The first thing I hear is breathing.
Each inhale feels borrowed and each exhale feels forced.
My eyelids are heavy, like they've been stitched shut. It takes everything in me to open them.
The ceiling is unfamiliar.
White.
Too white.
Am I in heaven?
"Lorenzo!" I screamed my little brother's name. I wanted him to know I'm here already and we
can be together forever.
Then the pain starts.
My chest burns. My throat feels raw. There's a tightness in my lungs like something once lived
there and was gone now but left a scar.
Someone opens the door. "Isabella." It's Damian.
"No.no.no.no!" I cried out. I'm not in heaven and I'm not going to meet Enzo
He walked beside me and stood beside me. "Isabella," He sighed "Don't pull that crazy stunt ever.
You hate me so much to kill yourself than be my wife? It's okay, I don't blame you."
I rolled my eyes at him, I couldn't careless of what he had to say.
He stretched his hands towards me and my body got tensed. Does he want to strangle me for
rolling my eyes at him?
"The sleeping beauty is finally awake." Mattia said as he came into the room. "you were gone for
a month, your body had a lot of healing to do."
A month?! Wow I knew I was damaged but one month coma is crazy.
I brushed the thought aside so I wouldn't think much about it.
"Why did you help me? I didn't need your help." My voice barely being audible, it came out as a
whisper."Why wouldn't I" Mattio chuckled "your fiancé, the most feared man in Milan asked for my help
and I wouldn't help him?" he chuckled again.
That made my blood boil.
Before I could react or scream at him for calling Damian my fiancé, father walked in.
He walked in slowly and each step calculated and everywhere got silent.
There was a time where my father, Luca Rossi, was the most feared man in Milan.
Kids our age wouldn't want to associate with me and Lorenzo when we go for mafia family event,
because no one wanted Luca rossi on them.
Father walked beside me and held my arm tightly and it hurst but I tried my best not to make it
obvious "you should rest Isabella, don't talk to much" he said with a fake smile.
Damian left the room and Mattia followed him.
"Pull that stunt again and ill fucking make you more miserable. You'll marry Damian and that's
final, you're not allowed to die." Father said with so much authority.
I nodded and he let go of my arm and left.
He bruised me.
My eyes are stinging from the tears threatening to come out but it's as if there was no tear left in
me, I cried it all out.
A lady walked into the room and came beside me. she sat down on the bed and said "Hi Isabella"
with a genuine smile. She looked like she's in her early 40's.
"Hi" I said back.
"I'm Greta, Mattia's wife" she said
"Okay. Nice to meet you Greta" I said, seeming uninterested.
I didn't like the fact that she was beside me, what if Damian sent her to kill me for rolling my eyes
at him earlier?!" I moved away from her and sat up.
"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you." She said with a smile on her face.
"Isabella. Please listen to me. Please, for your sake, marry Damian and get out of your father's
house, I was the one that changed your clothes and bathed you when you were in coma, I saw
your bruised body. Damian wouldn't hurt you." She sounded apologetic like she was saying sorry
for what I'm going through."Maybe if he didn't kill Lorenzo, I wouldn't be here" I said under my breathe, not loud but loud
enough for her to hear me.
She sighed "That's all in the past."
I stood up with anger and chuckled and said "wow" and left the room.
I walked for a few seconds and collapsed on the floor in the hallway, my legs were so weak. I can't
believe someone would say that. My brother's death is in the past and I should marry his killer?!
Make it make sense please.
I sighed.
"You could barely walk" Someone said, while walking closer to me.
Is he Mattia's son? He wore a white shirt and black plain trousers and a black pair of shoes. He
held his black tie in his hand. He wore glasses and looked like a nerd. A fine one.
He walked in front of me and stood there. "How are you?" He said.
"Fine." Why can't these people leave me alone.
He smiled. "I'm Enzo, Damian's cousin." He said and stretched out his hand for a hand shake.
I nodded my head, totally ignoring his hand.
"Enzo" I repeated. That's my little brother's name.
'You should come down for lunch. You've been feeding through tubes for a month now, come eat
good food." He said.
"No, I'm good." I told him.
Greta came out of the room and said "You wouldn't want to miss out on the food." She laughed
like everything was okay.
"I said I'm fine" I'm getting pissed already.
My stomach growled in hunger. Perfect. Just perfect.
They both laughed.
Enzo carried me from the floor to the dining room and I didn't protest. I was so hungry.
He helped me sit.
My mom was there. She looked at me and smiled for a brief second. She cares but she isn't
allowed to show it.Damian sat across me and my father sat beside me, across my mom. Mattia sat across Greta and
Enzo sat beside Damian.
I feel so uncomfortable and Damian in front of me make it ten times worse.
Lunch felt like a performance.
They sit around Mattia's dining table like we're normal people. Like I didn't try killing myself a
month ago.
Everyone is watching me as I eat. Mattia is watching my breathing and movements carefully.
I smirked. No one wants Damian Volkov wife to be harmed.
Greta keeps placing food on my plate which I didn't ask for. I don't want all this!
Enzo talks about something business related
Enzo talks about something business related and father kept nodding occasionally.
My mother sat quietly and ate her food. It's seemed like she was scared of making a mistake while
eating.
And Damian…
Damian watches me.
Not openly. Not constantly.
But enough.
I could feel it.
Every time I lift the glass of water to drink, his eyes track my movement as if he expects me to
poison myself again.
I didn't speak because I still felt the pain in my throat.
When we got back home, I didn't go inside.
I walked gently to my brother's grave in the garden.
No one stopped me. Maybe they think grief is safe.
It's not.
The walk to my brother's grave felt longer than usual. My insides were burning and I couldn't walk
well because I didn't walk for a month. My muscles are weak.I finally got to his grave. Tears rolled down my eyes.
Anytime I'm there I feel Enzo's presence.
I stood, facing his grave. "Mi manchi cosi tanto che fa male respirare" I whispered, I couldn't talk
well without my throat hurting me.
I sat down beside his grave. I missed my brother so much.
"I tried to join you," my vision is already getting blurry because of the tears forming in my eyes "I
tried so hard Enzo, I almost made it. I miss the times when we were together. Father is forcing me
to marry the man that killed you, I can't handle this, I'm so tired.
"
My finger brushes the white marble stone Lorenzo name is carved in.
My chest tightens, not from damage this time but from anger.
This house still stands behind me like a fortress. Like a cage.
I close my eyes "I'm not dying here," I tell him. "But I'm not staying either."
And for the first time since I opened my eyes from that coma, I felt something steady.
That night, I don't rush.
I don't cry.
I plan.
Weakness taught me patience.
I map the cameras. The rotations. The blind angles near the east wall. I remember which guard
smokes at exactly 1:17am.
I don't pack much.
Just cash, a burner phone and Lorenzo's Chain.
My body isn't fully healed but it's healed enough.
At 1:14am, I slipped out of my room with no shoes.
At 1:16am, the hallway camera shifts.
At 1:17am, the guard lights his cigarette.
At 1:18am, I'm outside.
The night air fills my lungs, and for once it doesn't burn.I don't run, if I did it will draw attention.
No footsteps behind me.
My heart beats slower than usual.
I reach the wall. There's a narrow service gate used for deliveries. It's locked from outside but not
from the inside.
My fingers tremble as I slid the bolt back.
A soft click.
Too loud.
I freeze.
Nothing.
I open the gate just enough to slip through.
And I'm outside.
Not at the front gates but outside the property.
This is my first time standing outside here, I've never left the house if I wasn't going somewhere
in a car.
I'm finally free.
I did it.
I actually did it.
I take a step forward.
Then another.
Headlights flick on behind me.
Not from the house but from the shadows of the trees across the road.
A black car.
Engine already running.
The driver's door opens slowly.
I watched, tensed.
And I know that Silhouette.Even I the dark.
Damian Volkov.
Right when I thought I escaped.
I wanted to run but I was too scared to move.
He leans casually against the car like he's been there for a while.
Waiting.
"You're improving" he says calmly.
My stomach drops.
"How long?" I ask.
"Since the grave."
He followed me.
"I'm not dumb Isabella, I see right through you" his voice, so calm yet dangerous.
"What now? You'll force me back inside?" I asked. My hopes crushing all over again.
He studies me carefully.
"No" he says quietly and tosses something at my feet.
A passport.
New name.
New photo.
A plane ticket tucked inside.
Departure 4:10am.
I look up sharply. What's he up to? Is he playing with me?
"If you step into that car," he says, voice low, "you come back with me. And this ends."
My heart pounds.
"And if I don't?"
His eyes darken.
"Then you'd better pray no one else finds you before I do."Will he do me like he did Lorenzo?
Silence.
The road stretches endlessly ahead.
Freedom.
Or war.
I bend slowly reaching the passport, and then headlights appear at the far end of the road.
Not his.
Not ours.
Multiple cars.
Coming fast.
Damian posture shifts instantly.
Predatory.
"They're not mine," he mutters.
My father doesn't move without control.
Someone is up to something.
The engines grow louder.
Closer.
Damian grabs my wrist.
"Get in the car. Now."
I look at the passport, the approaching convoy and then at him.
If I leave tonight, it won't be an escape but the beginning of something much worse.
The first gunshot echoes in the distance.
And I have exactly one second to choose.