He barks out a cruel laugh. “No one is coming for you. No one cares.” Grabbing my knotty hair, he wraps it around his fist and tugs my head back at a painful angle. “You’re my toy. Mine to do with as I please.” Reaching down, he grabs my nipple, twisting it hard. My breasts have grown during my time here, much to his delight. I don’t know how they’re so big when he only feeds me one meal a day. Pain radiates across my chest, but I stifle my cries, unwilling to give him the satisfaction. “You’re a stupid bitch who never learns. Lucky for you I like teaching lessons.”
He shoves my face into the icy water, and I try not to panic, knowing from experience it gets me nowhere. Water fills my orifices, and my cheeks feel like they might burst from holding my breath. Thanks to swim lessons, I can hold my breath longer than the average person, but there are limits, and I have reached mine now. Despite my resolve, I thrash about as panic rushes in, and I’m struggling to breathe.
Carlo presses my face down farther in the water, only hauling me up when it feels like I’m drawing my last breath. He’s laughing as he pulls my head up and I’m gasping, sucking in greedy lungsful of air. “You will submit to me, Noemi Cabrini. You will obey my every command like a trained little pussy. The only other option is death, and it won’t be a pleasant one.”
Right now, death would be welcome because I just want this torture to end.
“Mia amata.Sweetheart, you’re scaring me.” Massimo is rubbing my arms as I come to, horrified to discover I’m shaking all over and close to giving the game away.
“Sorry,” I croak, clearing my throat as I force my body to stop trembling. I prayed I was strong enough to do this, but now I’m not so sure. I should have taken the Valium Nicolina gave me, but I wanted to be in full control of my faculties.
“What is it? You looked like you’d seen a ghost, and you completely zoned out.” Concern is splayed across his face, and I don’t know what emotions he witnessed on my face when I was out of it, but it’s enough to coax me to get a grip. I know he’ll need an explanation, and it needs to be a good one.
While I can’t give him the full truth, I can give him most of it.
“It’s the fountain,” I say, turning to look at it. “It is similar to the one at the Conti house. When I didn’t behave, Paulo would drag me out to it, in the dead of night, when no one was close enough to hear my screams, and dunk my head in the icy water over and over until my throat was raw, my lungs were burning, and all the fight had left my body.”
“Fuck.” Setting the cake box on the back seat, he hauls me over into his lap and wraps his arms around me. “He was a cruel prick, and he’s lucky he’s dead because I want to burn the bastard alive.”
“I wanted to go to the Olympics,” I admit. “I loved swimming, and I was good, but he took that from me too. Now, I can’t even take a bath let alone get in a pool. Every time I do, it feels like I’m drowning.” I bury my head in his shoulder as he presses kisses into my hair.
“He took so much from you, but you survived, and you’re so strong. As much as he took, he enabled you to take something too.”
I wonder what he would think knowing it was his family who did this to me. If he finds out, what will it do to him?
“We can go home,” he offers after another few minutes when my trembling still hasn’t subsided. “I’ll tell Mama you have a bug.”
As much as I’m tempted, I’m here now. I need to get this over and done with. Maybe, in a weird way, this might help. I lift my head. “I don’t want to go home. Just give me another few minutes to compose myself.”
Emotion glitters in his eyes as he gently holds my chin. “Are you sure,mia amata?”
“I’m sure.”
He places a feather-soft kiss to my lips that is infinitely tender. “You are so strong and brave.” Lifting my arm, he brings my wrist to his mouth. “I am not worthy of you.” His lips brush against the sensitive flesh at my wrist, eliciting a whole new rake of tremors. This time, they are the good kind.
“You’re worthy,” I tell him, meaning it. I hold on to him as I focus on my breathing, inhaling and exhaling as I cajole my body into relaxing.
When I feel composed, I ease out of his arms and back into my seat. I grab the cake box and eyeball my husband. “I’m okay now.”
“Stay there,” he says with his hand on the door handle. “Let me come get you.”
I use the extra few seconds to give myself a silent pep talk, reminding myself I can’t fall apart and clue them in to my identity. I am a little concerned Eleanora might remember me if she sees me back in their surroundings. However, I think it’s a long shot. It was clear by her demeanor back then that she was heavily traumatized and using drugs and booze to cope. Most days when she came down to deliver my one daily meal, she seemed out of it.
Massimo opens my door and reaches for me, lifting me down by my hips. He closes the door and kisses me, circling his arm around my shoulders and holding me tight. Warmth creeps into my chilled bones, and I lean against him as we walk past the hideous fountain. “I always hated that monstrosity,” he says, noting where my gaze has strayed. “I’ll get it taken away.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
He stops walking, turning me in his arms. He tilts my chin up. “It’s nothing, and you’re everything. You’re my wife, and I don’t want you having flashbacks every time we visit my mother. She won’t care.”
Tears well in my eyes. Massimo is extremely good with small meaningful gestures and so thoughtful. Is he right? Is Nic? Has fate pushed us together because he is what I need to truly leave my past behind? How ironic is that? “Thank you.” I stretch up to kiss him. “You’re pretty good at this husband stuff.”
“I have the most amazing, most gorgeous wife. She makes it easy to be a good husband to her.”
I laugh. “We both know that is far from the truth, but I’ll take it.”
* * *
I clutch Massimo’s hand in my free hand and hold the cake box in the other as we follow the surly butler through the house toward the rear of the property.
