Chapter 55: Accomplices

"Do you remember how dangerous her husband was? Do you really think this woman isn't involved in the same things he was — or worse? You know I might be right, she's the one who threatened you herself.

She and Fercondiny are in this together, how can you think she's going to manage to change his mind, he has nothing to lose.

He wants revenge.

He believes my father was responsible for the end of his parents' marriage, and in a way, he really was.

I have no way to defend the powerful Dom Aragão.

He was always a womanizer, a womanizer.

That's why he made both my mother and Mikaela's mother suffer so much.

Of course Fercondiny picked the wrong person to be his instrument of revenge.

The right thing would be to take revenge on him, not on us, not on Mikaela, who didn't even know the whole story.

But he wants to strike where it hurts most, and of course Mikaela is the ideal target, being the favorite daughter.

By kidnapping Mikaela, he's making my father suffer.

Did you see his face? Did you? How devastated he is — he'd never look like that over me, don't judge me, please, I'm not being jealous, it's just a fact.

I'm not the daughter of the woman he loved. Mikaela is.

I understand that parents are supposed to love all their children equally, but my father isn't like that. He never was.

Maybe now, in his old age, he's starting to value family. But before, he was a cruel and aggressive man. I did everything I could to stay away from him, that's why, after college, I went to specialize abroad.

While I was there studying, without my knowing it, my mother was dying little by little, from his betrayals."

Romeu listened to all of it, filled with pity.

"I'm so sorry, Silvia, I didn't know your past had been so hard. You never talked about your family — I knew your father was Dom Aragão, but I always thought you two had a good relationship."

She gave a bitter smile.

"Yes, apparently we did — I thought so too, until things spun out of control, and I had to keep up appearances or I'd be punished."

Romeu knew none of what Silvia and her mother had gone through was his fault, but sometimes he felt bad for having always had everything — even if his father had been a bit distant at times because of work, and kept remarrying, he'd never stopped being his father. He'd never had a favorite child; he'd always known how to divide his love among his three children.

Romeu felt grateful for his father in that moment.

He couldn't deny the two of them had their differences — but who didn't? Their personalities were different.

But he was still his father, and he loved him.

And he knew how much a loving father and mother meant in a child's life.

Romeu swore to himself that if he made it through this situation, he'd tell his father how much he loved him, and thank him for all his care and love in the years since his mother's death.

Mr. Petraglia had never been very good with public displays of affection, but it was clear he loved his children and cared about their future.

Romeu had always been irritated by his father's wish for him to marry and have children as soon as possible; he'd never understood why.

And now it seemed everything had become clear, crystal clear to him.

His father just wanted him to be happy, to build a family. And that was exactly what Romeu wanted now — to build a family alongside Mikaela. It was the first time he'd thought about it, the first time he'd wanted to build a family, the first time he'd wanted real change in his life.

Mikaela had arrived like a hurricane, knocking everything out of place, but at the same time she'd put his life in order — she'd transformed it.

Did she have any idea? Did she know how important she was, how special she was to him?

Her whole life, she'd been treated like an ordinary woman. Men had treated her that way, cheated on her, men had deceived her — but Romeu had seen that Mikaela was a diamond, a treasure, and he couldn't let her slip away, couldn't lose the chance to be happy with that wonderful woman.

Silvia had managed to plant an informant inside the hideout — one of Fercondiny's henchmen who owed her a lot of favors, and she'd decided to collect.

"I just got a tip about the location of the hideout.

It's an abandoned warehouse where an old textile factory used to operate, it's in Alvorada, about four hours from here."

Romeu found it strange that Silvia had received such a precise tip about the location of Mikaela's captivity.

If she hadn't seemed so invested in rescuing her sister, he might even have grown suspicious.

Where would that idea even come from, that she'd have some involvement in the kidnapping? Impossible. How would she kidnap her own sister? Thinking that was crazy, absurd.

"How did you get this tip? I didn't know you had contacts in the criminal underworld," Romeu remarked.

"As far as I know, the only criminal in the family is your father."

Silvia rolled her eyes, ignoring the comment.

"Are you going to keep sitting there bad-mouthing my father, or are you going to get ready to rescue Mikaela?"

He sighed.

"Sorry. Of course I'm going to rescue Mikaella. I'm just exhausted, and when I'm like this I end up saying a lot of stupid things.

I can't stand this situation anymore. I don't know if Mikaella is okay. I don't know if they've hurt her, I don't really know who has her, or why they did this.

I believe Pietra and Fercondiny don't have the same motives.

I just want to know what their goals are, whether they really want revenge against your father.

Don't take this the wrong way, but why didn't they kidnap you instead?"

Silvia gave a bitter smile.

"I already told you. I'm not the favorite daughter.

And it wouldn't be so easy to kidnap me — you've already seen that."

Romeu immediately remembered the gun she kept hidden.

It really would be difficult to take Silvia without her trying to defend herself.

"Sorry, today I'm just talking nonsense," he said.

"Then let's go, let's go rescue Mikaela," he said, walking quickly toward the door.

"Hey, wait, where are you going?" Silvia interrupted him.

"What do you mean, where am I going? I'm going to rescue my Mikaela."

"And what exactly do you plan to do to rescue her? Read to the criminals?" Silvia asked, ironic.

"Of course not," he answered.

"So what are you going to do? Sell them a book?"

Romeu fell silent at Silvia's sarcasm.

"So what's your plan?" he asked.

"Honey, I don't have a plan yet. But I do have weapons."

She said, as she opened a crate loaded with guns, grenades, and knives.

Romeu tried to hide his shock.

Silvia was ready for war.

And war was exactly what they'd wage, if Mikaela wasn't handed back.