Ann’s POV
Ryan has weird sunglasses on, as though he is disguising himself to be someone else.
I wave at him from where I am seated, and he moves closer, scanning the environment carefully before sitting opposite me.
His recent calls made me curious to know what he wanted from me. When I picked, he told me we needed to meet because he had something important to discuss.
I just remembered when he called this morning while Vince was in the room. I didn’t want to pick up the call in his presence, so I ignored the call and texted Ryan to meet with me here after taking a quick bath.
“What is this about, Ryan?” I ask impatiently. I hope this is important and worth my time.
He takes off his sunglasses and stares at me for a moment before asking. “Did you come with anyone?”
I furrow my brows. “Why?”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “I just want to know if it’s safe…” he trails off, watching me again. “Is your husband here?”
It takes a while for that to process. My husband, Vince.
Who would have thought months after Ryan proposed to me, I would be seated here in front of him, married to another man, watching him ask me about my husband while he is also married to another woman?
“No, why would he be here? What’s happening?”
He leans down, but I see the fear in his eyes. He is scared of Vince. “He picked up your call last night. I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important, Ann.”
He tries to touch my hand, but I move them away quickly, my face is a frown. “Vince picked my call?”
“Yes. He told me you were asleep and warned me never to call you again. I’m so sorry if this will cause any issue between you two…”
“Ryan,” I interrupt him sharply. “What is this about?”
If he is this scared of Vince, and if this wasn’t important like he said, he wouldn’t dare to call after such a warning from Vince.
I am beginning to feel terror rise in my stomach at the look on his face. I can’t make any effort to guess what this is about because Ryan and I are done, and I never thought we would meet like this again for whatever reason.
“First of all, I am really sorry about what happened between us. It wasn’t in my intention to put an end to our relationship. I haven’t had time to apologize to you properly, so I guess this is it. Forgive me, will you?”
I am too invested in what this is about to think over his apology, so I nod without hesitation.
He sighs again, then glances around the store before facing me squarely.
“Vince does not need to know we met. You can’t tell him about this conversation either,” he warns sternly.
“Why?” I ask quickly, wondering what the hell is happening and why this has to be a secret between us. I didn’t tell Vince I was coming to meet him because I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.
His worried gaze searches my face. “Because he will get the wrong idea. Vince is not the man you think he is.”
“Here we go again!” I hit the table, separating us with my fist before rising. “Vicente is a Mafia, I know that. Vicente kills people who deserve it, I know that. What else do you think I don’t know about him? If this is what this meeting is about, then I think I am done here.”
I stride past him. I can’t be late to the academy because of this jerk.
“Isaac called me,” he suddenly announces, and I halt instantly, dread spiraling through me.
“What?!” I rush back to where I was sitting earlier. “What, Isaac? I mean, who is Isaac?”
Panic coats his voice. “Isaac Rossi. The man you told me about. Your stepfather.”
His hands are trembling. So is mine.
“Wh…why?” I stutter as goosebumps erupt over my skin. “Why? What for?”
“I don’t know. I first heard your mother’s voice before he took the phone from her. I guess they still think we are together.”
My breathing becomes shallow. I don’t know what to think. My head keeps spinning with the thought of Carter, Isaac, and Mother.
“What do they want?” My voice is in a whisper now. I can’t keep control of my emotions and the anxiety I am feeling.
“I don’t know, but he asked me to make you talk to him. I don’t know why, Ann. I’m so sorry, but I had to do this. He vowed to get me if I don’t.”
Understandable. That is one thing he can do.
“Why didn’t you tell them we are no longer together?”
He doesn’t reply.
I am not surprised they know about Ryan. Ryan also knew about my story but never saw any of them.
Carter must have told them all about Ryan. I saw him the night Ryan proposed to me. He was watching with a sly smile on his face. But ever since then, I didn’t see him again, until the night he almost raped me.
He must have been following and watching Ryan and me.
How did they get his contact? Is it Carter, too?
Ryan fished out his phone from his pocket, glancing around again with nervousness. He knows the consequences of his actions. If anyone knows he is in contact with someone like Isaac, that would be the end of his marriage to his sweet princess.
His parents would be doomed too.
But that is the least of my problems. When this gets out, I won’t be spared either. Even though Vicente already knows, others won’t understand. I could be easily mistaken for a spy, just like Vince thought too.
I’ve not been in contact with any of them for years, and now is not the time to contact them.
“Annette, you have to talk to him. He threatened to slit your mother’s throat if you refused and threatened to kill my mother if I don’t do as promised,” Ryan informs me, probably after noticing my hesitation.
My heart is beating so fast. I can’t get my thoughts together. My legs are shaking. My lips are a trembling mess.
Seeing the horror on Ryan’s face is adding to the terror already sinking deep into my system.
He stretches the phone at me, and I give him a scathing glare.
Someone from the other side picks, and my heart stops.
Ryan pushes the phone further to me, but I can’t bring myself to take the phone. Instead, I shut my eyes tightly, wishing this was all but a dream.
“Hello,” Ryan says into the phone. “Yes, she is here with me.”
He drops the phone on the table, nodding at me to pick with a pleading look on his face.
After exhaling several times in a minute, I pick up the phone, glue it to my right ear, and wait for that gruff voice I am familiar with.
“Sweet Annette,” he calls out with a deep chuckle. “Long time no see.”
“What do you want?”
His next chuckle is followed by a piercing scream, which makes another wave of temper shudder through my veins.
My breathing becomes hard when it dawns on me slowly. His victim is my mother.
“Isaac, please.”
“What?!” He barks, cutting me short. “No more stepfather?”
“Isaac, please let her go.”
“Why would I? You left her all these years, so why would you show any concern now?” His words pierce a dagger straight into my heart.
I facepalm myself, forcing back the tears threatening to fall. Why does my past have to keep haunting me? Why does Isaac have to contact me now? What should I do?
“Come back home if you want to see your mother become I slit her throat!” He warns, and anger shoots through me.
“Never!”
“Oh, really?!”
“Yes!”
“I knew that would be your answer.”
“What do you want, Isaac?”
He suddenly goes silent. I look up at Ryan, he is staring at me with pity, so I adjust in my seat, forcing my fear to die down.
All I need to do right now is to let Vince know about this. He is the only one who can help me rescue her. I have dreaded conversing with Vince on this topic but now is the time.
Isaac doesn’t even know I am married. He would not know what would hit him when he eventually finds out who my husband is.
Now is the time to act in my position. I am tempted to force that out, tell him I am no longer his sweet little Annette, who his son molested. I am tempted to tell him who I am and what I represent in the world of the Mafias.
“Speak!” He commands someone in the background.
A shallow breath brushes into the phone before I hear my mother’s familiar voice. “Anne,” she calls, panting.
“Mother?!” I jump to my feet, gripping the attention of bystanders and making Ryan lower his head forward before putting back on his sunglasses.
Now I know what he is really scared of.
Clara. His wife.
He surely is scared of Vicente too, but he is more scared of what would happen if anyone saw us together-anyone who knew him or his wife.
“Carter…” she continues panting, making me wonder what on earth he is doing to her. “Carter is dead. Someone killed him when he came to bring you back home.”
I take a step backward, shock rippling through me at the announcement.
Both at the news of Carter’s death and the realization that he was there that night to take me back home.
“What?!” Air drains from my lungs.