Chapter 37
Mia
I gaze out the window at the faint light in the sky.
It recedes at the onset of evening.
It’s at that stage where the light is just fading. It’s still there, but just holding on to keep it’s presence. Stay alive.
That’s how I feel.
That’s how I feel right now and I’m not sure what I should be thankful for most.
That I wasn’t raped over and over again like they threatened?
That I wasn’t beaten senseless?
Or, maybe I should be thankful I’m alive?
Yes that would make sense. Most would be thankful for their lives and that they weren’t dead. I know I’m alive because they need me to be. So that part is good.
At the same time what if the life you have was just given to you to prolong the game. Prolong the fun and see how long you can last, or how much torture you can bear?
My brain is void of reason and I’m losing my mind along with the will to live.
There’s a tangle of a mess and it’s because of Carter again.
Carter…
I knew he was vile, but I never knew how truly evil he could be.
Footsteps echo on the concreate floor. I don’t know who is coming now.
I’m chained to a post in the corner of a room that looks like where you’d keep old junk. Attic like but not. I get the sensation that I’m in a factory because there’s machinery in the corner and I know I’m up high.
There’s a stairs across from me and men have been coming up and down it.
The last guy got a good feel of my breasts before Joey Fontaine came in and he stopped.
I cried the whole time. I woke up with my pants gone and my legs bare so I don’t know what they did to me while I was out of it.
I’m not sore like I’ve had sex.
That is how I’m thinking and the only comfort I give myself because I don’t know what I’d do if that happened. I know it’s on the table however and it terrifies me.
The footsteps come up the stairs and I see Carter’s menacing face appear in my view. The guy with the knife scar who took me is the one who brought me up here and beat me up when I woke up.
All the while Carter watched in glee and taunted me. He kept saying oh how the mighty Harvard grad has fallen.
I can barely look at him now… my eye is swollen but that’s not why. I can barely look at him because he’s supposed to be my big brother.
“Awwww, look at you. Look at you.” He shakes his head, mocking me and tears run down my cheeks. “Don’t cry. I’m sure you’ll either live or be remembered. One of the two.”
“Fucking prick,” I hiss. My voice so weak and frail I barely recognize it.
He just looks at me and twiddles his thumbs with that satisfied gloat on his fucking face.
As I stare back at him I just wish I could fade away like the daylight and just cease to exist. I can’t believe I’m the same woman from this morning. I was so happy with Nick. I was so happy.
I should have known not to be because every time I allow myself some happiness, something happens to take it away from me.
Look at me now indeed.
I am the mighty Harvard grad who fell and realistically do I expect Nick to come for me?
I’m aware of the threat these people have made. Joey Fontaine gave me the rundown of the situation. My situation.
They want Nick to make some arrangement with his shipping company. He has to come here and agree to it. Then I’ll supposedly be released.
I won’t hold my breath for that to happen. Not any of it.
I love Nick. He told me he loves me too, but this is more than that.
“You know I’m supposed to be the eldest and supposed to be the one who has it together, but you…” his voice trails off and he moves closer to crouch next to me. “You were the favorite. The rising star in the family. I was the black sheep and Dad just didn’t have the heart to cut me loose. That’s what happened.”
“That’s not true!” I snap.
“Fuckkkkkkk! Yes it is.” He screams. He snaps the way a vicious animal would and pulls a gun on me making my soul shiver.
I gasp and he lands the end of the gun across my cheek. I scream as the pain sends a jolt through my body.
He laughs.
“Yes it is. All those times I wanted things but Dad invested his time in you because you were the ace. The grade A student. All those times when I wanted help, he helped you and it became clear to me that I had to find my own path. You know I wanted to go to college too? I wanted to do engineering at Columbia. Guess what? Dad told me we couldn’t afford it. Then I stumbled on something. Know what it was? A college fund for you. He was saving up for precious Mia because you had more potential than me.”
I’m surprised to hear that. I truly am because I never knew Carter even wanted to go to college much less that Dad had anything saved for me. At the time I recall business just getting steady.
Carter clears his throat and continues his speech. “I was eighteen years old and I had a plan too. He told me to take my student loan and try for somewhere near home to see how I’d flair out.” He laughs. “That’s what Dad did. Put simply he didn’t want to invest in me. He saw me as the failure. The screw up. Loser. You though, yes. He reserved everything for you.”
It explains a lot. It explains a lot of why Dad helps him no matter what.
“That’s not my fault.” I croak. “You think I deserve this because I was helped. Look at me, you know what they’ll do to me before Nick can get to me.”
He chuckles deep and hearty. “No… I think you deserve worse than this. I really do. I truly do. I hope they do all that they said they would and by the time your boyfriend gets you, there’ll be nothing left of you.”
I manage to shake my head. I didn’t know he hated me this much.
What a fucking mess. A web that just knotted into a stifling mess. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the truth that it was Carter who shot Tommy.
What a coincidence.
What a fucked up coincidence.
I feel so vile. I’m his sister.
Carter got himself in shit with Hector, I ended up having to deal with that so Hector wouldn’t reign death on Dad, me and Beth. I went to The Dark Odyssey as a last resort and met Nick.
Carter found out about Nick and now I’m here as leverage. Held captive.
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Fucking hell.
The truth stings me the more it sinks in. It grips me and rips into me. It hurts.
Nick’s friend… Tommy.
It was Carter who shot him.
It’s Carter all over again.
I was right. This is worse for so many reasons.
Christ.
The tears pour from my soul. They flow, but who I see coming up the stairs next makes my soul scream and shriek away.
It’s Marco Antonella and he has a big smile on his face.
“So this is what you really look like,” he says. “Without your mask.”
Things just got worse. Things actually got worse
Why did this have to happen?
Why did this happen to me ?
I tried so hard to fix everything and it just came back to bite me in the ass.
It just came back to hit me.
If that man touches me I just might die, last time was bad enough but then I had Nick to save me.
What will happen this time?
Carter stands and beams at me. “I was evil when I shot up Nick Giordano’s best friend. Probably evil too to hand deliver my sister as ransom. But everything makes me wicked. It makes me fear itself. It makes me the devil.”
He laughs and leaves me, and in the same moment that bastard Marco Antonella comes over to me leering.
He crouches down in that animalistic predatory way and inches toward me. I start bawling my eyes out when he touches my breasts.
“Guess what my pretty? I get you later, dead or alive is fine. I just like this body of yours with your big titties. I just put a deposit on you. It’s fair that you know Nick Giordano won’t get you back at all.” He taunts.
“Don’t touch me!” I scream.
He answers me with the back of his hand to my face.