“Alright, new plan!” Elio announces.
I swallow a lump in my throat, knowing that whatever plan they had now involves using me as bait. I look to my left and my right, wondering if there’s an opening I can sprint through, but I’m trapped.
Chapter 35
Alessandro
Myphonebuzzesona table nearby as I lie on the couch in a semi-catatonic state. I ignore it, unable and unwilling to talk to anyone. And besides, it’s probably Sofia calling to rub in that she’s successfully escaped.
A manic laugh escapes me, then I realize there are tears coming out of my eyes. When’s the last time that I’ve honestly cried? I truly can’t remember; it never helped me, so it must have been trained out of me early on.
The phone stops buzzing and then immediately starts again, so I build up the motivation to turn the damn thing off.
I slowly peel myself off the couch and see that it’s Elio trying to do a video call. I answer because I figure that he’s Vincenzo’s best friend, so he should probably know that Vincenzo was having a relationship with his step-sister for most of his life, woke up from the coma, then died from my hands. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll fly up to my wing where I inexplicably have no one to protect me and end everything right now.
I hide a smirk from my face as we connect, a spiteful part of me happy that I can ruin someone else’s day so that they can feel an ounce of pain that I feel.
But I’m not greeted by Elio’s smug face. Instead, I see Sofia sitting in a cell in the dungeon: duct tape around her wrists, ankles, and over her mouth. Her eyes, red from crying.
A growl escapes me. I assumed she’d be on a plane to America by this point, so how did Elio get to her?
The camera switches to the front, and I’m greeted by Elio. “It’s over, Alessandro. Vincenzo woke up the day we left for that boring trip, and we’ve been planning the takeover ever since. If you make this easy and come down to the dungeon to give yourself up without a fight, we’ll give you an honorable death and ship your little wife back home. If not…” He nods at one of his men, who backhands Sofia across her face. She falls to her side at the force of the blow then sits herself back up, more tears forming in her eyes as she looks helplessly into the camera. Any ill-feelings I had towards Sofia are gone, and all I want to do is get her out of there. Her family must have botched her rescue only to get her into the hands of Elio.
“Give me some time to get my affairs in order and I’ll be down to exchange myself for her.”
Elio looks surprised for a moment, pleased at my lack of fight. “We’ll be waiting. Don’t take too long.”
My eyes scan the castle as I passively walk towards the basement, taking in the last of the surroundings so that I try to maintain this unnatural calmness I feel rather than letting panic overtake me.
I have spent countless nights where I went to bed hungry. I’ve gone weeks with no meaningful human-interaction when Marco kept Elena and any friendly staff-members away from me as a punishment. Forced to kill and torture to the point I became an iconic entity that people whispered of in their homes:Lo Spettro.
The ghost with no name. No true family. No origin.
And yet, this is the lowest I’ve ever felt in my life.
It was safer when I had no hope. When every day added on to the meaningless stretch of my existence. When I’d put my focus on how much profit I brought to the family. Sofia ruined all of that when I fell in love with her. It made me weak in a way I didn’t know was possible. She took my heart and built me up to the point where I actually looked forward to waking up and seeing the sunlight rather than the dull neutrality I felt all the time before I met her.
Even now, the power she has over me is unbearable. She betrayed me, and while I have the option to let her die in that dungeon, I’m going to give my life for hers without hesitation.
When I get down to the main level, two voices shout at each other in English.
“We already went this way!”
“No, we didn’t!”
“Should we give up temporarily? She’s probably hiding with Alessandro somewhere, and we’ll have to work on deprogramming her slowly. Maybe we can kill him and never tell her it was us.”
The Calabreses are more conniving than I initially gave them credit for.
I ought to tell them there’s no need to kill me.
“Hello,” I say in English as I walk over to them. I’ll have to communicate using only basic, choppy sentences.
They both snap their heads towards me, guns raised.
“Don’t kill me. Sofia is in trouble. But I can trade my life for hers. Follow me.” My voice is unusually calm, and I feel like I’m a passenger in my own body. None of this feels real to me—I’m a dead man already. There’s no point in explaining any more to them or telling them how I felt about Sofia. Nothing will matter soon.
Max and Nick look uneasy at each other, as if this were all a ruse.
