was a family, someone to take care of, someone to rely on, and with your mother gone, Isabella, Matteo, all I needed was for you to lose Rick or Mia, maybe even both of them... and I didn't even have to kill them, you lost them on your own, and you know why I knew you would? Because we might not be related by blood but you are a lot more similar to me than you would like to admit. The hatred, the seek of revenge? It's what rules men like us, Carlos." He started laughing, looking directly into my eyes.
"You are a sick bastard," I state my voice loud and clear.
But as much as I don't want to believe it, he is right, I thought I was fighting for the right thing, I thought revenge would make me feel better, I thought that finishing this would allow me to heal but all it did was making me lose everything and everyone I have truly ever wanted.
I got blinded by seeking revenge instead of redemption. And now I was paying the price.
"Wrong, you are the bastard." He smiles once again and before I notice I'm doing it I have launched myself at him, making us both fall to the ground with a loud thump.
Quickly I stand on my knees and as soon as I get some of my strength back I punch him right across the face. The bone of his nose cracks and I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said they could probably hear that sound back in the city. Blood follows right after and I think I haven't felt this good in so long.
Watching my father — no, watching the man who made my life hell bleeding on the hard sand covered ground is probably the most gratifying thing I have ever seen.
It's all I ever wanted.
"You punch like a fucking pussy." He spits, the blood coming from his mouth staining my white shirt.
"You were the one who taught me." I smile landing another punch but this time on his ribs followed by another on his chest.
He coughs and the choking sound is like a melody to my brain that is also a switch because I can't find myself to stop punching Lorenzo, it's like I see red, and beating him shitless is the only viable way to let all my frustration out.
But there's something that doesn't add up, something that even in the fucked up state my mind is can still notice because the man lying almost lifeless under my body weight in a puddle of his own blood isn't fighting, and he always fights, that's who he is. So I stop, mid-punch, and look directly into his eyes to try and figure out what he is hiding.
Why would he do all this? Why would he ruin my life and then get me here alone and not have a gun with him? Why do this, tell me the truth about my past, and allow me to be this close to him? Why not fight me the way he has always done?
"Come on, boy, finish it. Finish me." He mutters between pants, looking at my fist that's still halfway in the air.
"You want me to kill you..." I say, mostly to myself, my brain trying to work out this situation.
"Don't be a bitch, this is what you have always wanted, fucking do it!" He tries to sound tough but it comes more as desperation.
All the scattered pieces of this big puzzle my life is start to slowly fit together. I knew someday he would have to come back, I knew he would never allow Matteo and me to be happy but I had been focusing on the wrong reason as to why he would do this. He doesn't want the business back, he doesn't want us dead, he simply wants to die... and he is too much of a coward to kill himself so he searched for the one person who in other circumstances would have taken the chance the moment it presented itself.
"No, all I have ever wanted was for you to suffer and I think you are doing exactly that. What is it? Cancer?" I know I have got it right when the desperate look in his eyes turns straight into pure misery. "You want me to kill you because you are already dying..."
I slowly stand up from the ground, watching in what an awful state I have truly left him. I think I have broken almost every bone in his face, probably a few ribs too and his right leg doesn't look good either.
"Carlos..."
"All of this, all this suffering, everything and everyone I have lost it was for nothing." My words come out as a whisper. "It was just a game, you just had to make me lose my head and that's exactly what you did..."
"I let revenge consume me, I allowed you to get inside my head... But there's still one final play, and for once, it's my turn to move."
Reaching for the pre-paid phone I put the number of the only person I knew could help me right now.
"It's Carlos, I need your help. I will send you the address. Bring your things."
Author's note
As always if you are here ty for reading and don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts!
So, this is almost it, I hope everything makes a little more sense now. Why Lorenzo did what he did, and how in a way he actually won. All this fighting, it was for nothing. He wanted to ruin everyone's lives before his ended...
When I thought of this ending I just knew it was the way to go, show that sometimes it's better to back down, let our past go, because if Carlos had done that, if he had been able to let go, everything will be different.
There's a few chapters left, some things left to tie, but it's getting close to end, this was pretty much the closing plot and now just the finishing details are needed. I hope you all enjoyed it and that it fulfilled your expectations.
Big thank you to Ti tiloveswriting for helping me with this chapter, is much better thanks to her.
And again, for the people who keep commenting that I'm dragging this or that it's too long, just stop reading, the hate doesn't help me at all and no one is making you read. Everything I'm writing was in plan, things just take longer to write than expected.
Thoughts? I really wanna hear everyone's opinion about this closing plot since it's really bittersweet.
Love you all so much,
Maria