“ANTONIO” I shout my brother’s name as I walk back inside the house.
“How may I be of service, little sis,” he says walking out of the kitchen with food in his mouth.
“I just missed you so much. I feel bad I forgot you even existed. I feel like the worst sister in the world,” I say not even realising I’d started crying.
“Shhh, it’s not your fault. Please stop crying. You will make me feel bad for not finding you and mama sooner. I missed you too.” he says kissing my forehead while making us a sit on the couch.
“I love you so much, please never leave me again, even though my memories are still coming back little by little. I can’t go through what I went through again.” I say hugging him very tight.
“I love you too, and I won’t leave you again.” he says hugging me back.
“Alright, enough sad talk. Tell me about your life and I mean everything,” I say trying to cheer up our moods.
“Fine! I know what you want to hear,” he says giving me a mischievous look.
“Since you know why stop wasting time and talk.” I say feeling very eager to hear about how he and Sofia came to be.
“Since you only care about my love life…, here goes my story; After I got shot and I could not find you and mom I locked everyone out; I did not talk, eat or do anything. I even found it hard to sleep because knowing they found some bodies they could not identify after our house burnt down, I kept thinking what if you and mom were among them. It was an unbearable and very dark time for me. The only person who was able to bring me back to life was Sofia. Sofia helped me so much when I was finding it hard. She was the only reason I was able to move on from the dark side and have hope in life again. I love her more than anything in the world.” he says smiling with adoration in his eyes.
“Oh my God! I can’t imagine the pain you went through, because not knowing can be very frustrating. I am happy we are together now, and I am more than happy Sofia was the one who helped you through everything” I say smiling with tears in my eyes.
“But can you explain to me why you were angry when you found out you got her pregnant,” I say remembering Sofia telling me about her boyfriend—who turns out to be my brother—was not happy she was pregnant.
“What! A man can’t be selfish with his fiancé? I love Sofia, but I did not want to share her yet, not that I never want to have a baby. I was not just ready for a baby. But I am more than happy she is carrying my child.” he says with pride.
“Alright, I thought you were like all those men that did not want children. And I am happy you are happy that she is pregnant.”
“Thank you, sis, but right now I am tired, so I am going to bed. Good night, sis” he says.
Since I am alone I walk into the kitchen to find mama so we can be on our way. But what I see makes me wish I had called out or waited when I find them kissing. I make a sound with my throat to let them know of my presence.
“I would love it if you guys could keep it to the bedroom,” I say walking into the kitchen.
“Sorry honey, were you looking for something?” mama says releasing Papa from a tight embrace
“Yes, I was wondering when we are going home.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, we will be staying for the night. Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” I say smiling.
“Ask Antonio to show you your room,” papa says and walks out of the kitchen with mama.
I find Antonio and he takes me to the room I will be sleeping in. The walls are painted all white; it has two side tables. One has a vase on it with beautiful flowers. It has a queen-sized bed with white and peach pillows. It has a peach blanket that complements the flowers. There are two doors on the left, one is the bathroom, and the other is the walk-in wardrobe. The bathroom is painted all black. The sink is white with a big round mirror that has black edges. The bathtub is white with black bricks around it, giving it a beautiful look. Practically everything is white and black. I walk to the wardrobe, it is filled with clothes, and surprisingly they are all my size. I pick out some cute sleeping wear. I change and walk to the bed to sleep when my phone starts ringing. I pick it up and see it’s my king that’s calling, I quickly answer.
“Hey, my king,” I say in a high pitch voice, feeling happy he called.
“How is my princess doing?”
“I am fine, you?”
“I am fine dear; what are you doing?”
“I was about to go to bed, you?”
“Same, but I wanted to hear your voice before going to bed. I miss you in my arms; I wish you were here.”
“I miss your arms around me; I wish you were here too,” I say smiling.
“If you want me to come I am just four blocks away, honey. I will be there before you blink your eyes.”
“As much as I love that, baby, I don’t want my papa or brother giving you a lecture on what will happen to you if you hurt me.”
“Alright, anything you say, honey.”
“Good night, love.”
“Good night.”
I wake up in the middle of the night sweating and my heart beating very fast. Oh, my God, I can’t believe I did all those things to all those people. I feel so ashamed of myself. How could I have been so cruel to all those people who did not know anything but were just in business with that demon that I call an uncle. Thank God I did not kill anyone who was related to us by blood but was only in business with him. I feel so sorry right now; I have to talk to someone. I will call Enzo. I look for my phone and dial his number; it rings three times before he picks.
“ENZO,” I say as soon as he picks up. I’m crying with tears falling down my face, just remembering everything l did to all those people.
“Mi amore, what is it? Is everything okay? You don’t sound fine. Should I come over? Don’t even answer; I will be there in a minute” Enzo says, hanging up before I am even able to say anything. In less than 5 minutes my phone starts ringing. I answer immediately knowing its Enzo.
“Mi amore, I am outside. Come and open the door.”
“Alright, I am on my way,” I say, picking up a coat I found in the closet and quickly go downstairs, making sure not to make noise while walking downstairs.
I open the front door making sure I don’t make a sound while doing it. I enter his car and ask him to drive to his house because I don’t want to wake anyone at mine. He does not say anything but takes my hands in his and rubs soothing circles on them. It helps me calm down from all the thinking I am doing. We arrive at his penthouse; I am so deep in my thoughts that I did not notice we had reached it. Enzo comes and opens the door for me. He wraps his arms around my shoulders while I wrap my hands around his body, feeling a lot better having his scent fill my nostrils right now as we walk into the building together. We enter the penthouse and sit on the first chair in the living room. When we are seated I start crying again; remembering all the horrible things I did.
“Enzo I was a monster. I remember everything I did. It was horrible, even though I killed bad people that deserved to die. I still killed them in ways no one should be killed. I killed them like they were animals and the way my memories are just coming back all at once makes it hurt more.”
“Mi amore, it’s not your fault. You did not know what you were doing. You were doing what you thought was the best way to deal with your pain. So, don’t blame yourself anymore because like you said they were bad people and they deserved to die.” Enzo says hugging me tightly.
“Even so, Enzo, I still feel bad. I feel like I am the worst person in the world right now for what I did.”
“Don’t feel bad; it was not your fault. They deserved to die and you should always remember in this business, people will always die. Some might deserve it, some might not, but blood will always stain our hands. We have to be strong because trust me, mi amore, this is just the beginning.”
“You are right honey, they deserved to die and they don’t deserve my tears, but that does not mean I am happy with the way I killed them. I will try to live with it because what happened, has happened. The only thing I can do now is to learn from my mistakes and make the real person pay for his sins. Because like you said, this is only the beginning.” I say trying to stop my tears from falling.
“That’s my girl, now stop crying,” Enzo says, kissing my tears while hugging me close to his chest.
“Thank you for coming. I don’t know what I would have done if you did not come because everyone was already asleep. And you were the first person that came to my mind to talk to.”
“I am glad you called me. I will always be here to help you, mi amore.”
“Thank you,” I say smiling.
“You are welcome.”
“Come let’s go to bed. I don’t want my baby to get sick,” he says taking my hands in his while we walk to the bedroom.