MasukThis has been an extremely challenging chapter to write, but I gave it my best. I believe I've made 5 or 6 drafts until this last one. I hope you won't find it too bad or too annoying. Obviously, the dialogue is nonexistent, due to the situation Thea finds herself in, so please, bear with me, just this once. Thank you so much for your patience. P.S. We're almost at the end... Hang in there... ;))
Damiano paced back and forth outside Thea’s hospital room. His mother and sisters had gathered in the hallway, standing against opposite walls, all looking at him with deep concern in their eyes. Brian Silver was standing a few feet away, with his hands shoved into his pockets.“How long does it take?” Damiano spat out as he glanced at the closed door again. “Why won’t they let me inside?” Giorgiana laid a hand on his son’s arm and squeezed reassuringly.“They need to get her settled in without all of us looming over them.” He spun around and paced back down the hall. Not seeing Thea was driving him insane.“Calm down,” Fiamma told her big brother. “Our girl went through hell and back, and she proved she’s one tough cookie.”“Yeah… Thea’s a fighter, Dami,” Bianca added and hugged Damiano. “Everything is going to be okay.” After hours in the emergency room, Thea had finally been transported to a private room. She’d only woken up intermittently, and sh
“This house is their headquarters, but I’m afraid we’re too late, signor Chiaramonte,” Brian Silver said when Damiano finally got to the shed. “We traced the phone signal, but when we got here, Accardi and his three men were already gone.” Damiano stared at the private investigator and his small team as they inspected the little house and its surroundings.“Nonetheless, they didn’t leave long ago, though,” Brian added. “The coffee is still warm and there’s still beer in the little fridge.”“What about Thea?” he asked.“Based on what I already saw, she managed to escape from the shed. Half of my team is scouring the woods, looking for clues and traces. The other half is gathering evidence. We need to get this bastard the right way.”“The right way?! Are you kidding me, Brian? If I get my hands on him, I’ll kill that bastard, so help me God!” Damiano exclaimed and ran a hand through his hair. “I will kill them all!” Brian nodded slowly, but said nothing.“I want to see
The night air was chilly, but Thea wasn’t shivering. She wasn’t feeling the cold. She wasn’t paying attention to the pain. She didn’t care if she was wearing only a bra and a pair of jeans, or if her feet were covered in shreds from her shirt. If her body was covered in deep cuts and bruises. All she knew was that she had to run. She had to get away from Marco and his men. And the adrenaline rushing through her small, battered body was helping enormously. Holding her twisted arm tight to her chest to immobilize it, Thea concentrated on making her way through the woods. Marco and his men were still behind her, so she kept walking. At some point, she felt the need to stop and catch her breath, just for a moment, but she didn’t dare. They could be right behind her. No more shots had been fired, but how did she know they weren’t stalking her, waiting for her to make a mistake?“Walk, or you’ll die,” she kept repeating to herself like a strange m
Thea opened her eyes and looked around in the poorly lit room. Her head was foggy, like she had been drugged. She was sitting on a crappy, cold floor, with her back against the wall. For a moment, she couldn’t understand what she was doing there… Who brought her to such a filthy place and why… And then, reality hit her. She was Marco’s hostage… by choice. She was the prisoner of a mobster seeking revenge. While going to the meeting point, Thea decided she had to treat this entire matter differently than she first thought. If she learned one thing about Sicilians while living there, it was how proud and protective they were of their beloved land, how resilient and determined they were, how easily offended they were when strangers came to Sicily to ‘trash’ their beautiful island. Based on that, she came up with a new plan. Marco was a mobster from Chicago who was conducting strange businesses in Sicily. She was a member of both famili
The shock of that confession was visible on his mother’s face. It was the name of the man who brought so much pain to his family, but it was also the name of the woman he loved with all his might. Damiano took Lawry, still asleep and unaware of the tragedy unfolding, from his father’s chest and entered the nursery. He kissed Lawry’s rosy cheek and placed it into Maria’s arms. “I promise I will bring your mommy home,” he whispered, caressing his little head, then got out of the room. “Let’s go to my study,” Damiano said to his parents. The moment they entered the room, Damiano set up his father’s wheelchair, then helped his mother, still shocked about the news, to sit near his father. Manfredi was looking at him silently, extremely unbothered by what he had just heard.“Papà…”“She looks so much like her father…” Manfredi said calmly. “I saw her once, when she was three or four. But she used to have red hair, like her mother.”“She had to change everything when she j
While Damiano was leaving the villa, Thea was entering their bedroom. But she wasn’t there to pack her things. No, she was there to catch her breath and take the next step of her plan to save the people she loved, the people she cared about. Even the people who let her down over and over again. Damiano would be angry, she knew that. He’d be so furious that she’d left this way. But she hoped one day, he’d understand. She hoped one day he’d realize she was doing this to protect them, not hurt them.“Forgive me, my love,” she murmured. She looked at the nightstand and saw a photo of Damiano and Lawry smiling at the camera. She recalled that day so well… That little memory stole her breath and practically brought her to her knees. Thea took the photo out of the frame and put it in her pocket.“Where I’m going… I can’t take more than this…” And what was her destination, once she’d set foot out of the Chiaramonte villa? She didn’t know,







