3 hours later
Home
Mia's POV
As the car halted in front of the house my eyes began to water. I looked away focusing on the ground, I didn't want to even look at it. All the memories that were made here, they were going to be shattered in a few minutes and would mean nothing.
Slowly I exited the car when the door was opened for me, wrapping the coat tighter around me as if it was going to protect me from having my heart ripped out.
I watched Alex and Declan drag Gregory and Irena through the doors, knowing where they were headed and knowing that soon I would me joining them. Will he take me down himself to leave me there? Who would he have take me down? Will I get to say goodbye to anyone or do they all already think I'm dead? Oh God, Axel's going to lose Rose. He'll need to let me explain this to her, or he'll lose Axel too. I'll beg him if I have to. I want to say goodbye to my babies tonight for the last time, give them a final kiss. He wouldn't deny that would he?
Deacon's POV
I watched Mia as she exited her car. She stared at our home with loss. Straight into the bedroom and talk.
My steps were heavy as I approached her, "We're going to the room, I think there's something that needs to be taken care of am I right?"
Her eyes met mine, tears welled in them as she shrank away from me. "I suppose there is."
I led the way ahead of her slightly, as I entered the house our men stared at me awaiting news. I held my hand up telling them not to come forward or to talk before Mia walked in.
When she entered you could feel the change in the atmosphere. It wasn't joyful, every single one of them looked sickened and furious at her state.
Mia looked at the floor as she passed by them, never sparing a glance. What I noticed was that she was shaking and trembling.
"Is she afraid of us?" I heard someone whisper.
"No, of course not." Another answered back quietly. "She can't be afraid of us now, can she?"
My eyes glanced over the crowd of men who had been working tirelessly day and night to find her. Their hopes had been smashed as soon as they laid eyes on her. I looked at them with the same look as they looked at her with, acknowledging their concerns.
Many of their wives had come to welcome Mia home as well. She had become close to many of them and even they were disheartened at her state of being.
Though Eric's wife Trisha was the most visibly distraught upon seeing her.
"Mia..." She whispered as she approached her slowly with her arms extended to her. "My dear come here."
When Mia flinched away from even her everyone in the room knew what I already knew. Something was desperately wrong with her.
"Mia, it's me honey, it's Trisha." She cooed to her.
For a split-second Mia met her stare and stopped. I prayed for something, anything to happen. But my prayers fell on silent ears as she looked away from her, heading straight up the stairs slowly.
"Deacon, what's wrong with her?"
"We don't know." I answered sadly. "That's what I'm going to try and find out now. If I need you, I'll call."
"Thank goodness Rose isn't down here." She whispered.
When I reached our bedroom door Mia was just standing outside staring at the floor with the most forlorn look resting on her face. I stood still for a moment watching her, waiting for any sign of my girl.
I opened the door and stepped aside allowing her to enter first. After stepping in and shutting the door behind us I took a step towards her slowly. "Mia..."
I was cut off by her hand coming up to silence me as I would with my men. "Just tell me how long I have and what is mine or not. Most importantly for me though will you still allow me to see my babies? Or if that's not how this is going to work, at least let me say goodbye to them."
We were both silent, her waiting for an answer and myself trying to make sense out of the words that just came from her mouth.
"What?" Was all I could manage to let slip past my lips.
"How long do I have and what is mine or not Deacon? And will you still let me see my babies? Or tell me what's going to happen to me."
I stood in utter shock as she repeated what she had said again. "What are you talking about baby? How long for what? What wouldn't be yours? And why in god's name wouldn't I let you see our babies?"
Her shoulders began to heave harshly as I heard her sobs. When she collapsed onto her knees, I couldn't even move. "Please don't patronize me." She sobbed loudly. "I can't take anymore, especially not from you. I know what happened between us on the plane wasn't a loving reunion was it Deacon?"
My mind raced for an explanation to what she was asking me. My body was frozen in place as my entire world collapsed around me in that moment. She wants to leave? But then why would she be asking these questions? "M...M...Mia." I managed to stutter out as I gasped to control my breathing. I stumbled backwards using the door to hold myself up. My hands covered my face as I tried to will myself to ask the question that was waiting to come out.
All I was capable of doing was stand there using the door to hold myself up as every blissful moment we had disappeared, as all our plans went up in flames before me. All I saw was my entire reason for living on her knees in front of me falling apart. Those sons of bitches, they didn't break her physically, they broke her mentally. Had Gregory been able to do to Mia what he had done to my sister? Had he turned her against us too? Or had he just made her believe such horrible things?
I inhaled a large breath as I stood straight up again, and slowly made my way towards her. Kneeling in front of her, I lifted her chin up to look at me. If I was losing her, I wanted to see her beautiful eyes one more time at least.
"Mia...are you leaving me? Are you not in love with me anymore?"
"I could never stop loving you Deacon. You, Teodoro and Alessia are my world. Your family is the only family I've ever known, I don't want to lose any of you. I don't want to leave, but...I know I'm not wanted here anymore either." Her voice broke as she finished.
Mia's POV
He just stared at me, like he didn't understand what I was saying to him. "Baby, why wouldn't we want you here with us?"
"I heard what that man said Deacon. I know you did too. It's the truth, isn't it?"
"What man? What did someone say?"
"Don't make me say it please, it'll just reinforce the truth of the situation."
"Mia, I don't understand what you're talking about?"
"When Gregory did what he did." She started to cry uncontrollably again. "What the man before him said. That no one would want me home again after they did that."
Deacon's POV
Immediately I replayed in my head the statement she was talking about. "Knowing how much you Italians love us so much, I would be immensely open to the idea of keeping her for myself, since once we pass her around defiling her no one there will want her to be brought home again anyways."
I sat my entire body on the floor, and pulled her onto my awaiting lap. "Oh Mia. Oh god baby. No." I pulled her impossibly tighter against me. "You thought we wouldn't want you with us?" It was then I understood what she meant about the plane as well. "And you thought that when we made love on the plane home, it was a goodbye?"
"That's what it was though wasn't it? Us being able to be together one more time, being able to share one more moment of love before we got back here?" She sobbed wildly. "What's going to happen to me now? Where am I going to go?" Her eyes closed tightly trying to stop the tears. "Deacon...if I'm not good enough for you anymore then who's ever going to love me?" She questioned leaning her head into to my shoulder. "I don't want to leave, you're the only person who ever loved me Deacon. Please, I'm begging you don't make me leave. I'll do anything you want me to."
Tightening my arms around her shoulders I just held her. "Mia, look at me baby."
"I can't, because I know what you're going to tell me."
Carefully I managed to get to my feet, carrying her in my arms to the bed. I laid her down gently on the comforter. As I stood back up, slipping my leather jacket off and covering her up with it. "You need to rest Mia. I'll be here waiting when you wake up okay?"
"You swear?"
"On my life." Leaning down I placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "I'm going to be right down the hall in my office, if you need me or you need anything at all you call me and I'll be right here. Deal?"
She nodded her head silently, sniffling and hiccupping as her body settled into our bed. "When can I see Teo and Alessia?"
"Tomorrow morning love. It'll be one of the first things we do when after you've gotten some rest."
"Okay."
Slowly I walked to the door, opening it. I turned to look at her one more time. It'll take time to get her to believe me, but I'd never let her go.
"Sei il mio unico e solo diacono." Her soft small voice called softly behind me. (You're my one and only Deacon.)
"Sei il mio cuore, Tesoro." I replied.
(You are my heart, treasure)
Slowly I walked down the hallway to my office. As I entered, I found Alex, Axel, Eric, Trisha, Dimitri and my father waiting for me quietly, their attention immediately fixated on me as I headed across the room.
Once I was seated behind my desk, I looked around the group of them. "Alex, go get Cassie and Axel, you go get Rose. If there's anyone else that any of you think should be in here go get them. We have some business to discuss."
In less than ten minutes a crowd if at least thirty people had gathered peacefully in my office waiting for me to speak.
Trisha looked at me before she spoke up, "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop on you two, but I could hear Mia sobbing in the hall. I couldn't hear what you were both saying. Deacon, she sounded heartbroken. Is she going to be, okay?"
Sighing I looked around the group again. "Okay. As most of you have figured out already with the events of today Mia has been brought back home, thanks to the help of Dimitri." I nodded in his direction. "So, to start, I'm making it known here and now to all of you Dimitri is my personal guest along with his son. I suggest that, that information is passed along quickly. If I hear or see one person starting trouble for him here it will not be taken lightly. If it wasn't for him there's a very large possibility that we wouldn't have gotten her back at all.
For those of you who did not recognize the two people that were drug through here, they were Gregory Vazclav and Irena Vazclav. If any of you noticed any similarities between Irena and myself, Alex or our father there is a reason for that. Unfortunately, Irena is our sister. She is married to Gregory and was heavily involved with this whole plan Gregory orchestrated with Mia's abduction. There will be no mercy shown to her what so ever. She made her choice and chose her side in this now she must lay in the bed that she made along with her husband. Also, on the topic of Irena. Under absolutely no circumstances is she to know that Dimitri's son is here. She is his mother, but her choice was to send him away and forget his existence. No information is to be shared with her about the child. To answer the question that I'm sure that most of you are thinking, yes, that makes him our nephew and our father's grandson. This makes no difference either when it comes to her.
Dimitri will be residing here until it is safe for him and his son to live on their own, regardless of how long that may or may not be.
Eric and Trisha, I would very much appreciate if you would accompany Dimi tomorrow and help him get anything he will need for his son.
And Dimi, I give you my word they are trustworthy people. They have helped myself and Mia so much with the twins. I know that you are both in good hands with them. If you have any questions or concerns, they'll help you through.
He will be taking the empty room across from the nursery, no questions asked.
His son's name is Christoph. He is barely older than the twins. He too will be treated with no disrespect by anyone in this household. No one wants to bare the punishment for the disregard of this child. He is innocent in all ways. Christoph will be sharing the nursery with Teodoro and Alessia, the room has more than enough extra space for him. I'm going to leave getting his things settled into the room to you Trisha. You did a wonderful job helping us when we set it up for the twins. Work your magic. I'll give you my card in the morning before you leave, nothing is too much.
Any questions so far?"
I took a few moments to glance around the room as I collected my thoughts for the next part of this meeting. Rose and Cassie met my gaze immediately. "Ask."
Rose and Cassie were definitely two different types of people. Cassie, my brother's wife she was a firecracker to say the least. Not shy and had absolutely no fear of telling either Alex or myself when we were in the wrong.
Rose, Axel's fiancé however was quiet from the moment we were introduced. Mia had protected her in a horrible situation, which led to the relationship between her and Axel. However strange as I may find it, they're happy together that's all that matters at the end of the day.
So, you can imagine my shock when it wasn't Cassie's voice I heard above the group, but Rose's. "Why isn't Mia here Deacon? If she's back, shouldn't she be included? It's not like her to miss something this important."
I think I may have even seen Axel's eyes almost pop out of his head at the forceful tone in her voice.
It made me laugh slightly, Mia had finally started to rub off on her. Now we were all going to be in trouble. "You're not wrong Rose, and I will be getting to that all momentarily." Taking a calming breath, I nodded my head. "So...onto the subject that we're all here for our Queen, Mia.
I am sure that most if not all of you were in the entryway when we arrived home. Those of you who saw Mia, you could clearly see she is not herself right now. For those of you that were there and saw her first hand do you have any questions that I can try to answer for you before I continue?"
A younger man stepped forward, I recognized him. His name was Nicco, Mia had saved him from being murdered while we were in the middle of a job one night.
He's been here ever since.
"Nicco?" I questioned.
He fumbled nervously with his fingers for a moment. This was first time he and I ever actually had any interaction, usually it was ways between him and Mia.
"No need to be nervous Nicco. Take a breath and ask your question." My voice coming out gentler than I expected.
"Is Mia afraid of us now, she looked terrified when she walked through the door earlier." He stopped briefly before continuing. "I know what it feels like to be scared of the people around here first hand. If she needs help trusting us again, I want to help. I owe her that."
"Thank you Nicco, and to answer your question as best I can. No, it wasn't us in general she was scared of. I will let you know...actually I think I have an idea. You've done well with your training I've been informed. So, you are going to be added to Mia's personal security. But she was and still is terrified when it comes to a certain topic." Trying to keep myself calm was harder by the second. I wanted to walk into that pit and skin Gregory alive for tearing the joy out of Mia's eyes, but I couldn't think about that just yet. "Now onto the hard details. To start with, to say Mia is not well mentally or physically is an understatement. So, we are all going to have a tread lightly for a while until she starts to come around. Since up until yesterday we had no contact with her, we're not sure what had happened. I can attest that when we were first able to see her before Dimitri got involved, she didn't seem as though she'd been hurt bad physically, but I can verify that they had been working on her mentally the entire time. I'm almost ninety percent sure that until Gregory's now deceased right hand man used the video feed, she had not been physically assaulted either. However, there is a possibility that between the physical damage however mild it may be, could have affected the injury to her voice box. I need anyone who is close to her to listen intently when she speaks. I need to be immediately informed if you hear her voice going in and out, breaking or if you see her massaging that part of her throat so that she can be taken to the doctor to have it checked out.
Mia's mental state is not well right now. There was an altercation in which Gregory physically hurt Mia, while Irena made sure that I was front and center with a video call. She was severely beaten, if that wasn't enough, she received three bullets for her faith in us. Those of you who are closest to her should be made aware that Mia will be scarred physically. Gregory removed a piece of a tattoo that had my name on it, he also cut words into her stomach. If you see any of these, please do not draw attention to them."
Trisha, Rose and Cassie all covered their mouths in horror. Understanding exactly what I wasn't telling everyone. Although Cassie and Trisha were able to somewhat compartmentalize the horrid nature of what had happened. Rose, wasn't able too. I looked to her when I heard her gasping to breathe steadily. She just kept shaking her head no as she stared at me. Axel pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly as he tried to calm her emotions. I watched them briefly as Rose whispered something into his ear and he nodded in response. This caused an even more illicit expression of emotions to pour out of her as she shook violently in realization of what happened to Mia.