Samuel?
From his striking blue eye, to his mop of blonde hair, he was the last person I had expected to be here, smirking as he was.
"How are you doing, Destiny?" He had a sinister smirk, his accent was still ever so present.
He waited for my reply before chuckling darkly and motioning to the desolate room without tiles, or windows to let in natural light, "Oh, what am I asking? You cannot possibly be fine after being taken and held hostage forcefully. I would say sorry but you... You deserve this. You deserve to be locked up and treated like a ransom, a price because you chose him," he spat out the word 'him' that I knew who he was talking about. My world was turning out of its axis slowly but surely.
"Things could've been different, things could have changed," he moved closer to me, his gaze turning soft as he bent down to my eye level looking at me ever so affectionately until roughly pushing my chin away from him with a snare on his face as he abruptly stood up. "But you chose Antonio D'Angelo, knowing fully well who he was. You still chose him."
"Who is Nio? What is He to you?" I found myself asking and as they said curiosity killed the cat and I knew that my curiosity who surely bring my downfall.
Samuel let out a deep belly laughter, laughing like a maniac. Why was he laughing?
He heaved a sigh, "Destiny, stop playing silly games, how can you ask such a question when you live with the man, you chose him?"
He made me even more perplexed, what did he mean? Did he mean that Nio was hiding something from me? Did he have a secret that he had not told me?
"I'm not playing any games, I want to know the truth. What did Nio do to you?"
Samuel glanced at the ticking time bomb that was slowly moving towards my demise if Nio did not show up on time.
"Nio did a lot to me, he caused my own father to isolate me, and harbour hatred towards me because of your dear Nio's famous mafia," when he saw the puzzled look on my face he continued with a smirk on his evil face. "Yes, darling. Your Nio has a mafia, which means that he sells drugs for a living, he kills people that double cross him, he heists big banks, and he goes to war with other Mafia's including my father's very own."
No. No! It couldn't be! Nio could never be a part of the mafia. He is not a murderer, he is not a drug supplier, he does not attack other people.
"No! I refuse to believe that my Nio is capable of any of those acts. You are lying. He might be a bit closed off but that's it. How could you come up with such lies?"
Just looking at the man before me I knew that he had changed, he was not the Samuel I knew. He was more evil, menacing and capable of even making up lies about Nio. Did he think that I would easily fall into the trap that he had purposefully set up to separate me from Nio?
"And what reason would I have to lie to you? What do I stand to gain by lying to you? Destiny, you aren't special enough for me to concoct lies about your boyfriend. What I told you is the truth and I'm sure that you need proof to believe what I'm telling you," he pulled out his smartphone from his back pocket. "I can't wait to burst your little bubble of love or should I say lies?" He chuckled.
Proof? He had proof of what he was talking about.
He put the cell phone before me and I saw a group of men armed with the largest guns that I had ever seen, they were all adorned in black attire and an entourage of cars were parked outside beside them. He pressed the play button and the video played as the cars sped down the street and parked in front of a gate and the men hushedly jumped out of their cars, each one holding on to their own weapon of destruction but one thing caused my breath to halt, the video zoomed in closer and I was able to recognise two faces, both holding guns of their own.
Giovanni and Nio.
No, it couldn't be, "You have tempered with the video. There's no way that Nio and Giovanni could be there. There's no way that they are holding guns, they couldn't even hurt a fly. No, you are lying."
I still refused to believe that Nio and Giovanni were murderers who attacked other people's homes.
"Well, as you can see Destiny, Antonio is taking on his cellphone, he was talking to my father, bargaining for your life," and to confirm his words, I looked towards the video and indeed had his cellphone to his ear.
The lines between me and Nio's relationship were blurring. Could this be the truth?
"Do you remember that Mafia book that your friend Sienna found at the library and told Thato and you about?"
I nodded.
"What happened to the book the following day that Sienna wanted to use it? It had disappeared, right? Well, that wasn't coincidental, your dear Nio took it," I was quick to shake my head in denial when another video caught my attention it was another video showing Nio speaking to the campus librarian and fast forwarding to where he took the book from the historical section without any hesitation and left the library.
My mouth was left hanging.
"Yeah, I woke up earlier than usual today, but Sienna called me because she had something important to tell both Thato and me."
"What did she want to tell you guys?" Nio inquired
"She discovered the existence of a significant mafia syndicate right here in Italy," I revealed.
She intends to gather more information and present it to her class."
"That's quite surprising. Where did she come across this information?" Nio's curiosity mirrored my own.
"In the library, specifically in the historical section."
"Well, I hope she manages to find the information she needs, assuming the mafia truly exists," he remarked.
Everything came rushing back like a flood, sweeping me into the deep and shallow waters.
He was playing me like a fool.
"Listen, Des. I know you have strong feelings for Antonio, but that doesn't mean you should trust him with everything. I'm going to be brutally honest with you. You tend to be gullible, and people, including him, can take advantage of that. Remember how Samuel deceived you, making you believe he was a good person worthy of your attention, only for you to discover that he was actually a deceitful individual?"
"Are you suggesting that Nio is a liar?" I accused her, pointing a finger at her.
"I didn't say th-" she started, but I interrupted her by raising my hand.
"I don't want to hear it. Not only have you questioned my judgment, but you've also portrayed Nio as some kind of antagonist. I won't sit here and listen to you say all of that."
All this while Thato was telling the truth but I was too blinded by love to see the truth that was right in front of my eyes.
Before my thoughts could take me further south and dampen my heart, Samuel seized the moment to flaunt more of what he knew about Antonio D'Angelo, the man I thought I knew everything about but turned out I was being strung along and there were many things he had purposefully hid from me.
"How else do you think he owns so much money, a huge mansion, businesses and cars?"
"Where do you get all this money, you have a driver, expensive cars and live a fancy lifestyle?"
"Inheritance."
"Huh?"
"My parent's inheritance."
Everything I thought to be the truth was all a lie, a ploy, nothing that came out of his mouth was true. He had lied straight to my face.
Did he even love me?
"It wasn't because of his parents' inheritance but because he murders people for a living."
Murders. Murderer. Mafia.
My heart was now numb to the ache that it had felt before. It was as though I could no longer feel anymore. I had been shattered to the very core.
"Do you remember the attack at his restaurant where thugs started shooting randomly, causing him to tell you to run away? Those were our men, sent to send you a message but because you are stupid, you failed to read through the lines," he chuckled, finding pleasure in tormenting me.
What had I done to him?
What had I done to everyone? Why did people make it a mandate to hurt me? Did they enjoy seeing me in unquenchable pain?
First, it was my dad, I lost him. Then, it was Samantha, she despised me. Then it was Mr Heywood, he looked down upon me merely because of my skin colour. Then it was Samuel, who just wanted to string me along and when I finally thought that I had found the love of my life, he turned out to be a liar, a deceitful person that hurt me more than anyone else.
"Why didn't he call the police? Because the police are always on his tail, waiting and sniffing for any mistake in order to arrest him and he couldn't risk it so what did he do? He sent you away and proceeded to kill our men and send us their bodies. Those men had families, they had children to care for but your boyfriend did not care about that," he explained an angered look taking over his features as he rounded around my chair in despair.
Antonio D'Angelo had done that and that was true. He was not only a liar but a murderer as well. He deserved to be thrown into prison for the rest of his life but even through my pain, I could not wish that for him because, in the depths of my heart, I still loved him.
"Now, you must be asking yourself how I know all these things. Well, that's because I was following you around from the moment you took a seat beside the man himself, I secretly followed your every move, from when and where you met up, to how you fell in love. I was supposed to snatch you away from him and make him lose focus on the mafia because you were his only weakness, killing Samantha did nothing to him but when I failed to do so, unfortunately, we had to follow plan B which was to kidnap you and ask a ridiculous amount of money that would be enough to cripple the entire Italian mafia," he grinned.
Everyone was playing me. Everyone saw me as a toy in their big game.
"Now, make yourself comfortable and pray that your dear boyfriend pays five hundred million dollars within," he glanced down at the ticking time bomb on my chest. "Forty hours or there will be nothing left of you."
With that, he turned on his heel and made it out of the room. He had killed Samantha? How much life and love did these people have? To take the soul out of another person's body and show no remorse for it was something that shook me to the core but I knew that the Lord would defend me.
Romans 8:28, 30-31
28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,
30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
"Oh, Lord how I had hardened my heart towards You. How I had closed my ears and eyes to your constant warning. How I had neglected You for the comforts of this world, for the love of this world. Father, please forgive me, forgive me for not listening when you spoke in warning towards me. You warned me about Antonio long before our relationship began, you warned me against how this relationship would lead to me being worldly, please forgive me, Lord. You are all that I have and I have come to realise that. The world may offer me all but you offer me infinity, you offer me love and kindness. You offer me hope, you offer me joy, you offer me healing, you offer me protection and you offer me peace that surpasses all understanding. Thank you, Lord, for you alone are good. Thank you even for the situation which I find myself in because finally the truth was revealed and the lies that had once rendered me blind have been removed and now I can see. Thank you for I believe that even in this situation you will intervene. And just as you calmed the storm to a mere whisper, you will calm my raging heart, you will take away my fear for you have given me a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. I pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ... Amen."
I came to realise that as much as the Lord was God, He was also a Father, a good and righteous Father who loved His children dearly that He protected them daily from life's challenges.
This time has helped me reflect on what's important to me.
When you have a bomb strapped to your chest, ready to blast in a few hours makes you evaluate numerous things, such as how I wasted a lot of time groaning when new work was presented before me instead of taking the work head-on, how I wasted time speaking about other people instead of praying for them, how I judged other people instead of showing them the way to the Lord, how I foolishly spoke instead of offering praise to the Lord and how I spent so much time nurturing a fleeting and worldly relationship instead of watering and growing my eternal relationship with the One that never stopped pursuing my heart.
All this caused me to repent, thinking of how the Lord was whipped thirty-nine times for my sake, how He was beaten up in the most inhumane way for my sake, how He pierced in His feet, hands and sides for my sake, and how He stayed on that cross for my sake.
Tears cascaded down my cheeks. I had forsaken and forgotten the sacrifice He had offered for me to be freed of my sins. I had forgotten how He had suffered just for me.
I was lost but now I had been found.
The sound of bullets ringing outside penetrated through the walls of the room I was held in. I held my heart in my hand.
What was going on?
But in my worry, the Lord reminded me that He was the great I AM. The God of the impossible and that I just needed to trust in Him and stop giving into the spirit of fear.
Just as I trusted that, the door burst open and the last person I was expecting or needing stood before me with a gun in his hand, "Amore."