“I’m sorry, Mrs.Roselli.My job is to guard you and your sister.No one but Elsie and Layna are to come in or out, unless it’s Doctor Ray.Massimo’s orders and I need to follow them to the letter.That’s all I know.Like I said, you’ll have to ask him yourself.But I can get Elsie.”
“Thanks.Would you let her know we are in need of some oatmeal, orange juice, and coffee.She knows how I take it.It will save her a trip up to the room just to find out what we need.”
I don’t wait for his answer before closing the door.I’m not going to get any additional information from the guy if Massimo has given him strict orders.I pull my phone out of my back pocket and hit Massimo’s number, wondering if he’s at the hospital with his mom or dealing with the rivals.I don’t want to bother him, but the need to hear his voice overpowers everything else.My heart constricts when his voicemail goes to a generic voicemail that no longer even has his voice.“This is Sophia.Call me please.”
I slide my cell back into my pocket and settle back into my chair.Anna’s soft voice pulls me from my reverie.“I know you just sat down, but would you mind pulling the blind open just a little more, please?I haven’t seen the sunlight for so long.It’s glorious really.”
My chest tightens with every piece of information I get about the atrocities my sister has gone through while I’ve been living in the lap of luxury.Guilt floods my very soul, but there was no way any of us could have known or I would have burned the city down in an attempt to get to her.
Week after week,the same thing from the guard who answers none of my questions about Massimo and stands at my door, only trading places with one other man, and only allowing Elsie or Layna to come and go with him, helping my sister with showers and physical therapy.Six weeks and not one lousy word from Massimo.
Not one word from the man who was supposed to be my everything.
Six fucking weeks of living in this room, albeit a spacious suite with all the amenities of most penthouses.But without him by my side, it is still a cage; a luxurious prison no matter what Massimo’s guards want to call it.The only thing I can be assured of, and only because Leandro took the time to visit and tell me himself, is that Massimo is alive, dealing with family matters and I need to focus on helping my sister heal.But deep down in my heart, I know he’s gone.
I try everything to focus on my sister, tempting her with a few more bites of her oatmeal each day, but today she’s in one of her solemn moods.She shakes her head softly.“Maybe a little later, okay?I’ve had enough.The coffee is good though,” she says, taking another sip.
Getting her to eat has really been a challenge.Oatmeal, all her favorites, still, nothing that she wants.Just sleeping, drifting in and out while the pain meds keep the worst at bay while her broken ribs and contusions slowly begin to heal.But even when she is alert and not sleeping, which is far less often than I would like, still she says nothing, doesn’t bring up what happened, and it takes every ounce of my will not to pry and try to drag it from her before she’s ready and it’s time.
And every day I’m here with my sister, Barcelo has another day with Papa.Who knows what condition we’ll find him in if we are ever able to find him at all.I can only hope that Massimo is searching, looking for Barcelo.In my heart, I know that he is, as much for revenge as anything and while my father is probably far from his priority, it calms me knowing that he’s searching while I take care of my sister and until she is strong enough to be on her own.
While I haven’t been allowed out of the room, even to go and see his mother since the night I helped stitch her up, Leandro did tell me that she’s healing, but it will be a lengthy process.Well, it’s a lengthy process for me too without being told a thing and I’m about sick and tired of it.A girl can only take so much, and this Cassone is about done with it all.
The only people who come up and down the steps stop at this room.Never once have I heard someone open the door next to ours where Massimo’s mother was being kept.I wonder if she is out of the hospital, but the guards would never tell me if I asked, and I’m not about to get Elsie or Layna fired.Elsie is lucky she didn’t get fired or worse after helping me so much already.
So, I sit, and plan, writing in my notebooks.At least the guards have brought me anything that I need or want, within reason, except for my husband.But six weeks is long enough.Anna may not fully be back to one hundred percent but she’s as close to recovered as she needs to be for me to leave her with Layna and Elsie and find Massimo.
She’s safe here, but I die a little more each day waiting for word that never comes.Even asking for Leandro to stop round so I can try and get a little information about Massimo from him does not work.They’ve left me no choice but to take matters into my own hands.
I was not wired to sit around waiting, pining away for someone, and soon, my dear husband is going to learn just how capable and determined a Cassone girl can be because he can’t expect me to follow the rules when he won’t take my calls.As far as I’m concerned, every single one of those rules he made for me, they’re not applicable anymore.They don’t exist.
When Elsie comes in later this evening, that’s going to be my chance.Unfortunate for her that she’ll catch Massimo’s wrath but it’s simply unavoidable.I’ll have to find a way out of trouble for her later.There are a couple ways out of this estate, one through an army of men I’d rather not spend the night avoiding around that fence, just to get to the point where I can get over it and find I still have a ten-mile hike into town, and another through the laundry truck that should be coming tonight.
The only problem is, I need out of this room without being seen or watched like a hawk until I’ve been safely put back into our quarters.Tell me it isn’t a fucking prison.Elsie hasn’t been checking in on us at night, and I can’t leave the room until right before the men who pick the laundry up arrive or someone will be onto me before I’ve even gotten away.
Until then, Anna and I play board games that Elsie and Layna have been nice enough to have brought into the room.Every once in a while, I see the sweet smile on Anna’s face that she used to give me all the time.She’s getting better, slowly but surely, my sister is getting better.
She glances up at me, shifting against the headboard of her bed.“How long are we going to stay here?Barcelo must be looking for me but no one says a word about him.Why all the radio silence?”
I meet her eyes.I’ve been waiting for weeks for her to talk and I’m giving her radio silence?It’s fine.I’m sure it’s hard for both of us, each in our own ways.“If you want me to talk more about things I can.I didn’t want to worry you.But I’m not sure myself about the timing.I haven’t heard anything for certain, but I can’t imagine that Barcelo would be stupid enough to show his face anywhere that Massimo or his family could find him.They took you; they took his mother.You are both just now starting to heal.”
“How’s his mom?”she asks.
“She was alive when I left her that night.I honestly don’t even know how she’s doing except for the little tidbits we get from Elsie and only because I ask her pointed questions that she tries to avoid answering.I’m sure they don’t want anyone to say anything in case it gets out.”
“Barcelo will never stop.”
“Anna, he may not even know you’re alive.I mean, he left you in pretty bad shape.”
She shakes her head.“No, it could have been far worse.You know it and I know it.”Her voice cracks.“He loved me when he thought I was pregnant.The minute I found out it was another false alarm, he became distant.When he called for me and Delz took me to him, I thought we were going to be okay.”She wipes a tear.“Turns out he had something completely different in mind.At least he didn’t rape me.Said it would be a waste of time because I couldn’t give him a son.”
My heart aches for all that my sister has gone through.
Her eyes meet mine.“He still wants the Cassone family estates, all the products, distribution chains and docks Dad controls.Until he gets Papa to sign that over, he’s going to torture him now that I’m no longer there.”
My throat tightens, the lump in the back feeling almost too big to talk over.I swallow, trying to find the right words now that Anna’s talking at all.She’s so insightful and so matter-of-fact that it makes my heart break wondering what exactly she endured and for how long and what Papa has endured and whether Barcelo has broken him or if our father has died.
Anna’s revelation just confirms what I’d already been contemplating.It’s time to go.Anna will be safe and now it’s time to find Massimo and Papa, no matter if Massimo forbids me to leave or not.There was a time he got to make the rules, but that time has long since passed.
