Chapter 31: THIRTY ONE

CELESTIA

The arc of supercharged air almost made me numb. Along with the presence of Raffaele, who was standing so close that I could actually feel the heat coming off him.

His expression hung between shocked and angry, and I didn’t know the reasons behind neither of them. Besides, he was so considerate in the morning, so compassionate...and suddenly mad? I was getting some severe whiplash of his attitudes.

“Rafe, what happened?” Amadeo tried to interrupt his brother, but unfortunately, his gaze and fury were all directed at me, pinning me down with brown eyes that almost turned black under his seething rage.

With a raised palm, he quickly shut his brother and raised an expectant brow at me.

“I was just…talking to Amadeo,” I blinked up and whispered almost as if I was guilty. And to amend that, my chin tipped up in slight defiance.

“I was looking for you—everywhere,” he snarled.

That perked my temper a notch higher. My fingers squeezed the wine glass tighter as my nose flared. I was too angry to speak or retort. So, I downed the rest of the drink in a grudge and slammed down the glass on the table.

If anyone asked me how the wine tastes, I would say it felt better when chugged down in utter annoyance.

“Well, it isn’t my fault that house looks like Hogwarts. Besides, how the hell am I supposed to know that you were looking for me?” Maybe it was the wine or the fact that Raffaele’s mood was giving me whiplash, but a dormant volcano erupted out of me.

A heavy silence descended as he absorbed my words, and suddenly there was a sound of laughter that sliced the air. Both our heads whipped around as Amadeo pretended to curb his chuckle.

“Sorry, sorry!” He looked between us in amusement. “You both are a little funny when you fight.”

“Perhaps, Celestia forgot her place in here,” Raffaele indicated in a low tone.

If I was angry before, I was livid now. “Or maybe you are a psycho who simply likes to shout and yell at people for no reason whatsoever.”

I watched as his face turn as dark as thunder. His jaw clenched, and unadulterated fury glowed brightly in his threatening stare. From my peripheral vision, I could see that Amadeo has lost his smile by now and slowly rose from his seat. He was trying to back me down, but I was way down the rabbit hole to come back.

All my life, I was pushed into the shadows and whims of my mother. I lived my life on the terms set by others, and the fundamental freedoms were taken away from me in the name of safety.

As bizarre as it was, the little freedom of expression I experienced here made me happy—made me feel like a human. And I was not ready to crumble down under someone else’s hammer once again.

“If you are done glaring at me, I am going back to my room,” I announced and was about to walk past him before matching his temper. “So, next time, when you can’t find me, don’t yell and shout.”

I was halfway to the door when his voice stopped me dead in my tracks. “Your mother called.”

I whirled around so fast, my head spun, and vision blurred. “What?”

A cruel smirk adorned his face. I knew Raffaele was getting back into his game. The kind of game where he made the rules and broke them at his leisure. And this was the game where I was a pawn.

“Instead of ten million, now Kyla has to pay me fifteen for pulling a stupid stunt like that. And this means you have to stay here longer than intended.”

The confirmation that my mother was responsible for such an assault shook me to the core. Of course, I was acquainted by the facts already, but her admittance still hurt. All my life, she curbed my freedom in the name of protection. And now that I actually needed to be saved, she sent a pack of wolves to devour her own daughter?

In stony silence, I watched as Raffaele sauntered—no, stalked towards me as I stood there like a deer in headlights.

Where was my courage when I needed the most?

In a flash, his vice-like fingers wound around my forearm and tugged. “Come with me. It’s time you and your mother both need to understand that I am done playing.”

My muscles protested on its own as I planted my feet against the ground. “What…what are you doing, Raffaele?”

“Rafe, wait!” his brother called, hurrying beside us. “Where are you taking her?”

“Kyla wants to see her daughter,” he spoke as if I was a tool. “This is the last proof until she pays upfront. Let’s go.” The last line was directed to me as he stormed out of his brother’s room and dragging me in his wake.

“What happened to you? Let me go!” I resisted, fought, and cried, but Raffaele seemed to be completely closed off. In fact, he was behaving like a different person altogether.

He hauled me across his lavish villa as my steps stumbled and faltered along the way until we reached a room much smaller than the rest. It seemed like a sort of a home-office with an L-shaped table and a giant PC screen. The rest of the room was a bland of grey and white.

“What is wrong with you?” I almost yelled as he released my arm. The angry red imprint of his force was blooming as the blood flow finally returned. It was definitely going to bruise later.

“Quiet!” he roared. In an attempt to get away from him, I was backed against the wall. “I have given you too many liberties, Celestia, and that ends today. Your mother better not have the audacity to send her two-cent mercenaries in my fucking property!”

I didn’t know the conversation my mother had with him earlier, but whatever it was, ticked him off. And something that I feared ever since morning was slowly coming true.

Raffaele was taking it out on me.

But it wasn’t fair. He made me a promise, a promise he sealed with a kiss, and now he was breaking like it meant nothing. Every breath I took in his presence felt—like a razor blade through my lungs, hurting and bleeding.

“You are a bloody liar!” I cursed for the first time in my life out of suppressed pain and utter helplessness.

But it cast no effect on Raffaele. He stood towered over me with a thick veil of calm rage and blocked my path with the body. He pushed a hand into his pocket, digging out something I didn’t understand until it came into my view.

Zip tie.

In a flash, he turned me to the wall and hard-pressed my body with his as he breathed down on me. “I want to go easy on you, so do not attempt anything stupid,” he seethed warningly.

Next thing I know— that my hands were wrenched behind my back, and my wrists were looped through the zip tie as he tightened.

“You know how a restraint works, Celestia. If you wriggle too much, it will tighten and cut off your blood supply.”

“That would be so much better than getting tortured by your hands,” I snarled back.

Even though he took a couple of steps back, the heel of his hand was pushed between my shoulder blades to keep me in place. “I knew you wouldn’t cooperate,” I muttered more to himself and dug into his pockets.

A strip of cloth appeared to my view and slapped over my lips before I could protest.

“Uhh-nmmm!” I shook my head frantically in order to escape, but it was already too late. He tightened knot at the back of my head and spun me back to face him.

I was expecting some sort of smirk or a twisted expression, but what I saw cemented the fear in my heart further.

Raffaele was cold, impassive like he was made of a thousand shards of ice and devoid of compassion and kindness.

Long, cruel fingers dug into the back of my head and yanked as he brutally took me to the nearby chair in front of the PC screen. With one of his hands still weaved into my tresses, he fired up the computer screen and dialled an unknown address into the chat window.

In all possibility, it was a call to my mother—I knew that for sure. And in the next five seconds, it turned out I was right.

When the screen came alive with my mother’s unmistakable face, the burst of sudden tears flooded down my cheeks. She was sitting comfortably on a couch, with her hair and makeup intact, as if there was nothing unusual in her life. While I was here—gagged and bound and tormented for her mistakes.

At that precise moment, I think I hated my mother more than I hated Raffaele.