. . . ▪︎ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛᴇꜱᴛ ▪︎ ▪︎ ʜᴀᴠɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴀꜱᴛᴇ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴜɢᴀʀ ᴏʀ ʜᴏɴᴇʏ, ᴀ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ ʀɪᴄʜ ɪꜱ ꜱᴜɢᴀʀ; ɴᴏᴛ ꜱᴀʟᴛ, ꜱᴏᴜʀ, ᴏʀ ʙɪᴛᴛᴇʀ "ᴀ ɢʟᴀꜱꜱ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛᴇꜱᴛ ᴡɪɴᴇ" ▪︎ ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱɪɴɢ ɪɴ ɢᴇɴᴇʀᴀʟ: ᴅᴇʟɪɢʜᴛꜰᴜʟ ▪︎ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴏᴠᴇʀʟʏ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ . . .



I stood in front of a mirror looking at myself. My beard is getting longer and I couldn't bring myself to shave it. Dark circles under my eyes from sleepless nights are clearly evident making the skin on my face look paler than it actually is.

Sighing I turned towards Emiliano seeing him still sleeping on the bed. Slowly making my way into the bathroom I took my clothes off and step in the shower letting cold water run over me.

My head hurts along with my heart as pictures from three and a half months ago replayed in front of my eyes.

Flashback

My heart hammered in my chest from fear as I watch in slow motion Antea pressing a gun against her temple.

I wanted to rise from my knees to make a run and take a gun from her hand but couldn't. It was like I was frozen in position, tears were falling from my eyes as I looked at her helplessly.

Why would she thought that she doesn't have people that love her? All of us love her. I love her. I know that I didn't show it good enough for her to understand, especially after that traitor thing. But my whole heart belongs to her.

She is the first woman ever to tame me. She is the only one that made me feel this way. Never before she did I let any woman come near me the way she did. She broke all my walls with just a look of her gorgeous eyes, so I will be damned if I let her kill herself.

She is my everything and maybe I fucked up my chance with her but I won't let her take her own life because of my mistakes.

Call me selfish but I don't want to lose her. She is mine and she's gonna stay like that. I'm gonna find a way to fix everything I did. Somehow.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see movements behind her at the entrance of the dining room. Blinking my eyes rapidly I looked better seeing Marino with Moreno beside him looking at Antea with a look of shock which quickly turned into one of horror.

Antea flicked her eyes towards Dante for a second giving me time to gesture my head towards her to the guys. Silently telling them to take the gun from her.

With a nod of a head Marino started to quietly walk towards her. Not wanting to give her time to turn around and catch Marino or to pull that trigger I started to beg her hoping that she will lower the gun or that she will realize that it is my fault.

"Please forgive me. It's all my fault that we lost a baby. Shoot me but please move that gun from your pretty head. Please. It's all my fault." I begged her but she only shook her head while looking at me.

"No-oo, I ju-just want to stop hu-rting." She shuttered pressing the gun against her temple even harder than before. Marino was just a step behind her when she tightened her hold on the bottom of the gun flicking her finger over the trigger.

"I don't want to be hurt anymore. I want it all to stop." She said and was about to press a trigger but Marino's hand wrapped around hers moving the gun from her head. Gun fired into the air and she fell into his arms.

My heart lapped into my throat as I looked at her body. Quickly I jumped running towards them cradling her body in my arms letting tears from relief flow down my face.



"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry amore. Please forgive me." I mumbled in her hair as I buried my head in her neck trying to stop my sobs.

"We should take her to hospital." Marino said from my side and I nodded. "Yeah, I will call doc-" I started but Marino was quick to cut me. "No, not the medical room. I think it would be better if we take her to the hospital. A real one. Maybe they there can help her better than our doctors." I lifted my head from Antea's neck and looked at Dante not really sure do I like the idea.

Seeing my uncertainty he added "She just tried to kill herself. That's not good. She should speak with someone. She thinks that nobody loves her, it's like she can't see that she is loved. What happened to her is the reason for this situation. And for her to get better it's best if she speaks to someone about it. Maybe a therapist. And also it would be good for her to get out from this house."

With a heavy sigh, I nodded standing up with the love of my life in my hands.

When we got her to a hospital they told us that she was weak and that that's a reason for her unconsciousness. Her not eating was what made her body weak.

End of flashback

I shook my head getting out of my thoughts. My heart is breaking at the thought of not having her by my side.

Three days after she was hospitalized she went missing. There were no traces of her. She just disappeared from the hospital. No one saw when she left and with who.

We searched everywhere for her but couldn't find her, it is like she vanished into thin air. Our first thoughts were that Aleksei has his hands on this.

So over the past almost four months we attacked all places that had any kind of connection with him. However just like before he and his banda are keeping a low profile so it was hard to find them or any traces of them at that point.

My hope of finding Antea is slowly shutting and fear is starting to suffocate me. 'What if I don't find her? What if I'm late?'

Since she disappeared a lot of things happened. Emiliano started to walk, he took his first steps just after she left.

Dad also woke up a month and a half ago from his coma. He's like before, it's like nothing happened to him. A week after he woke up we returned home to New York. I needed to return because of company and some mafia business that needed to be taken care of. We weren't there that long because we needed to get back to Italy for a wedding.

Getting out of the shower I dried myself and put clothes on. Exiting the bathroom I looked towards bed finding Emiliano still sleep. A smile made its way on my face as I looked at his peaceful figure.

He looks like an angel. Sleeping so peacefully, without any worries. Not knowing anything about the real world and monsters that live in it. He is still so little and doesn't understand everything.

It's such a relieving feeling to look at him while he is sleeping. Since Antea went into the hospital that day he was keeping all of us on our legs. He wouldn't stop crying and calling for her. It got to that point that he got a fever because of constant crying.

Sighing I shook my head. I'm gonna make sure that he never needs to meet monsters like that. And hopefully, I will find my Antea, mio amore. (...my love.)