209

Isabella

Damon's eyes flashed red and then returned to their original color.

"Is that what you want? Is that really what you want, Mia Bella? Think about this," he urged.

"I want revenge," I said firmly.

 "I want them to feel what I felt. I want Recolletti to feel what I felt and watch as the life you brought into this world disappeared. I want her to go through exactly what I went through."

"You're not calm, Bella. When you are, we can talk about this again. I'm not going anywhere. It's not up for discussion. You are going back to the manor, and when you are level headed, we can talk about how best to deal with this," he said, his tone final and imbued with power.

I bit my lip as I felt myself succumbing to it, bending to the man who was king over me. Tears pricked my eyes as my vision began to blur.

"I won't forget this. I won't forget that you tried to stop me, Damon. And I will hate this day," I said, unable to stop the words that were coming out of my mouth as though it was some sort of sick prophecy.

 "You will regret this dearly. You will regret the day you took what was due me! The revenge is due to me! And I will have it one way or another," I declared before storming out of the room.

"I won't forget this. I won't forget that you tried to stop me, Damon. And I will hate this day," I said, unable to stop the words that were coming out of my mouth as though it was some sort of sick prophecy.

 "You will regret this dearly. You will regret the day you took what was due me! The revenge is due to me! And I will have it one way or another," I declared before storming out of the room.

As I scrubbed myself clean under the torrent of hot water back in my room, my body felt as though it was out of my control. Yes, I was angry, but I didn't think I had it in me to say such words to the man I loved.

"What have I done?" I whispered as I lowered myself to the tiled floors of the bathroom and let the shower beat at me, flushing away the tears that came out of my eyes.

 "Oh my God," I said as I clutched to my now empty womb and curled into a ball as I continued to cry. I only emerged from the shower when the water began to run lukewarm and then cold.

My fingers and palms became wrinkly as I toweled myself dry. Feeling heavy, I pulled on a robe, closed it around my stomach, and curled into my bed.

"Hey," I heard Paula say as she entered my room, carrying a tray, most likely dinner that I had missed.

I felt her hand rake through my curls that were still damp from the shower.

 "If you don't dry this, you're going to catch a cold," she said, suddenly withdrawing from me. She returned with the sound of my blow dryer. The heat of the fans slightly jarred me out of my momentary freeze. I sniffled and then pushed myself up to a seated position. "I did something bad, Paula," I confessed.

"What happened?" she asked, unplugging the blow dryer and dropping it to look at me.

"I went to see Damon," I said, "and I said some horrible things to him that I don't mean. I feel like I'm losing a battle. I feel like I'm losing so badly. What's going to happen to me?"

"Nothing is going to happen to you," she reassured me as she started to finger-comb my hair.

"But I feel like I need to avenge my daughter. What do you think your Donna would want?"

"She would want to live. She would want to live her life. Why is it so hard to accept that? But her life was robbed from her, and I feel like I need to justify it with something," I explained.

"You don't have to justify anything. She would have lived a life full of love. She would have had the most perfect parents in the world. But that doesn't mean that because she's gone, you have to take another life in retribution. Even if you have to, you need to reconcile with yourself.

So, I will ask you again: who did your father raise?" her words felt like they were ripping me apart from the inside. I couldn't help but break into another round of tears.

"He didn't raise me to be angry. He didn't raise me to want vengeance. You're right," I admitted softly.

"What am I supposed to do? Wouldn't this betray her?" I asked, feeling conflicted.

"This wouldn't betray her. It would betray your anger. It would betray the maternal instinct you had within you when you found out about your pregnancy. You wouldn't be betraying her," Paula reassured me, pulling me into a comforting embrace.

"So, I will ask you again: who did your father raise?"

"He raised me to be kind. He raised me to be soft and gentle. And that's not a weakness. That's strength," I affirmed as I looked back up at my friend.

"So, are you going to call him now?" she asked after I told her what happened earlier.

"No," I said, "I think I'm going to sleep on this. I don't know exactly what I want to do with them yet, but I know I can't let this happen again."

"Will you at least have some dinner?" she asked, bringing the tray again towards me.

"No, I don't want to be bloated," I declined, leaning back into my pillow and feeling sleep claim me.

"Damon," I whispered into the phone the morning after. "I've made a decision," I said.

Instead of black, I picked green. I wore a green long jumpsuit that was only form-fitting at the waist but loose at the thighs. Paula helped me get my hair into something acceptable, even though she hadn't finished blow-drying it last night. I sneezed suddenly, making her laugh.

"That's what you get for not finishing it last night," she said after her laughing fit. Through it, finally, less than an hour later, I stepped down from the helicopter and took my time walking from the lawn to the stairs.

Standing in front was Alessandro, who gave me a nod before leading me inside.

Once again, Damon sat in the parlor, sipping on the same glass of whiskey from the same bottle that apparently he hadn't finished. He got up as soon as I stepped into the room, walked over to me, and pulled me into a hug.

"I love you, Mia Bella. It doesn't matter what you've been through, I will always love you. There's no other woman for me," he said.

 I felt tears well up in my eyes once again. I pushed at him until I was able to look him in the eye.

 "If you talk like that, I'll start crying again, and I think I've spent too long shedding tears. Just take me to them," I said.

He held my hand and led me out of the parlor to the kitchen and then down into the basement.

 "I had only been there once," I told him as we stepped into the tunnels.

 "I was playing hide and seek with Cassandra and my cousins. It was crazy because I was stuck down here for like five hours. I was hungry, I was dirty, and there were rats everywhere," I said as I saw another rat crawling out from the shadows. Damon's laughter echoed around us as we walked deeper into the tunnels.

Right up ahead was the figure of a slim man who was hunched over. His long shoulder-length hair covered his face like a curtain.

 His pale skin stood stark against the black long-sleeve shirt he wore, which was open at the chest and pulled up to reveal his forearms at the sleeves.

He suddenly pushed his hair back, revealing striking pale blue eyes, a straight nose, thin pink lips, and a slightly pointed chin, making him look slightly effeminate.

"You must be Raven," I said as we got closer to him. He bowed in response and lifted my hand to his lips as he planted a kiss.

 "And you are the one that stole my boss's heart. I will let you have it only if you can loan him to me for a few days."

"Stop that, Raven," Damon said as he covered his face and pushed him out of the way.

After a few minutes of walking, we stopped in front of a dimly lit cell, inside of which were three women huddled together.

 Their pallid faces were stained with dirt, ash, and a bit of blood. Damon snapped his fingers, and the lights came on, making them flinch further into the corner of the room.

In some ways, they resembled rats scurrying away from the light, rather pitiful for people who I thought were so proud they wanted to explode the city.

"Who are you?" the younger one asked. I smiled, slightly perplexed and surprised.

"You mean you don't know who I am? You were fighting against him. You're fighting against me. The city... it's custodian. He's holding it for my sake.

I am Isabella Montenegro, and all of you belong to families that stabbed my father in the back. You are also the sister of the man who caused the death of my child."

 Her face fell, but soon her eyes blazed with fire. "Then why didn't you come out all the time?"

 "It wouldn't have mattered. Your family and mine... your father was one of those who caused mine to fall. Even though he wasn't in the city when it happened, he stood by my uncle.

He supported my uncle, and the worst part of all, he tried to kill me more than once. He conspired with my cousin, and together they ran my city into the ground. Initially, I thought I would do this for revenge, but I can't.

I wanted to kill you in front of your mother so she would feel the pain of losing a child, but I realized she had already lost one, even though he was mad and driven by death and carnage.

 But now, I look at all of you, and I feel pity. Perhaps you were just victims of circumstance, or perhaps you were just evil through and through, but it doesn't matter. What matters is you were fully conscious of your attempt to destroy the entire city, as well as the hundreds of thousands of lives within it.

That I cannot allow. I cannot allow you to live. I've decided, as the true owner of the Mafia throne, that the three of you will face execution. This will happen in front of City Hall and will be broadcasted to everyone.

This will serve as a warning to all who wish to stand and oppose me or the current mafia king.”