Cataleya Valentina Velez:

For six years. She has been holding it inside for six years. A tear escapes my eyes and I just noticed that I've been crying the entire time.

I didn't like Rio, but now I hate him. How could he act like that towards Andrea? He's absolutely heartless.

'Neveah-' She gets off the bed and forces a smile at me. 'But I'm okay now. I just didn't want to talk about it.'

Her story is one of the worst stories I've ever heard and I feel so sorry for her. But I'm also a little hurt and angry.

I trust Neveah the most out of everyone, besides my mom, and she didn't tell me about the big things in her life.

All this time, she told me that her parents died because of a heart attack. She never wanted to talk about it and I let it be because I didn't want to remind her of the fact that her parents had died.

But it was all a lie. They did die, just not in the way she said.

The fact that she kept it all to herself scares me. All this time, six fucking years is a long time, she kept it to herself. She kept it inside and suffered in silence.

'Why didn't you tell me?' I ask. She looks at me, and if I wasn't crying already, I would break down right here and now.

She doesn't know why exactly and that hurts even more. Did she feel like she couldn't trust me?

'I didn't do it on purpose, I swear!'

I get up and walk over to her. 'Do you not trust me enough?'

She shakes her head and grabs my arm to grasp my attention.

'Of course I trust you, you're my best friend!' I've never seen Neveah this worried about anything in her entire life. 'What was it then?'

'I didn't want to put you in danger... Because-' 'Omertá. And because we would've killed you.' a voice finishes her sentence.

We both stare at the person at the door, but his eyes are on Neveah only. God that piece of shit!

I lunge at him, but Neveah pulls me back before I can even go near him. 'He's not worth it!'

'You're a tough one, little girl.' Leonardo snorts, before walking towards the windows.

How did he even get in? 'If you have any questions, you can ask me. Rio won't be as nice as I am.' He smirks.

Neveah simply gives him a death-stare, but he doesn't seem to care. All he cares about is the fact that she's looking at him.

'Get out Tiago.' His smirk only grows at hearing her calling him that again. Tiago.

But he listens to her. Leonardo slowly makes his way to the door and looks over his shoulder. 'You better be down in five minutes.' He mumbles, leaving the door open just a small bit before leaving.

'Look, I get that you're angry but we can't be fighting if we want to get out of this place.' She sighs and as much as I want to talk back, she's right.

'As soon as we're home, we're going to talk.' I demand and she nods immediately. She wants to tell me everything if that meant that we would get out of this together.

'So what's the plan?' 'First, we need to see where we are, because.' She points to the big windows, 'last time I checked, Milan didn't have a beach.'

I walk towards the window and look outside. The coral blue water shimmers in the sunlight as waves crash against the rocks.

If we were here in better circumstances, I would've enjoyed it. But I don't even know where we are, why we're here, and how we got here.

'We have to get one of them alone... Otherwise, we won't ever get out.'

A knock on the door makes us both stop talking.

'Come on girls, I said five minutes!' A voice down the hall yells. It's unmistakably Leon, but why does he sound so far away?

Slowly the door opens and an older-looking woman smiles at us. She looks like she's in her sixties, yet she's wearing a skirt with a white apron above it. A typical maid outfit.

'You've got to be kidding me..' I mumble and all Neveah can do is sigh.

These men are rich as fuck and they want us? What the fuck can we give them?

'Master Curzio wants you two to come down.' Master? These sick motherfuckers presumably have bigger pride than anyone I've ever met.

'Tell your master that he can get us himself.' Neveah smiles at the lady, before turning back to me.

The old lady quietly walks back into the hall and closes the door behind her.

'What did Rafael mean by saving us?' I ask since I don't remember anything besides blacking out and Neveah's screams.

'There was an attack on the club and they saved our lives...' she explains as best as she can, but it still doesn't answer my biggest question. Why?

'Girls, just come down here!' Leon sighs, his speech creeping closer to the door. 'Rio doesn't like to wait.'

Neveah and I look at each other, not knowing if we should even go anywhere near these psychopaths.

But then I'm reminded by Rio's words. He knows where I live. Or where I used to live. He knows where my mother lives. Shit...

'Let's go.' Neveah nods, knowing we have to talk to them at some point.

We walk towards the door and open it slowly, waiting to see Leon or the elder woman. But no one is in front of the door.

'Finally.' We look to our right and see Leon standing at the top of the stairs. His eyes are, again, on Neveah and Neveah only. What the fuck is his deal?

'Come on, Rio's waiting.' I knew this had something to do with Rio. He seems to be the leader around here.

In total silence, we follow Leon down the stairs. He's whistling a melody and doesn't seem to be bothered by us.

'If they're cousins, why do they look so much alike?' Neveah looks at Leon, to see if he heard my question, which he obviously didn't since he's too busy whistling, and sighs. 'I don't actually know.'

The only rooms we've been inside so far have been the office and the bedroom upstairs. We've seen the hall upstairs and the entrance-hall, but that's it.

Leon swiftly moves towards a dark-colored double door, on the left side of the big staircase, and opens it.

We follow him inside and look around. It's some kind of meeting room. The entire right wall is made out of glass. A large glass table is placed in the middle of the room with at least ten seats to sit on.

The chairs are simple, just black leather seats, but the chair at the end of the table was different. It was made out of dark wood and had emblems carved into it.

At the left side of the room, against the wall, was a big cupboard filled with all types of liquor and glasses.

There he stood, filling two glasses with something that looks like white wine, not even facing us, but assuming our presence.

'What took you so long Miss Velez?' Leonardo walks over to the right seat, at the end of the table, and lowers himself into one of the chairs. 'And Miss North of course.'

Rio turns around and looks at the both of us. His eyes feel like they're burning through me, but I don't dare look away.

'Cat got your tongues?' He seemed more annoyed now, even though we didn't really do anything.

I follow his figure to the table and keep my eyes on his every move. The last time I thought that I was faster, he tied me to a chair. But that won't happen this time. Or ever again.

He places the two glasses of wine on the table and looks at us again.

'I bet you have a million questions,' Rio sighs, before sitting down at the end of the table, in the big chair of course, 'We will only answer them if they're relevant.'

'Relevant to you or us?' I muttered. The fact that I spoke, made Leon look up from his phone.

Rio sighed and looked at me, disappointed that I decide to open my mouth, but I couldn't care less. This man is keeping us here, for no goddamn reason.

We stare at each other for what feels like ages. All until Leon clears his throat and looks at Rio.

'She seems a little intrigued in our family line, Rio.' He states, smirking like crazy. So he did hear me?

'Is that so Miss Velez?' He keeps calling me Miss Velez, even though he knows my name.

'I just wondered how you could look so much alike if you're solely cousins.' I state, folding my arms in front of my chest.

'Our fathers were twins. Identical twins to be exact.' Leon spoke, lightly smiling at me. Rio didn't seem to like the tone in his cousin's voice towards me but didn't say anything about it.

Just for a moment, the whole room went quiet and we all just looked at each other.

'Where are we?' Neveah asks. I can tell that she has so many questions she wants to ask, but won't. Simply because they probably won't answer.

'Rome.' Leon immediately answers, 'Or just outside Rome.'

Rio nods, before filling an empty glass with whiskey and taking a sip of it.

'What day is it?' The two men look at each other and back at us. 'It's Tuesday, the 24th of July.'

Neveah and I look at each other, not really knowing what to say. Just yesterday we were celebrating my twenty-first birthday in Milan and here we are, in a place near Rome, kidnapped by these psychos.

'Ladies, please sit and drink something.' I look at Leon, who points at the two glasses of wine placed on the table.

I am so not drinking wine from these people. God knows what they put in there.

'No thanks.' Neveah sneers, before walking towards a chair, on the opposite side of the table. 'Why are we here?'

Slowly, I walk over to the seat next to her. I'll let her talk for now since she knows them already. I just hope she knows what she's doing.

'As I said, we saved you so you owe us.' Rio repeats. And yet again, he doesn't answer the question with what we want to know. Why did he save us?

He could've just let us get killed, then he wouldn't have been so annoyed and we wouldn't have to go through all of this right now.

'Owe you?' He nods at my words and takes another sip from his glass. 'You'll work for us in our hotels.' Hotels?

'Why did you save us?' 'Is that even a real question, Miss North?' Rio seems to like this. He seems very pleased by the idea of us not really knowing what the fuck is going on.

'Yes. Yes, it is.' They look at each other as if they're ready to kill one another. I just know that Neveah won't win this one from him.

'When will you let us go?' Leon starts laughing at my question and I notice Rio's lips curling up into a grin. 'Until you paid off your debt.'

The way he says it, makes it seem like we are never getting out of here and that's the last thing that I want to happen.

The room goes quiet again and it's getting awkward. Then, just as Leon wanted to say something, a phone chimes. It's Rio's.

He looks at the screen and sighs deeply. 'If that was it, ladies. I have to take this.' And with those words hanging in the air, he walks out of the room.

I have so much more questions, but it's too late. He won't give us the information we need anyway. Neither of them will.

'You two can go up to your room, I will let Manuela come and get you once dinner is ready.' Leon says before walking after Rio.

Neveah sighs and gets up from her chair. I follow her to our room. We have to find a way out of this place and since they kind of left us to roam for ourselves, we could find a way to escape. This could be our chance.

'So what's the plan?' I ask when I hear the bedroom door close behind us.

'We need to get one of them alone or simply make a run for it, but I don't believe that last one is even an option.' I nod, knowing they would run after and maybe even shoot us.

'How did you get out last time?' I ask, curious about how the hell she got out. If they acted the same way back then, why don't we just use the same tactic she did.

'At night, but there are way more people around here now.' She sighs, trying to come up with a solution to our problem.

I sit down on the kingsized bed in the middle of the room and look at the window. 'Maybe we could tie together all the fabrics in this room and create some kind of rope, so we could climb down?'

'With all the windows downstairs, no. You've seen the windows in the meeting room.' I sigh because she's completely right. If one of them was in the meeting room, they would immediately notice.

'And I think I saw a security camera in the hall.' Fuck.. I hoped that they didn't have those here, but of course, they do. 'So we might need to look around if there are more of those.'

I nod and get off the bed again. 'Let's do that right now. I want to get out of here.' She nods as well and walks towards the door.

We walk through the hall, down the stairs. The only camera I see is the one near the main entrance. I just hope that there is a back door somewhere.

'Good evening ladies, what would you like to eat?' The elder lady asks, smiling at us. Neveah and I look at each other, before looking at the old lady again. Neveah doesn't seem to remember the lady, so she must be new.

Either that or Neveah didn't pay attention to anything besides Leonardo.

Speaking of the devil. Leon rushes out of the office, towards the door. He doesn't seem to notice us at all.

'Make lasagna. They'll eat whatever.' Rio, who was standing in the door frame of the office, says to the old lady. 'Okay, Master.'

I almost puke at that name. Master. Rio doesn't seem fazed at all. It's as if they have been saying it ever since he was born.

The old lady follows Leon through the door and closes it behind her, leaving the entire house in almost complete silence.

Neveah pulls me by my arm, towards the kitchen, which was an elegant mix of dark wood and marble kitchen counters, and walks to the kitchen drawers. She opens almost all of them until she finds the one with tableware in it. Knives to be precise.

I grab one of the kitchen knives and look at the serrations. These knives could do some damage, granting us time to run away from this place.

'What are you two doing?' Rio's deep voice startles me. I turn towards him without showing him the knife in my hands. 'We were just looking for something to eat.' Neveah effortlessly lies.

Rio looks at us, curious about what we're actually doing. His hair seems even lighter with the kitchen lights shining on it, making him more handsome than needed.

'There is some food in those cabinets over there.' He points at a few cabinets and walks over to the fridge. His back facing us.

Neveah's eyes widen and I almost do the same. This is the perfect chance to attack. He won't see it coming.

I dip my head towards him and look at Neveah, who's nodding like crazy. She also grabs a knife and we both creep upon him.

Just as we're about to attack, Rio swiftly turns around, slapping the knife out of Neveah's hand and pushing me against the kitchen counter.

Somehow he managed to turn the knife towards me, slightly pressing it against my chest.

'Miss Velez..' He sighs, again disappointed by my actions, 'I thought I made it pretty clear last time.'

Neveah groaned since her hand must be hurting from his slap. I notice her reaching for the knife again, but Rio seems to be able to read minds or something.

He pulls something from his back pocket and points it at Neveah's head. It's a gun. He presses it just between her eyes, ready to pull the trigger. And all of this, while still pressing the knife against my chest. Asshole...

We both gasp for air. This man is something else. Why did we think we could take him out?

'But since Miss North doesn't know yet.' He looks at both of us with no emotions in his eyes, 'Try to run away. Try pulling something like this again, and I'll kill the other one. Understood?'

Neither of us say anything, afraid that if we do, he would simply kill us.

'Understood?' He demands with a hard tone. 'Yes!' We both gulped, before looking at each other quickly.

'Now drop the knife, Miss North.' Rio says, glancing at the shaking knife in Neveah's hand. She immediately drops the knife and takes a deep breath.

'And you.' He turns towards me and sighs again, 'I thought you would consider your mother...' Shit... I forgot about that part again. He knows where she lives...

'P- please don't. It won't hap-happen again.' I stutter, which he seems to enjoy a little too much if you ask me.

Neveah, who is still shaking, looks at us with wide eyes. She didn't know that he knew where we lived in America.

'This will be your last warning, Miss Velez.' I nod like a crazy person.

I was willing to beg on my fucking knees if that meant he would let this go.

'Now go to your room and wait until dinner is served.' He steps back a little and smooths out his shirt. The fact that he could act as if this was just another casualty for him, scared me. Who the hell is this guy!?

I rush over to Neveah and we run up the stairs, locking the door behind us when we get to our room. Not that it will matter, since they have the key!

'What the fuck was that!?' 'He's a psychopath!?' We yell out all the things that come to mind and rant at each other about what happened.

'I didn't know he knew where you lived.' If he touches my mother, I swear to god! 'If he touches her, I swear to god Neveah-'

She tries to calm me down, but the thought terrifies me. He could kill my mom without me even knowing since I don't have a phone or anything with me to contact her.

After a few minutes, my nerves have calmed down and I have finally stopped shaking.

We just lay on the soft bed and look at the ceiling, trying to process what the hell just happened.

Later, as the sun is about to set, someone knocks on the door again. The door slowly opens and we are greeted by the older lady's warm smile.

'Master Curzio wants to invite you over for dinner.' Neveah looks at me and nods, we have been inside our room for two hours straight after what happened, and we're starving.

'Tell him we'll be down in a few.' She smiles again, before closing the door on her way out.

'What if the food is poisonous?' I blurt out. Neveah shakes her head and walks towards the bathroom. 'Rio would've killed us already if he wanted us dead.' I quickly follow her and see myself in the mirror.

I've never looked this bad in my entire life. My hair is all over the place and my eyeliner from yesterday is all smudged. Oh god...

'Have I been walking around like this all day?' Neveah rolls her eyes at me and hands me a little towel from the closet. I put it under the water and wash my face.

It's refreshing and calms me down from all that happened in the past twenty-four hours.

'Ladies!' Leon's voice beams from the hall. I didn't even know he got back already.

We make our way downstairs, into another room we haven't been in before. The dining room.

It looks almost the same as the meeting room, but it had a wooden table and the same chairs all around the table. The room had two walls, almost entirely made out of glass, with a stunning view of the ocean.

The sky turned a deep orange color as the sun was about to set and it was almost romantic. If only Rio wasn't already seated at the end of the table, looking at me with a glass of red wine pressed against his lips.