Arianna’s POV
My hands started shaking and my legs grew weak.
I had been searching for this in the house. I had been begging Gabriele to tell me who had sold me to Stephano and finally I had the manual in my hands.
I lowered myself to the ground and took a deep breath to start reading the pages.
I would finally know who had cursed me; Who had deprived me of being with my parents. I would know now, who stole me from my grandparents who only wanted me to meet my parents.
I came to Italy only because of that and someone sold me over this cruel world as a sex object.
What if Gabriele had been a rapist? Or a woman beater?
What if he had been using us for prostitution? What if I had met the worst situation?
I would find this person and I would make them pay. I didn’t know how I was going to do it because I was a prisoner myself… Yet I would do it.
I scanned through the lines about my description and attitude and all of that searching for the one name I needed.
Finally, I found it on the last page. But what I saw wasn’t something my heart could take.
Even my brain refused to believe it.
“No, this is wrong,” I whispered as I tried to read the page again. Perhaps I had misinterpreted what they said.
The one who sold me was… “Mr. and Mrs. Howard?”
My heart stopped and the remaining blood in my body started swirling around in my stomach.
“No, this has to be a mistake,” I said humping to my feet.
I pulled out another manual and this belonged to Nadia. I scrolled through the last page –perhaps it had been an error and what they meant to write there was the name of parents or something like that.
But as I found the page, Nadia read something different. Not her parents.
“No,” I whispered as I felt thunderbolts release themselves in my body.
Yet I refused to believe it.
I returned to my manual and searched through the description and note they gave to Stephano. They gave out my airplane ticket details and arrival time.
There was even a description of the car that would pick me up and the driver.
“No!” I whispered as I felt my eyes begin to water and my body begins to shake.
This couldn’t be true.
I refused to believe it but it was staring me in the face.
My parents had sent that ticket to me. My grandparents didn’t even know I was traveling until a day before my date. They had told me not to tell them but I couldn’t do it.
Wait–
Why did they ask me not to tell my nonna?
I slumped to the ground as it all made sense now. They had planned it from the start.
All the calls I thought they made because they wanted to finally bond with me were because they wanted to sell me.
The picture of me attached to the manual was the selfie I had sent to them when we started communicating properly again.
It was all a part of their plan…
“Oh, my God!” I whimpered as my shaking hands dropped the book and I covered my mouth to keep from wailing.
The person I had been searching for was not just one person –they were two and they were my own parents!
How could my own parents do this to me?
Why would they want to sell me away like this? Why?!
“Oh, how stupid I was!” I cried out.
I was so stupid.
That day when Stephano’s boys kidnapped me, I made a fuss about how my parents were going to save me.
I screamed and struggled thinking I had parents in Italy that would go to any lent to save me.
“No wonder those cruel people laughed at me… They knew!” I whimpered.
They knew that the same parents I was fussing about were the ones who gave out my identity and for what?
Money?
I snatched up the manual and angrily slapped through the pages to see the prize. I was so angry that one of the center pages tore, but I didn’t care.
I continued slapping the pages till I found what I was searching for. They had sold me for –
“Twenty million dollars?” I choked out.
That was worth what their daughter was worth?! Twenty million dollars!?
Hot tears streamed down my face and I couldn’t bring myself to stop. I was angry and I was hurt.
I was broken and I was bitter.
Every emotion came with an even more painful sibling. It was too hard a pill to swallow.
No wonder Gabriele had said I would be hurt if I read that manual. My parents sold me.
They had abandoned me when I was a child and now that I am grown, they still sell me. They put me in this prison.
They put me in this hell like I didn’t matter to them.
I sat there in the corner crying my eyes out. All the strength and determination I had in me to hurt whoever had ruined my life was gone because now I knew who had ruined my life.
It wasn’t some evil villain I would have loved to see. It was my parents.
“Oh God…” I cried even harder as it hit me again.
If only I had remained back home in America, things wouldn’t be like this. I would have been with my Nonna and I wouldn’t be crying like this.
Why?
Why did they do this to me?
People were out there looking for children. Parents cherished their children. They wanted only the best for them.
Yet mine wanted the worst for me.
Mine saw me only as an object they could sell and make money from.
Why was I so unfortunate? Why did God give me parents like this?
If only I could see them right now. If only I could tell them how much they had hurt me…
“Why didn’t they just abort me? At least I wouldn’t be facing this now!” I whispered to myself.
I continued crying there on the floor until there were no tears left. My body went numb and my brain locked up.
My heart became caged and I had no will to live anymore.
The door to the document room opened and I got on my feet and returned all the two documents I had taken out. I returned them and walked to the exit.
“Oh Arianna, I have been looking for you. What are you looking for?” Mila said as I reached her.
“I feel terrible. Please can you tell Niko and Mike to take me home?” I whispered as I walked past her.
She looked at my swollen eyes and tear-stained face and she didn’t have to ask twice.
“I will inform them,” she ran out after me and went ahead to inform them about my condition.
I didn’t even have the energy to explain anything to anyone. All I wanted was to return to my prison and die.
I walked to the corridor and waited for them to come to take me to the parking space which they held the key to.
“Arianna? Are you okay?” Mike asked the moment they joined me in the corridor.
“I want to go home,” I sobbed softly but held back the tears threatening to flow again.
“Did something–” Mike started to ask but Niko held his shoulder stopping him.
“Let’s go,” Niko said instead and I was grateful for that.
He held my hand and led me down to the car. The driver didn’t waste any time.
He maneuvered out of the parking space and we were on the main road in no time. The road was relatively free, so we got home faster than usual.
As the car packed into the mansion, Niko opened the door and I stepped out.
I didn’t wait for them to lead me to the house. I half walked half ran as my misery slapped me hard in the face the moment we got there.
I was here because of my parents –my subconscious repeated.
I was locked up here because of them. Because of the people who were supposed to be searching the entire world for me.
As I neared my room, I walked past Gabriele who was heading down the corridor.
He paused and gave me a strange look but I had no energy to speak to him.
The bubble of tears I had been holding back was close to exploding and I didn’t want him to see it.
I was only a commodity that had been sold to him. He didn’t have to worry about me –I was certain he didn’t even care.
The moment I stepped into my room, I pulled the door open and collapsed onto the bed in tears.