Melina walks into the restaurant with Thomas behind her. They make their way to the cashier to place their order.
“What can I get for you today, ma’am?” the young girl asks.
“I’ll have large fries, two double cheeseburgers, nuggets, popcorn chicken, four wings, and a vanilla milkshake,” Melina says, and the place goes silent. She looks around, puzzled as to why everyone is staring at her like she just ordered food for five people.
“That’s quite a lot you ordered for a small woman like you,” Thomas says, tilting his head to the side. Melina was never a big eater, so it’s understandable he is surprised that her appetite has increased.
“Is that so? I don’t think so,” Melina says, avoiding eye contact with him. She hopes he doesn’t read too much into it.
“Are you sure you can even finish all that you ordered?”
“Yes,” Baby girl is eating for two. I damn straight can.
“Okay, I don’t fucking care if you eat a lot, but I’m just shocked you’re willing to stuff all that food into your body” Thomas is saying this because Melina was picky about what she ate while they were dating. James ensured she never went out of shape. He was afraid that men would lose interest in her and they would lose their only source of income.
“Things have changed.” James doesn’t have a say in her life anymore, so she can now eat as much as she wishes, and her baby needs her to eat more.
“That’s good because I fucking hated how obsessed you were with your body.”
“Me too,” she smiles, happy to have this little control over her life. She can’t remember the last time she had a say over anything. James controlled her life. It’s funny to her how, even though she’s Thomas’ prisoner, she has more say in some aspects of her life than she did with James.
“Anything for you, sir?” the cashier asks.
“Nothing for me,” he says, handing her his credit card.
“All right, your meal will be ready shortly,” she says, handing Thomas back his card.
Once Melina is done eating, they leave and continue driving back to the hotel, or so she thinks. The car comes to a halt in front of a restaurant; Melina’s brows furrow in confusion. I just finished eating, so what are we doing here? Thomas steps out of the car and motions for Melina to follow. The place looks familiar as they walk closer, but Melina can’t recall how she knows it.
“Do you remember this restaurant, Melina,” Thomas asks, standing in front of the restaurant.
“It’s where I ate after we landed in Chicago.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
Thomas walks behind her and places his hands on her shoulders. “Now that you remember, I want you to take a good look at it.” He pushes her head forward compelling her to focus solely on the restaurant.
“Why,” Melina tries turning to face him as she asks, but he forces her to face forward.
“Because this would happen to your sister’s house if she did the same thing Claire did.”
In a blink of an eye, the place catches fire. They are at a reasonable distance from the fire, so the heat doesn’t affect them. Melina stares at the place, watching it burn to the ground. Her heart aches as she sees Claire’s restaurant destroyed because she tried to help her. She didn’t deserve this.
“I wasn’t fucking playing, Melina. You’re mine, and no one is fucking taking you away from me,” Thomas says, walking in front of her. He wipes away the teardrop that falls from her eyes.
“I’m yours,” she says, tears rolling down her face. I’m fucked. Thomas will kill me if he finds me again if I manage to escape.
“Good, now call your sister and cancel those plans you guys fucking made today.” Melina’s eyes widen. How did Thomas find out plans? “Don’t look so surprised. I fucking know everything, Melina. This is what her house would become; if she’s unlucky, I might include her too.”
“Please don’t” Fear grips her hard, knowing Thomas isn’t bluffing.
“Then fucking warn her not to try anything stupid. Here,” Thomas hands his phone to Melina.
Melina quickly dials Franky’s number.
“Hello,” Franky says once she picks up.
“Hello, Franky, it’s Melina.”
“Melina! How are you calling me? Did you change your mind and escape earlier than planned?” Franky must think she escaped and found a phone to call her.
“No,” Melina says, relieved that the phone isn’t on speaker right now. Thomas would have had her head for what her sister just said. “Thomas gave me his phone to call you. He knows about our plan.”
“Oh my God! How did he find out? Is the baby okay?”
“I don’t know, and it’s okay.” Melina intentionally referred to her baby as ‘it,’ so as not to give anything away to Thomas, who stands close to her.
“I assume you called your baby it because Thomas is close by.”
“Yes,”
“So what are we going to do now? Are you still going to risk it now that he knows?”
“Yes, and I’ll go swimming next week instead of in two weeks,” Melina says, hoping Thomas doesn’t ask why she just said that.
“Okay, I hope you’re making the right decision.”
“I am.” Melina says, looking at Claire’s restaurant, which has almost completely burned to the ground. What Thomas did tonight only shows Melina how dangerous it is for her baby to be around him. He set fire to an entire building because Claire called the police on him. She can’t bear the thought of him killing her child. Melina unconsciously wraps her hands around her flat belly.
“Alright, good luck, sis.”
“Take care of yourself, Franky,” Melina says as she hangs up the phone and returns it to Thomas.
Melina looks down at her belly and whispers to it. “Mummy promises to take you far away from daddy and keep you safe. I’m not going to fail again. Even if it’s the last thing I do on this earth, I’ll ensure I bring you into this world and that your father never knows of your existence. That’s my promise to you, little one.” She places a kiss on her fingers and touches her belly. Melina wipes away a teardrop from her eyes and walks to the car. Thomas is a monster, and I need to get away from him as soon as possible.
THOMAS
Thomas looks at Melina as she stuffs her face with food like she has been doing for weeks. He is unconcerned about her eating more than usual, but Thomas finds it strange to see her eat food she dislikes. Even though Thomas wishes he could forget everything about Melina, he’s unable to do so, he still knows her better than she knows herself. Thomas can’t believe Melina is eating pineapple pizza right now because she hates it passionately.
Walking into the living room from the terrace, he approaches Melina by the couch.
“When did you start to like pineapple pizza?” Thomas asks, taking his seat across from Melina. He crosses his legs as he reclines on the couch.
Melina’s hands freeze as she’s about to pick up another slice. She stares at Thomas, looking lost for words.
“I asked you a simple question, Melina. Why are you taking forever to answer?” He narrows his eyes at her.
Melina swallows hard before saying, “Recently.”
“How recent?”
“How recent, you ask” Melina repeats his questions twice to herself and stares at the floor. Thomas frowns, noticing how hard she’s thinking before answering his questions. He wonders why.
“Yes, that’s what I said, Melina.”
Melina wipes tiny droplets of sweat from her forehead. “I don’t know, I just had it one day, and I didn’t want to puke,” she says, smiling.
“Really,” Thomas says, resting his chin on his palm and staring at her.
“Yes.”
Thomas remains silent for a few moments, observing how nervous his questions make Melina. He finds it a little odd. Thomas decides to drop the topic since it’s making her uncomfortable.
“That’s nice, here,” Thomas puts out his phone for Melina. She looks at him, confused. “Serena wishes to speak to you.”
“And you’re giving me your phone so I can talk to her?” Melina’s eyes light up as she asks.
Thomas could tell Melina was as eager to talk to Serena as Serena was to talk to her. Serena hasn’t allowed Thomas to rest these past few days. She’s been calling and pleading to speak with Melina. Thomas doesn’t mind that they are friends, but he doesn’t want Serena to despise him if he ends up doing something horrible to Melina, which is highly likely given their current situation. Serena is like a cousin to him. He doesn’t love her as much as his sisters, but he cares about her. Thomas hoped that since Melina had left Italy, Serena would forget about her. He realized he was wrong once Serena started blowing up his phone, wishing to speak with Melina.
“Yes, let me dial her number for you.” He dials Serena’s number and puts it on speaker.
“Thank you,” Melina says, smiling as she takes the phone from Thomas.
“You’re welcome.” Thomas gets up from the couch and buttons his Armani suit. “I’m going downstairs to have a meeting. Once you’re done, text Leo with the phone so he can collect it for you and bring it downstairs for me.”
Thomas doesn’t trust Melina, but he believes she can’t do anything with the phone. He believes he has instilled enough fear in her that she will not try to make plans with her sister to escape or call James. And if she does, that would work in his favor as he will finally be able to catch the bastard.
“Okay, I will.”
“Ciao,” Serena says, finally picking up.
“Hi, Serena, it’s Melina.”
As both women start to converse, Thomas walks out of their suite. He takes the elevator down to the first floor and walks to the restaurant in the hotel. Thomas is meeting up with his sister, Aurora. She’s in town visiting her boyfriend, a Russian gang leader. Thomas doesn’t fancy Kirill, Aurora’s boyfriend, as he finds him a little fishy. He started dating his sister at the same time the Costanzo family had issues with another Russian gang because of Stefano. Thomas feels Kirill waited until that exact moment to approach Aurora. He hasn’t said anything about it because he only has a hunch about it. Once he can prove that the bastard has an ulterior motive for dating his sister, Thomas plans to put a bullet in his head.