[GIOSEFFO]
I let all the emotions that had been pent up inside me flow out. I allowed them to release from me.
I took a deep breath when I realized I had finished wallowing, and it was time to act. ‘The battle is not over, Gio. It won’t end here. You need to find Millie, and there are people you need to hold accountable. Get your act together. They won’t bring you down like this.’ I thought to myself.
I picked up my phone and immediately made a call. Less than two rings, and she answered.
“Hello,” she greeted me.
I got up and began to prepare. I was getting ready to search for Millie once more.
“Are you in New York? I need to talk to you. I have something for you.”
After that brief conversation, I ended the call and left the house.
I continued my search. Days turned into weeks, and now it’s been four months with no news.
Dad allowed me to focus on finding Millie, especially when he noticed that I wasn’t working and our company had problems because I couldn’t give it my attention. He became even more determined to keep me from working.
“Do you think Ma’am Millie might be dead?”
I quickly confronted the person who spoke and grabbed his collar. My eyes blazed due to his inappropriate comment.
“You say that one more time, and I will kill you!” I snapped at him, then abruptly left the scene.
“Sir!”
David hurried over to me. We had just returned from searching for Millie when the young man blurted some nonsense.
“You need to see this,” David said to me and promptly handed me something.
I took it, and it was a few photographs. I immediately examined them, and my entire system trembled when I saw who was in the pictures.
It was her! I couldn’t be mistaken. It was Millie!
“She’s in Grand Marais, Minnesota now, Sir. It’s quite far from here, so it’s strange how she ended up there, but I’m certain that it’s Ma’am Millie, Sir.”
“Who sent these?” I asked David.
David just looked at me as though he had conveyed a message to me.
I quickly understood and nodded at him.
I didn’t waste any time. I prepared everything necessary to get us to the town of Minnesota.
I couldn’t help but wonder how Millie had made it to Minnesota, given its remote location. I shook my head. For now, it didn’t matter. What was important was that Millie was safe and alive.
We reached Minnesota, and I used a chopper for quick transportation because I couldn’t wait for hours to see Millie. We already had some personnel on the ground when we arrived. They pointed us in the direction where I might find my wife.
“Wow, Kevin’s intelligence was impressive.”
I stopped in my tracks when I heard a familiar voice and a soft laugh coming from a woman. I gazed in the distance and saw her – the woman I had been searching for months.
I tried to step closer to her. I wanted to run towards her. Even if Millie pushed me away, I wanted to get closer to her. But no matter how much I wished, it seemed like I couldn’t feel my legs. They were like glued to the ground, immovable.
Once again, I was overwhelmed with a multitude of emotions – both negative and positive. I didn’t want this, but I also understood why my emotions were running wild… because at last, I had seen her again.
A lump formed in my throat as I gazed at her. She looked so happy. She was smiling as she interacted with the children, and it was clear that they were also happy to talk to her.
My heart was pounding in my chest, and there was only one word among the many I wanted to say right now.
“Millie…”
~***~
“That’s because Teacher Tasha is always excellent at teaching! And… she’s really beautiful too!” The boy’s comment made the woman laugh again. They were in a small area of an empty lot, covered only by a roof to shield them from the light rain and sun. It seemed to serve as a makeshift classroom for the kids.
“You’re such a charmer, Kevin!” the woman said with a laugh.
They resumed their class while I remained mesmerized by her. One of the kids noticed our presence and pointed at us.
“Teacher, we have a visitor!” the child said.
Millie immediately looked in our direction, and my whole being jolted as our eyes met. I felt the same impact as the first time I saw her.
She just stared at me. I wanted to be happy, but her eyes held a different gaze, as if she didn’t know me or recognize me, as if I had never been a part of her life.
That scene was enough to cut me in half. I had told myself that I would accept any punishment for what I had done to Millie, but I wasn’t prepared for this.
She smiled, but her eyes conveyed something entirely different from her smile.
She glanced briefly at her students. “Kids, let’s take an early break today. It seems I have something to attend to.”
The students gathered their belongings and left, leaving only Millie and me.
“Millie-”
I didn’t get to finish calling her before she swiftly attacked me.
She side-kicked me, but I managed to evade her move. Her assault didn’t end there. She reached into her thigh holster and drew a knife, launching another attack, trying to get me.
I dodged every move Millie made, but my mind was in turmoil, trying to understand why she was doing this.
There was no one else around, so maybe she thought she could get away with killing someone today without any witnesses.
Elliott tried to intervene and stop Millie, but I stopped him.
“Don’t interfere,” I ordered.
“But, Sir, it looks like Ma’am wants to kill you-”
Millie quickly advanced towards me. She assumed a basic karate stance, which I quickly read and dodged. Eventually, when she realized her attacks were not working on me, she resorted to using her knife again.
I pushed Millie away from me. I didn’t want to harm her if I could help it.
“Gio Locatelli.”
My hair stood on end when she mentioned my name in that manner.
It felt like she said my name to confirm to herself that it was indeed me and no one else. But I wasn’t happy about it. There was something in the way she said my name that I couldn’t explain.
She attacked me again. This time, I actively defended myself against every move she made, choosing defense over retaliation.