Lucia's POV:
As we returned back to the house, watching our back as we were still on edge from being followed and shot at mercilessly, I rushed out, parking it within a less than decent distance to the other cars.
Speed walking towards the large door with Santo on my heels I immediately headed straight towards his office where I knew the supposed letter would more than likely be.
Not bothering to take the lavish elevator, I raced up the stairs as Santo got stopped by Luca but shook him off as he began following me up.
I turned the corner and my speed picked up as I basically jogged towards the closed door. But, as I went to swing the door open the handle was ripped out of my hands from the force of my pull and the door stood completely still.
Tugging forcefully at the wooden door it didn't seem to budge at all, yet I continued trying.
"Have you never seen a locked door before?" Santo shouted incredulously, still from all the way across the hall.
I stopped pulling.
"Could you hurry up," I asked back, my anxiety taking full control of my emotions as my hands began to shake and my palms became slightly clammy.
"Calm down, we have all day," he said. "It really doesn't call for this."
As he neared closer to me I responded, "Yeah, that's what you think," but in such a meek tone that I doubted he could even hear me.
Brushing past me he reached over my head to get the key from the top of the doors frame as I glared at him.
"Could you not have told me that as I was almost ripping the handle off the door?"
"And let you into my office unsupervised?" He said unlocking the door and stepping in. "No chance." I rolled my eyes.
As he rounded his unnecessarily large desk he used yet another key to unlock a drawer in his desk. Bringing out the letter, the dark red coloured wax along with the familiar insignia embedded into it invoked a deep set harrowing feeling inside of my chest.
When we were both seated in the opposite sides of his desk, the softness of the dark leather did near to nothing to calm my nerves.
Santo slid the opened letter across the desk towards me as I stared at it blankly.
"Are you going to just stare at it all day or take it?" I gulped.
Extending my shaky hands towards the envelope, he gave me a weird expression as a slowly but surely brought it towards myself, mentally preparing for the torment this letter will most likely bring me.
After unfolding the letter my eyes widened from what was inside.
To my darling daughter Lucia,
It has been too long since we have spoken, so if you would please consider staying with me and your new stepfather in our home instead of continuing with those retched puppy fights you do that most likely do not earn you any money.
Love from your mother, Ivory.
'Stepfather? No. Not him. Please no.' I thought.
My eyes widened as I dropped it back on top of the desk while Santo stared at me in confusion.
I could feel the familiar feeling beginning at the tips of each of my fingers, a numbing sensation that I knew would spread across my skin like wild fire as goosebumps spread along side them.
I stood up from my chair with unnecessary force as I began to walk to the door.
But every breath I took began to shallow into sharp and deliberate gasps for air as my lungs felt as though they were threatening to collapse while my heart and mind raced against time- time that never stopped and kept ticking away.
The groggy sound of a clock took over my senses as I slid down a wall to the hard ground. My hands covering my ears as I hyperventilated, not in control of any part of my body.
I was grounded out of my frantic state when I was grabbed by my arms and pulled against a heard chest, their heart beating fast.
"Lucia, just listen to my heart," they said holding the back of my head.
"I want you to look for 5 things you can see, okay?" They asked as I nodded weakly.
"Gerald's pot, buttons on your shirt, books, a computer and a tree," I responded shakily.
"Now 4 things you can touch."
"The rug, my shirt, my rings, my hair," I said as my heart began to beat just a little slower.
"3 things you can hear."
"Your heart, your voice, my voice."
He slightly chuckled. "Tell me 2 things you can smell."
"Perfume and mint." I said as my chest stopped constricting even tighter.
"Last thing. Tell me your favourite taste."
"Vanilla," I responded.
"Good girl." They said as I began to move away but a knock formed at the door causing me to jolt slightly back into their chest.
"Don it's Luca and Nova. She's been pestering me about wanting to see how Lucy's doing." A deep voice announced.
As I am let go, I could feel streaks of water forming down my face. When I went to wipe them with the side of my sleeve, who I then knew was Santo wiped them with the side of his thumb staring at me in confusion as I averted my eyes to anywhere but him.
He lifted my chin forcing me to look up at him with puffy eyes and searched around my face for what felt like hours but was probably only a few seconds before the door knocked again.
"Santo?" Who I'm assuming was Luca said.
"Come in," he responded dropping my face seemingly found what he was looking for.
As I looked toward the opening door I immediately caught Nova's eye as she hurled herself towards me in a huge hug after surveying my face for a few seconds.
"What did you do?" She glared attempting to look threatening towards Santo. "I swear if I found out you have done something to her, she won't be the only one with tear streaks down her face."
"You would do well to remember who you're talking to." Santo responded harshly as she continued glaring at him.
Before anything more could happen I stepped in and grabbed Nova's arm while pulling away from the hug.
"He didn't do anything." I said to her.
She narrowed her eyes, not believing me.
"I swear" I reassured her pulling her back into a short hug then pulling away completely.
"So what did happen then?" She asked as I froze for a moment.
Seeing my hesitation Santo answered, "When she read the letter from her mother I gave her she had a panic attack."
"Your mother?," she gasped, eyes wide with disbelief.
I nodded, "And she's married now."
"To him?" Her eyes widened even more as I nodded "You poor thing!" She said pulling me into yet another hug again.
"Wait hold on, I'm confused here. Who is 'him' and why do you guys seem so shaken?" Luca asked the both of us.
After some more hesitation on my side I finally gave in. "I think Marco should be here if I'm going to explain this," I said this directed to Santo while faintly seeing a small wet spot on the middle of his shirt.
"Luca go and fetch Marco," he directed.
"On it," Luca responded.
"That bitch!" Nova said to me. "I can't believe she would do something like that," she exclaimed as I sucked in a breath while lightly squeezing her hand.
It took about 3 minutes of awkward silence apart from the not so silent fuming of Nova, until Marco and Luca had finally joined us.
I lead them over to the large brown couches in the middle of the room and sit down, leading them to also join me. But Santo being Santo had to sit away from the group on the armchair by himself, obviously by choice.
I started with a deep breath as they all stared at me.
"So when I was younger I had a father, a mother and a brother." My voice broke when I mentioned my brother.
"My mother and my father were so happy together, my brother was my best friend and Jayden was his. When we grew up we all stared to notice weird things about my father. The way he taught us how to shoot a gun when we were only 5, how we were never allowed into this one room in the house, how he was always gone for weeks at a time and didn't tell anyone but my mother. God, the amount of birthdays and holidays he missed." I suck in a breath.
"It never added up until one time he didn't come back for about two months. My brother, Jayden and I were all concerned so we decided to sneak into that one room. There were so many weapons and guns and ammunition that it could arm a small army. We were only kids so we were scared and just left it." Looking around I was amazed that they had all stayed quiet the entire time.
"Fast forward to 2 years ago, the day we went into that room had completely been forgotten by all of us but we always thought he knew about it since when he came back from those two months he was never the same. He would snap so easily over the smallest things, if there was a spec of dirt on the rug, if a light switch was left on with no one in the room, we thought he was angry at us for it."
"But 2 years ago, my father had left like he usually did and the next day there was a knock on the door in the morning and I opened it. I thought he came back early. But there were four men, one older in the middle and three younger. As soon as I opened the door they barged into the house and one of the younger men held me down with a hand over my mouth to stop me from waking up my brother and mother."
"When the other men had gotten them from their beds we were all kicking and screaming, but the neighbours didn't hear, when they threw us into a grimy van and drove us for god knows how long all the way across the country. We had been locked into a 10 x 5 foot cage, all three of us and chained to the wall with manacles that were adorned with spikes. We were in there for a week before anyone came to see us."
"After the week, the old man came to us. He said all of these things about my father being a contract killer and killing multiple people. We didn't believe it at first until he brought my father to us all beaten and bloody. He confessed to it all and he said the older man's father had been a part of those he had killed for money and it was why we were all there."
"Over time my mother earned his trust doing god know what for him and to him and got herself her own room in the house that was above. Leaving us to rot in the basement being tortured day in and day out for information on what we knew of our fathers business. By the time that happened it was a year later and we were all so weak but we had made a plan to get out of there. My dad would make a distraction while my brother picked the locks from the basement door leading to the house. Needless to say it didn't work." They we're all completely engrossed in the story not taking their eyes off me for a second, I was fully convinced Marco hadn't blinked in 10 minutes.
"My father had made a distraction but in doing that he got himself killed. With the time it took us to pick the lock the guards had caught up to us and began opening fire but my brother had pushed me out of the way into the house, taking all the bullets himself and told me to run, sacrificing his life for me."
"As much as it pained me to do I knew I wasn't getting out of there if I didn't, so I said I loved him and told him goodbye and then I ran. But when I reached the open front door I could see my mother and the older man in the living room making out. I caught the eyes of my mother and the man, he was going to take me back to the cell but my mother put an arm around his arm and whispered something in his ear that let him give me a chance to leave. The older man who had tortured me so many times for that year is who my mother has married. My new stepfather." I ended with a sigh as they all sat there completely in shock.