~ANTONIO~"Giovanni, how did it go?" I finally checked up on him after he revealed to me that Dante was after me. If he had no idea that I knew what he was up to and had hired someone to mess up around my territory, he was going to let his guard down and give me enough time to formulate a plan to strike. One thing about my line of business was that you always had to look after your back. Anyone could be your enemy with their own agendas or just be people working for your enemy who want to take you down. You always had to know the game and the rules. "He did not suspect anything. He gave me another task to be a spy around your area and find any weaknesses that he can use against you." "Oh, I see. It is very brave of him to think that he can take me down. Very well then, I want you to tell him about a fake delivery that I will be doing tomorrow at 2 PM in Columbus." "Cocaine delivery?" Giovanni asked. "Yes, Gio. A cocaine delivery. Call me if you think that he is enthusiastic to

~ISABELLA~ When we got home, I ran straight to my room, locked the door behind me, and cried. I wondered if my father even cared about the things that had been happening to me ever since he sold me to Antonio. I wondered if he knew how miserable I was and wanted to escape. At this point, I wasn't even sure that I would be able to get away when I tried to escape from him. I guessed that Sarah was right. I should have never gone to the club. Antonio would have never found me. I would be somewhere far from him. Safe. I jumped when I heard a knock on the door. I got up from the floor, wiped my face, and opened the door. "May I come in?" He asked. He looked at me with an annoyed expression. I wondered what he was annoyed about when I was the one who was supposed to be annoyed at him. I just rolled my eyes, stood aside, and opened the door for him to come inside. I closed it, folded my arms on my chest, and waited for him to say whatever he wanted to say. "Do you realize that you

~ISABELLA~ The following night, around 7 PM, I went out of my room in hopes that Antonio wasn't around. I needed something to drink and didn't want to bother the lady who was assigned to help me with whatever I needed. But to my unfortunate surprise, I found Antonio in the living room on a call. I realized that it was too late for me to turn back and decided to rush to the kitchen. I thought that I was going to get myself a drink, maybe a snack, and then rush back to my room. But when I heard his footsteps behind me in the kitchen, every bone in my body froze. "You haven't said a word to me after the incident. Are you angry at me?" He asked. I closed my eyes and wondered how the fuck I even got here. I wondered how I was even going to get myself away from him for good. I turned around slowly and looked at him, "I'm not mad, Antonio. I'm not mad that you're a murderer." He scoffed as he walked to me, "I wouldn't have murdered them on your account if you didn't run away from m

~ANTONIO~"Dante was very, very angry when he went to the location where you said you would be having a transactional business, but couldn't find you. He believes that you're up to something and might be aware that he's keeping his eyes on you." Gio explained as he sat in front of me in my club office. "He's plotting something right now with his brothers, and I don't know what at the moment because they won't let me be in their meetings. But they're plotting something big against you." My hand was on my chin as my mind wandered. Instead of focusing on exactly what Gio was reporting to me, I thought of my moment with Bella at the restroom the other night. It was hard to believe that I had her, and she was mad at me for it because she had no idea that it was me. I chuckled and straightened up in my chair. "Sir, what are you going to do now?" Gio asked. When I realized that what I was discussing with him was a matter of life and death, I cleared my throat and refocused my attention

~ISABELLA~ The next morning, Antonio joined me for breakfast in the dining room. I was surprised because he usually slept until 11 a.m.-ish. He either came back early from the club last night or woke up early to keep an eye on me so that I wouldn’t go on another date. With one of his enemies again. “Good morning,” he greeted me as he fixed his eyes on me. I smiled, “Good morning, Antonio.” “We need to talk about what happened yesterday,” he poured himself a glass of milk and then looked at me. My heart instantly skipped a beat, and I swallowed, “I thought we were done talking about yesterday.” “You don’t get it, do you? Dante Conti is my rival and will use anything to get to me, including you. So, I want to know if you conspired anything with him.” It was at this moment that I realized how serious this was. If this was the only way for me to get away from Antonio, then maybe I needed to give Dante a call. “I didn’t conspire with anyone. Dante and I went on a harmless date.”