MONALISA
It had been a few days already. Two or three days or maybe four days, I didn’t really know anymore. I was barely living. The only definite sign of my existence was my tears.
I glanced at the meal on the table in the room and just looked away from it. I hadn’t had any food since I have been brought here. I did drink some water to stay alive but I could not stand eating when I had no idea what was going on outside. When I had no idea what state my mum was in right now and when I had no idea if Lucius was alive or… Or dead.
I covered my face with my palm and took in a deep breath. The tears had stopped coming a few hours ago. No matter how much it hurt and no matter how much I was losing my mind, I just could not get the tears to flow.
I suddenly shot up from the bed I was sitting on and rushed to the door of the room.
“Let me out of this place you bitch! Let me out of this place!! I want to see Lucius! Let me out of this hell hole! I hate you! Can you hear me?! I hate you, sucked up bitch!!” I yelled, hitting the door with my foot for a while before hitting with my hands.
I had lost all strength and couldn’t hit the door for long so I soon slid to the floor, tired and miserable.
“I just want to see him” I lowered my head.
“I just want to be sure that he is alive. I just want him to be alive and safe” I cried out, hitting the door once more and then I heard the door click.
I moved away from the door swiftly and a few seconds later, Irene walked into the room. Each time she walked into this room, I found it harder to believe that this was the Irene I had initially met.
“Lisa” she shut the door behind her and locked it up, pushing the keys into her pockets.
“Why… Why are you doing this, Irene? I… I forgive you. I forgive everything you have done to me and I don’t hate you, I swear I don’t…”
That was a lie. I did hate her now. Fuck! I was human and I could hate too, right? I hated her a lot now!
“Just let me go and we… Everything will be fine”
Irene chuckled. A small chuckle that I could not understand.
“I know you don’t love me and you don’t like me anymore and I also do know that the chances of you ever liking me now or in the future is zero. But I still do like you” she looked at me and gave me a small smile.
“Do you know that Sandro is my father?” She asked and I was surprised.
“He… He is your…”
“Yes, that man is my father. I had no idea myself until a few days before his death. Just my biological father though, nothing more cause I never felt like we were family. Never. I was Sandro’s rejected child. Sandro didn’t care about female children and that was why he never claimed me for all of those years, that was why he never showed up for me. To Sandro, I was useless! I was worthless to him! My mum could have been better taken care of if only I came out as a male. But no, I am a female child, useless and disgusting. I asked Sandro why he told me I was his daughter so late. Why he even bothered about it when he could keep it a secret forever and guess what his response was?”
“He said he was telling me because I was finally being of use to him. He expected me to be happy about that, about being useful to him. He promised me some power if I would be really useful to him and guess what my response was? I agreed” she laughed bitterly.
“What exactly do I have in life? Nothing. I don’t have my mum, I don’t have a dad and I don’t even have you so I thought I could do with a bit of power and it does feel a bit good to be able to order a few others around and you know what? I am happy Sandro died. I don’t need him in my life, I never needed him and now that he is gone, I feel I have a bit of a responsibility still. My position in this place would be cemented when Greyson arrives and I would work my entire life to get stronger and more powerful. My life is plain and dull now and I have no other purpose than power.”
I almost felt pity for Irene. Almost. But my anger would not let me feel pity for her.
“If that is all your purpose is, then why… Why did you take me away? You could have left me with Lucius and just go on with your life”
She looked at me like she was surprised that I had nothing to say about her relation with Sandro but she soon shook off the surprised look.
“Why did I take you away? Maybe because I still hate Devine for killing my mum? Or maybe because I wanted him to die, watching the person he loves the most being snatched away from him? Or maybe just because I wanted to take you away? Or maybe because it had been Sandro’s order to kill you but I decided to go against him and keep you alive here?” She shrugged her shoulders with a bitter laugh.
Was I supposed to be grateful that she was keeping me alive here? Here where I felt dead already?
“Whatever reason it was, you are here already and you should survive very well. You haven’t been eating a thing, it’s unhealthy. You are all pale and sick already.”
It was my turn to laugh bitterly.
“Don’t act like you care about me, Irene because the truth is that you don’t. And don’t you ever say that you like me because you also don’t like me. If you did like me, even a bit, you would not keep me here knowing that this is the very last place I want to be right now! So just stick to your own purpose! Getting power!”
She stared at me for a while and sighed.
“Greyson will be back tonight to take over Sandro’s business fully. My position will definitely be below his and I will have to take orders from him.”
“And… And me?” I asked, not understanding what was going to happen to me when this so called Greyson arrived.
“I have defied Sandro’s order by keeping you alive and that’s because Sandro is now dead and can’t punish me for doing that. But listen to me, Lisa…” she moved close to me.
“You should really behave in front of Greyson because if he… If he orders your killing, I won’t be able to save you anymore.”
I threw my head back and laughed. Almost inhumanly. When did she ever save me? When she kidnapped me the first time? Or when she brought me here and left Lucius to die? Whatever Irene’s definition of ‘save’ was, it was very, very wrong.
“I will have the maid come clear this meal and bring you a fresh meal. And you should really eat the meal, for your own sake” she said and then she left.
I shut my eyes tightly, keeping all the raging pains inside.
I touched my stomach and felt my heart shattering. My baby was there and I felt the urgent need to stay alive and healthy for my baby but I could not find the slightest zeal to eat. How could I eat when there was 99 percent chance that Lucius was dead?
Because if he was alive, if my Lucius was alive, he would have come here already and he would have taken me back home. If he was alive, I would be lying by his side right now.
I grabbed the tray of food and threw it at the door. It came falling down and the plates broke into several pieces.
I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and I cried out, grabbing the bottle of water, opening it and gulping down the liquid.
It gave me a little relief and I threw it to the floor, watching the bottle roll down the room.
I felt so miserable, so lost and so pathetic. I could not do anything but wait for something to happen. What would happen, I had no idea yet. Maybe Lucius would turn out to be alive and we would get over all of this and live peacefully in love forever or maybe Lucius was dead already and I would eventually be tortured and killed by this Greyson.