“How hard can it be to …” the line suddenly went dead as Tony frantically tried to convince his girlfriend to get aboard his escape plan. “Moira! Can you hear me, Moira?” He checked the little screen and the standby display confirmed that the call had indeed ended.
“What the fuck, how do you hang up on me while we’re having the most important discussion of our relationship? And I’m just trying to help you out!” Jumping onto his feet, Tony cursed into the phone as though Moira was still on the other end. Out of frustration, he almost smashed the phone into the wall but quickly reconsidered that action when he realised that he still needed Moira to call back on the same phone.
But Tony was up all night waiting for that crucial call which never came. He kept coming up with all sorts of possible explanations why the call got disconnected right when Moira was obviously annoyed by his suggestion to escape Angelo’s captivity. Whichever way he l
A vivid imagination of Angelo Manzini about to break down her door birthed an even more grisly imagination in Moira’s head; rape. Rough, forced sex in the guise of a husband rightly demanding his conjugal rights; rape all the same. She imagined the entire gang of low-lives watching and cheering their boss as he violated her. Clearly, her resistance and screaming would not deter the monster from getting his satisfaction.The fictional images flashed in Moira head as if they were a series of recent, traumatising memories; almost fooling her into believing that her nightmarish fantasies were real. Fuelled by pre-existing fears and beliefs about her new husband, whose dark reputation preceded him; Moira was terrorised by her own thoughts.Sleep would not come easily under the influence of such crippling terror; particularly bearing in mind that Moira had absolutely no one to turn to for help. All she could do was hide under the silk bed co
Still a good distance away, Angelo’s driver slammed on the brakes when he noticed that there was some sort of commotion at the gate. He could see that there was a car blocking the way, just outside the gate; and several armed guards seemed to be arguing with the driver of the car. Angelo’s driver stopped the car in the middle of the driveway and signalled Angelo to take a look at what was happening up ahead. Seconds later, one of the guards approached and informed Angelo that there was a young man who was demanding to speak with him.“Who’s it?” Angelo asked calmly.“It’s that De Luca kid, boss. He says you might be interested in what he has to say about recent developments in your personal life.” the guard said.“Luke De Luca’s kid, you said? That’s odd.” Angelo remarked, unable to hide his surprise. It was no secret that Luke De Luca despised every
Isabella Viscoli’s mind raced wildly after Moira’s call got disconnected abruptly. Taking a cue from her daughter’s own words, Isabella realised that Tony had left town; just like she and her husband had hoped he would. Although she knew how devastating the news was to Moira, Isabella thought it was also a great time to remind Moira about her engagement to Paulo, which she had almost ruined by her attempt to elope with Tony.After waiting a few minutes, during which she assumed Moira would have recovered from her initial shock at the news of Tony’s departure; Isabella finally decided to return her daughter’s call. It was important that she updated Moira on what had been agreed at the airport meeting with the De Lucas.# # # #Meanwhile, Moira’s world had literally crushed down on her. And she couldn’t help but ask God why all those horrible things were suddenly happening to her.
Having tried in vain to reconnect with Moira through the burner phone, Isabella could sense that things had gone off rails. With absolutely no clue what could have happened for the call to end so brusquely, all that was left was space for Isabella’s imaginations to run wild. Instinctively, she called her husband and explained what had happened. However, because she had not told Mario about the burner phone, Mario could not really understand what she was talking about on the phone; so he rushed back home to interrogate his wife adequately.Isabella quickly narrated to her husband how Tony had dropped off a burner phone, how Moira subsequently called then hung up , the weird call which was picked up but nobody spoke and the subsequent unavailability of the number.“I’m telling you Mario, I have a strong feeling something has happened to our daughter. We need to check with Angelo, just to be sure.” She concluded.
After a couple of days of recovering from his run-in with the infamous mob boss, 24 year old Paulo De Luca still could not answer the one question that kept ringing in his mind; who the hell is Tony? Angelo had mentioned that name in relation to Moira; in a way that suggested that this Tony character was not one he should just brush off as ‘a nobody’.For days, Paulo had debated the wisdom of confronting the only other people who could give him answers; his future in-laws. Yet, he also wanted to keep his meeting with Angelo secret, particularly from his parents who had always strictly forbad him from having any sort of voluntary interaction with the mafia boss. Besides, being a man who lived to keep up good appearances, Paulo could not risk scandalising himself over one stupid meeting just to satisfy his curiosity.However, Paulo soon realised why curiosity was often referred to as a real bitch. He couldn’t sleep or concent
From as early as she could remember, Moira Viscoli- the only child of Mario and Isabella Viscoli; had it hammered into her DNA that the Manzini name was synonymous with blood and the darkest evil imaginable. Her father had made it his parental duty to teach her never to get involved up with a Manzini man, particularly Angelo Manzini who had just taken over from his father as the boss of the mafia empire. He figured that Angelo, being young, rich and powerful; could easily lure young ignorant girls into his world of drugs, crime and every social vice conceivable.So growing up, Moira was never oblivious to the evil that Angelo and his family were responsible for all around the country. It seemed like wherever she turned, someone was bitterly complaining about being hard-done by Angelo or someone within his organised crime syndicate. Her father’s warnings about Angelo were proven with each one of these sad incidences; and she had grown to respect her father’s judgement of character.But
After a month of crying and feeling sorry for herself, Moira finally decided that it was time to embrace her reality. Despite being caught up in a very difficult situation, Moira told herself that her fate for the next five months had already been sealed. And so she needed to use that time for something worthwhile; otherwise she was just going to make it much worse for herself.It was exactly one month since the forced marriage; and all she had done over the month was sit around crying and mopping over her problems. She hadn’t left the house even once; and she’d only left her room a few times to go to get snacks, fruits, drinks and other supplies for her solitary living. Still, it had been a month of very little conversation since nobody in the house seemed interested in talking to her; perhaps because she had not created the inviting atmosphere to trigger any conversation .However, that morning Moira woke up with a totally diff
Taking advantage of the slightly more relaxed atmosphere prevailing in Angelo Manzini’s mansion following the day Moira started helping with the cooking, Moira thought it would be a great time to explore the mansion and admire some of its out of this world interior décor and external landscaping.Accompanied by Skinner, who had been opening up to her more each day, Moira took a tour of the mansion, a multi-level work of architectural genius constructed at the top of a small hill and spreading down the sloped side to the foot of the hill. From the front- at the bottom of the hill- all three storeys were breathtakingly visible. But from behind it- atop the hill, only the top floor could be seen; as though it was a small structure perched right on top of the small hill.A massive six car garage, a huge, open plan fully equipped kitchen complete with walk in pantry and breakfast area; and a luxuriously furnished dining room adjoined to an equally luxurious lounge made up the lowest level.