Nicole broke down into tears, slumping on the floor with her body shaking vigorously. She never believed events would turn out this way. It was just a simple dinner. Everybody was meant to eat, relax and get to know each other more. She hoped Armani would like her the way Aurora did but now everything was ruined.
Armani hates her for no reason. And now Raphael was being led away for his punishment as a result of the brawl he got into with Dante. Dante was such a pain in the ass. How could he say those things to his own brother? His own blood.
How could he wish his own brother dead?
The more Nicole thought of it, the more tears streamed down her cheeks and flooded her vision.
Aurora and Sofia quickly went over to Nicole, trying to get her to stand up.
“Child please do you want to cry yourself to death?”Aurora softly asked as she held Nicole’s hand.
“W-what will he-he d-do to Raphael please? H-h-he won’t hurt him wi-will he?”Nicole stammered in tears.
Aurora had a sorry, sad look on her face for Nicole and tore her face away from Nicole’s burning stare. She knew Armani well enough and how he exerted his own punishments. She knew he would definitely do something painful to Raphael.
Sofia crouched down to Nicole and pulled her in for a hug, letting her cry on her shoulders.
“Nicole..”Thomas called out, walking over to her.
Nicole let go of Sofia and immedately stood up to face him, her eyes reddened.
“Please stop crying ok. Raph will be fine”He gently reassured the poor woman.
Nicole shook her head as Leila rolled her eyes at her.
“Dramatic bitch” Leila thought to herself.
“I want to see Raphael”Nicole immediately said before trying to shuffle her way upstairs.
“Where are you going!?”Aurora cried out. She immedately went over to Nicole, blocking her path like a comet.
Nicole’s eyes browsed her facial expression and also that of everybody. They all seemed tensed and scared.
“I want to go to see my husband”Nicole said with a stern resolve washing across her face.
“You can’t. Armani might do something to you”Aurora tried explaining but Nicole shook her head at her.
Leila then cleared her throat and strutted towards Nicole. “Let her go see him. It’s her fault he’s getting punished so let her go see him”Leila resentfuly scoffed at Nicole who could feel herself getting teary once more.
“It’s not her fault Leila”Marco objected.
Nicole’s eyes whipped towards his and gave him a faint smile. He smiled back and nodded his head at her.
“Marco is right. It’s not Nicole’s fault that Armani is such a hard man to deal with”Luca added.
“Mind how you talk about the godfather”Leila sharply warned with her index finger pointing at him.
“Oh please. He is the godfather yes and I respect him too yes. But still why is he so hard on Nicole? Has he met her before?”Luca replied with a roll of his eyes.
Nicole didn’t want another argument to heat up because of her. She already felt it was her fault that Raphael will be getting punished and she didn’t want to cause another heated up debate. She was already feeling guilty enough.
“It’s fine Luca. Leila is right. Indirectly I am the cause. I just wish all these never happened…”Nicole stopped herself in her speech as tears streaked down her cheeks.
She wiped her cheeks with the back of her palms before adopting a stern resolve. “I want to see my husband”
“Nicole you can’t be serious. If you go there, you might get…”Thomas worried voice trailed off with Nicole upheaving her hands at him.
Tension and panic was in the air.
Thomas sighed and nodded his head to everybody’s amazement.
“I’ll take you to go meet Raph”he said reluctantly.
“Child you want to go see Raphael?”Aurora shrill voice pierced through the oddly silent atmosphere.
Nicole nodded her head at Aurora. Aurora looked devasted and she held back her tears.
“Thomas lead the way”Nicole silently whispered, her voice hoarse.
Thomas led her upstairs. Side by side they walked through the hallways. Nicole could feel her legs shaking but she controlled her emotions and strode determinedly with Thomas.
She noticed they were heading towards the poorly hit hallway, the one she and Sofia weren’t opportuned to explore much.
She gulped hard and pushed back the torrents of emotions she was experiencing. The hallway was really dark and gothic. It was desolate. The poor fluorescent bulbs were not doing justice to guiding their paths.
“Thomas”
He whipped his face to her and gave her a soft smile. “Yes?”
“Do you know the room Raphael is in?”She asked as her eyes browsed the various doors they passed.
“Yes Nicole. Are you sure you want to see him?”
Why was everyone asking her that?
She wanted to see Raphael. He was her husband. He spoke up on her defence and she wanted to see the sort of punishment his grandfather would give him.
She was about speaking but then she heard a painful groan coming from one of the doors in the far end of the hallway, the noise reverberate through the walls of the hallway.
Nicole let out a gasp immedately and held on to Thomas tightly. “Is that… that Raphael?”she asked fearfully with hesitation.
Thomas calmly placed his hands on hers and squeezed it reassuringly. “Are you sure you still want to see him?”
Nicole was trembling with fear. The more they walked towards the door, the louder the groaning became. She easily deciphered Raphael’s voice from Dante’s.
What was going on in there?
She suddenly felt a gag haul up from her throat but she swallowed hard and nodded her head once more.
Suppressing her fears, she let go of Thomas’ hands and walked towards the door.
On reaching It, she found out it was slightly opened and peered inside.
Nicole used a hand to cover her mouth on seeing what was going on.
Seated and tied up in chairs were Raphael and Dante, their face covered in bruises from their brawl earlier.
Goons surrounded them whilst Armani stood in the centre, lashing out at them in Italian.
Nicole could barely see Raphael’s figure as Armani blocked her view.
Armani then moved aside and her eyes took a cursory glance at Raphael. Her eyes then trailed to his shoulder. She noticed that part of his shirt was crimson red.
That was a heavy amount of blood.
When he fought with Dante, there wasn’t much blood.
“Raphael you are just following the footsteps of your stupid mother!”Armani thundered.
Raphael groaned more and hissed in pain.
Nicole felt her eyes being choked up with tears as she watched Raphael bleed from his shoulders.
“Going to marry that stupid foreigner and fighting with your brother over that thing!”
“She is not a thing! She is my wife. And she will always be my wife. I don’t mind dying for her”Raphael retorted back with matched fury.
Nicole pressed her lips in to suppress her urge to cry out. Even in his state he was still defending her.
“To think you would have settled down with Leila after everything she did for you”Armani spoke with his tongue in cheek.
Dante let out a painful laugh and coughed up blood. His shoulder was also bleeding badly.
“How did they end up being this bruised up? They weren’t bleeding this much so how?”
Her eyes then whapped to a shiny object on the floor. She squinted her eyes to get a good view of it and her breathing hitched once she noticed what it was.
It was a small knife with blood trailing down its sharp edge.
Nicole gasped once more as she figured out Armani must have used it on Raphael and Dante.
“What sort of a man is this? Who punishes his own blood this way!?”
“I only love Nicole. You don’t control my life!”
Armani angrily picked the knife from the ground to Nicole’s horror and was about to use it on Raphael when Nicole screamed out in fear.
“Stop please!”she cried out as she roughly pushed the door open.
Thomas eyes widened. He didn’t know Nicole would actually want to enter inside.
Raphael became perturbed on seeing her, surprise making him short of words.
Armani stared at the horror-stricken woman who had tears flowing down her cheeks like a river.
Nicole clasped her hands together and crumbled beneath Armani’s feet.
“Please don’t hurt Raphael. I can’t stand to see him hurt. He is bleeding. Please”
Armani pushed her away with his feet causing Nicole to fall back.
“Nicole..”Raphael called out immedately.
Nicole winced and Thomas quickly came by her aid, lending her a helping hand to her feet.
“You brought her here!”Armani’s resentful tone spat at Thomas.
“She wanted to see Raphael”Thomas calmly replied.
Armani huffed and his gaze narrowed to Nicole who quivered under his baleful stare.
“Very soon you will leave this mansion and this family”he spat, his tone barely above a whisper.
Nicole cried more.
“Untie them”Armani ordered to his goons.
Once untied, Nicole and Thomas immedately went over to Raphael whilst Dante limped out of the room with Armani and his thugs.
“Raph… I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m truly sorry. You shouldn’t have gotten into a fight…” Nicole immedately began rambling, her breathing unsteady.
“Bella I’ll fight for you again and again because you are my life”Raphael interrupted her. His uninjured arm caressed her tear stained cheeks.
“Capo we need to get you bandaged up”Thomas cut in. Nicole nodded her head in agreement and they helped Raphael to his feet.
“I can walk. I’m not a toddler. My shoulder is the one injured not my legs”Raphael sighed out.
“Shush Raph. I’ll take you to our room and Thomas please bring a first aid box. There should be one here”
Thomas nodded in affirmation and walked ahead of them.
Raphael chuckled as they walked through the hall way.
“I didn’t know you will get this worried seeing me bleed. I guess I should be bleeding everyday”Raphael teased.
Nicole gave him a hard glare which got him to laugh more.
“I was so worried about you. I was so scared too. Raphael you shouldn’t have fought for me…”Nicole began as they made their way towards their room.
Raphael listened to his wife talk. He was truly amazed by her boldness in stopping his grandfather when he was about cutting him again.
Armani had the weirdest methods of inflicting punishment to people even to his own blood.
This was something his father would not have even done for him but Nicole stood up for him and stopped Armani.
“I love you so much Nicole”