“About as good as to be expected. Player is hanging on by a thread, and Healer has sedated Catarina. It’s a veritable shit show here. Sure, you don’t want to postpone the meeting and go hunting with us when we find the fuckers who did this?”
“No. My hands are full as it is.”
“Alright. Massacre and I will leave in the morning.”
“See you tomorrow.”
With that, the call disconnected.
“Guess I’m going to Italy,” I said. Seeing Massacre walk by the door, I shouted. “Massacre! Pack a fucking bag. We’re going on a trip.”
“Where?” He shouted from the other side of the door.
“Italy!”
“Why the fuck you wanna go there?”
Laughing, I got up and smiled. “This is gonna be fun, a fun trip.”
Fourteen
Catarina
I woke, secured in his arms. His body was so close to mine I couldn’t tell where his began and mine ended. And honestly, I didn’t care. He was here. He hadn’t left. He stayed. There were so many things I needed to explain to him. I planned to. I just needed time. If I was still having a hard time accepting what I had done, how would I ever be able to explain it to him?
Knowing I was pregnant with Reggie’s baby gave me the strength to endure to keep. I wanted his baby so badly. It was a part of him and me. Our best parts. I honestly believed that if I couldn’t be with him, the least I could do was give birth to his child and make sure it had all the love and attention I could provide.
Only it didn’t work out that way.
When Colin was born, I could hold him nurse him love him, but that only lasted so long. A few weeks after his birth, Bianchi brought another woman with him. He said I was needed somewhere. When I refused to leave Colin, the woman took him from my arms, and Bianchi beat me. He told me that if I ever wanted to see my son again, I would do as I was told, or he would see to it personally that my son drowned off the coast of Sicily.
I believed him.
That was the first night I was raped.
I’d never been with any other man other than Reggie.
It was traumatic, to say the least. But the worst part was knowing I was no longer pure for Reggie. I had let him down. The man who’d raped me was sadistic. He beat me until I was black and blue, then proceeded to burn his cigar into my thighs. After he was finished, I thought Bianchi would kill him, relieved that he actually cared for my wellbeing. In the end, he beat me too, saying it was my fault I didn’t please him.
My life continued like that for months.
Bianchi was getting angrier and angrier with me, and as the months went by, his anger rose until one day, everything stopped.
I was pregnant again.
When he found out, I was taken to a villa on the outskirts of a small village and placed in the care of an elderly lady. The old woman barely looked at me, and she never spoke. But she did make sure I was fed well and got plenty of rest. For a while, I thought I might just be able to live knowing I was carrying another man's child.
That was until Bianchi showed up and said he had some friends who were willing to pay handsomely for a pregnant woman.
When I refused, Bianchi took Colin, which was the last time I ever saw him. In the end, I allowed those four men to do whatever they wanted to me. I didn’t care.
My son was gone.
I didn’t know if I would ever see him again.
When I woke up the next day and realized I was back at the small villa, I searched for Colin only to find out he wasn’t there.
That’s when my real nightmare began.