Page 25 of His Wicked Obsession
“I’ll be right back, cara mia, stay with Bria and Mama.” Nodding is all I can do as I watch him retreat to where the cursing and stomping are coming from.
“Bella?” Bria’s voice slowly drags my attention away from the commotion. “Bella, what did you mean?” She stares at me in horror. I think she understands but is fighting it.
“It was him, Bria. It was his voice all along,” I cry, curling into myself and covering my ears with my hands as the two women rub up and down my back or over my hair. A roar of rage makes me curl into as compact of a ball as possible, even though I know it comes from Donato.
He hates the hell I’ve been put through. The way I’ve hidden away, trying to ensure the voices don’t return. I was so skeptical about it coming from a microchip in my earring, believing something was innately wrong with me. Now that I have the proof it wasn’t, I don’t know how to feel.
“How do you know they’re our parents?” I hear Bria ask Evelina.
“A DNA test. We never would have brought them here if we thought they would harm you.” She’s so angry. “They were nervous. I chalked it up to finally learning their children were safe and thriving, being loved by men who would do anything for them. I never imagined…” This is torturing her.
“It’s not your fault,” I finally reassure her, sitting up. I need to be stronger. I need to take back the control that has been spinning out of my hands for most of my life. “You couldn’t have known they were heartless people.”
To learn that the human beings who gave us life, who were supposed to love and protect us forever, are evil breaks me into pieces that feel like they’ll be lost forever. I can’t imagine moving on from that kind of betrayal.
CHAPTER 14
Donato
Death would be too easy.
Prison would be a vacation.
I’m finding there are no options good enough to exact the punishment these two pieces of shit deserve.
“How did you get access to her?” I ask. They’ve been silent for too long. Tied to chairs in the basement of my home while my parents took the twins to theirs, they’ve not said much so far.
“How could you sell them?” Maso asks.
Witnessing my Bella so broken that she couldn’t look me in the eyes has only fueled my rage. My desire to torment them burns stronger with each passing second.
“I come with news!” Lude takes the stairs with measured steps, but he’s not alone. Behind him is Natan, as well as Benito Torres. I raise a brow at seeing him here.
“Benny.” I nod my head at the man. He lets out a fierce growl, hating anyone calling him that except his young stepsister. A woman that Isabel knew and was trapped with for years in that fucking church.
“She hears you call me that, and she’ll cry,” he spits out. Nothing makes him more pissed than upsetting the young woman.
“She here?” I ask. He shakes his head. “No need to worry then.” He snorts out his response as he wanders around the couple in the middle of the room, deciding whether they’re worth his time or not.
“I must say,” Lude speaks instead, “when we met, I never imagined you were the parents of my former wife.” I raise a brow at the phrasing, and he nods. Elation fills me. Bella is no longer married. “Had I known, I’d have had you killed. However, what my brother has been able to unearth is quite enlightening.” He hands over some papers that Maso and I read together.
“Pace is going to be fucking pissed,” I mutter. As it turns out, the Marinos were the ones who canvassed the girls that were stolen and sold by the church. They came off as friendly until they decided you were no longer worthy of caring for your children.
“Why didn’t you just keep having babies and sell them?” Benito asks as he leans against a wall and lights a cigarette, inhaling deeply before blowing the smoke out through his nostrils.
Clarise scoffs, “Because those brats ruined me.” I hide my surprise at her easy acknowledgment that she had planned on doing just that. Joseph glares at her confession.
“You know they’d convinced themselves you were dead,” I state. I’m through with asking questions; all I want is information so I can decide how best to deal with them. My first instinct is to put a bullet in each of their brains and call it a day, but they’ve ruined the lives of too many people to get off so easily. Neither of them will even cut a look my way.
“How long?” Benito asks. “Twenty years? Thirty?” It couldn’t be more than that; they’d have been children themselves. “Did your parents start this?” Joseph’s jaw ticks, and no one misses it. “I presume they’re likely dead now.” Another tick. He’s giving himself away.
Crouching in front of the couple, my eyes move from one to the next, searching. “When Pace burned the churches to the ground, you had to find a new way to sell women.” Clarise’s lips shift slightly, and I take that as a yes. “Was the institution the only place you had women trapped?” Her glare could cut through ice, but I have my answer. “We rescued them all. They’re either returning to families or finding their way in life with help from the Morellos now.” I don’t ask the question I’m burning to. I have a feeling that’s the one answer they’ll be able to hide from me.
“So”—Lude flips open a switchblade as he stares the couple down—“what do we do with them?” That’s the sixty-five-million-dollar question, isn’t it?
Crawling into the warm bed behind Bella, I pull her tight into my arms, kissing the side of her exposed neck as she sleeps softly. Brushing my hand up and down her side, I hope to wake her peacefully. Mama complained with worry that nightmares plagued her the first hour she slept.
“Cara mia,” I whisper in her ear, nibbling on her silky soft flesh as she nudges back into me. “Wake up.” I kiss along her jaw. When she finally turns, giving me her beautiful green eyes, I see so much before she says a word. “You won’t like any answers I have to give you, so let me just reassure you that they can never hurt you again, and anyone they brought harm to has been saved.” I cross my fingers that she doesn’t press for details.