MONALISA
My body ached but my heart ached even more. Tears were rolling down my cheeks non stop. I kept wiping at the tears as I ran but I couldn’t stop it from flowing.
He killed my father! He killed my father! He killed Irene too! Who else had he killed? A mafia man, he must have killed a whole lot of people. He must be so unrepentant about murdering others.
Did he even for once regret killing my dad? Or was he just sad that I had found out about it?
Pushing the door to our living room open, I ran in and mum immediately got on her feet the moment she saw me.
Her hand which was holding a glass of juice dropped the glass slowly, her face not leaving me.
“Lisa” she called.
“Mum!” I called in a cracking voice and ran into her arms.
I needed to cry in someone’s arms. I needed the warmth but even more, I needed to be far away from Lucius and everything that had to do with him.
This house was his, the things in this house were bought with his money. The very fucking clothes I was wearing was from him.
I wanted to rip myself apart as I hugged mum even more tightly.
“Lisa, what happened?” Mum asked, worry and concern in her voice.
“M-mum” I just sobbed.
How could I tell her what happened? How could I tell her that the man she was super grateful to was the same man who had taken my dad away from her in the first place? How could I tell her that I had fallen in love with that same man?
“Lisa” mum pulled away from the hug and held my hands. There were few bruises there even though it had been treated.
“What is this? What happened to you? I have been trying to reach you for hours but your phone was switched off. What’s happening? Talk to me, please”
“Just let me hold you, mum” I cried and hugged her again.
Mum was very confused but she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me back.
“It’s fine. I am here. Everything is going to be fine” mum tried comforting me but I just felt more pains.
I could not be comforted. Nothing was going to be fine. I wasn’t going to live happily ever after with Lucius like I had dreamed of.
I wasn’t going to have Irene as my best friend forever like we had said. I wasn’t going to be safe anymore since Sandro is after me. Nothing was fine.
“I am sorry, mum” I sobbed, not knowing why I was apologising.
Was I apologizing because I now knew who dad’s murderer was but would not be telling her?
Or was I apologizing because I had fallen in love with his murderer?
“You did nothing wrong, Lisa. I love you. I love you” she cooed, patting me.
My mum loved me. She was the only one who loved me genuinely. She was the only sincere person I had in my life and maybe I should not have tried so hard to make friends and maybe I should not have let my attraction to Devine become love. Maybe I should have stuck with my mum only, all my life.
Gently, mum pulled away from the hug again and led me to the couch.
“What happened, sweetie?” She asked, very softly.
I could see the concern in her face.
“You are the only one I have, Lisa. Please let me know what happened and put my mind to rest”
“I… I…” I sniffed back more tears, wondering if it was okay to tell mum about the fact that I was kidnapped.
But if I told her about that, I would have to tell her about how I was rescued. And then I would have to involved him, Lucius.
No. I could not tell my mum about this. I wanted to be the only who hated Lucius Devine. I didn’t want my mum to go through the heartache I was going through.
She was going to feel so betrayed, finding out that the man whom she had been grateful to all of her life was the man she should have hated the most all these years.
“You have to tell me what happened, Lisa. You are… You are bruised and you are not in a good state at all. Who did this to you?” She asked and this time, I just shook my head.
“Lisa, tell me who did this to you. Please. Tell me what happened. We have Mr. Devine, he can get the person arrested and ensure that the person goes through hell. Please just tell me…”
“Don’t call him” I choked out the words.
“Don’t even mention his name, mum” I sobbed.
Mum was about to say something when her phone rang. She sighed for a second, got up on her feet, grabbed the phone and picked the call.
For a few seconds, I was too busy crying to hear what was being said over the phone but I soon heard a word that got my attention.
“Sandro? I don’t know you” mum said and I shot up from my seat.
“Why was Sandro calling mum?”
I rushed to her to grab the phone from her. I could not let Sandro tell mum about this.
“Seb’s death? What do you know about it?”
“Mum, end the call!” I screamed in front of her but she arched her brows at me.
I reached my hand forward to the phone to snatch it myself but my bruised, tired hands didn’t have enough strength to snatch the phone from my mum whose attention had now been greatly held by the mention of my father’s name.
“No… That’s impossible” mum whispered as her hands lost strength and the phone slipped to the phone.
For the next few seconds, not a word was said and I couldn’t even sniffle until mum looked me in the eyes.
“The reason… The reason you didn’t want me to mention Mr. Devine’s name and the reason you are sobbing right now. Don’t… Don’t tell me it is because you have heard the same thing I… I just heard.”
I said nothing but lowered my gaze, letting the tears stream down freely.
Mum grabbed my shoulders.
“Lisa… Tell me it’s a lie! Tell me this man called Sandro didn’t tell you who your father’s murderer is and prove it to you. Tell me he lied! Tell me Mr. Devine is not your father’s killer!” Mum demanded to know but I just slipped onto my knees.
A second later, mum slipped to her knees too, crying quietly. She pulled me into her embrace and held me tightly.
“Lisa”
“Mum”
We both hugged each other and remained that way, with I sobbing loudly.
“That bastard. I am going to go confront him! I am going to go ask him why in the world he did that!”