Chapter 46: FORTY SIX

CELESTIA

The absences Raffaele was acute when I woke up and felt the vacant space beside mine. Looking around, I found the room empty as well. Since the clock showed that it was too late for a weekday morning, I tried to argue in my head that he must have left in a hurry.

I hopped into the washroom, freshen, and came back to the room to find Lila already rusting with the sheets.

Naturally, we chatted while she was completely unaware of what happened last night. And I wasn’t sure if she could actually go to the length of suspecting something so drastic and forbidden.

In the middle of our conversation, Cesar barged into the room and asked if I could accompany him downstairs.

“Go,” Lila said, smiling. “I will meet you for lunch.”

Nodding, I followed Cesar down the stairs on uncertain footsteps and past the living room. My eyes flew everywhere, hoping to catch Raffaele’s sight, but strangely, he was nowhere to be found.

And why the hell should he stay? I mentally countered and tried to steer my thoughts away in vain.

“Where are we going?” I asked Cesar when he strode down a lustreless direction.

“We have reached,” he supplied vaguely and held a white door open for me.

I slowly peered into it before entering and almost froze on the doorway at the sight. “Mother?” It came out as a shocked whisper.

A small nudge against my back urged me forward, and on instinct, I walked in. My mother immediately rushed forward and pulled me into a hug. In my entire existence, this was a first. I should have been grateful enough for the gesture and accepted for what it was, but I was still pretty dazed.

Did she come here to take me away?

Why didn’t the thought of it make me happy?

“Thank dear God, you are alright. I was worried sick,” she said, pulling back from the embrace.

“I don’t understand. What are you—what is going on?” I asked and looked back at the door, which was already closed by now.

Her face scrunched in regret. “I tried, you know, I tried my best to take you away, but I don’t think he would allow that anytime sooner.”

“He? You mean Raffaele?”

The moment his name slipped out of my lips, I wanted to shove it back. But it was already too late. My mother was immediately startled the way I uttered. It must have sounded too personal or too warm to be shared between a captor and captive.

But there was already a grey between us, and I still didn’t know what it meant.

“Yes, him.” Recovering, Kyla nodded as she stared down at our co-joined hands and then took me towards the grey couch and settled on it. “He has given me ten minutes, so I don’t have much time,” her voice dropped an octave or two as her searching gaze flittered over mine. “It’s frivolous to ask, but I still want to – are you alright? I mean...he did not coerce you into anything, right?”

In all my experiences, it was proven that I was a terrible liar. I might have conned my way into clubs, fibbing over my age, but in reality, lies did not come to me naturally. And in bewildering times like these, it was even dreadful. But did I have a choice?

“No, no, mother. I am fine,” I rattled away and shook my head. “Why would you ask me like that?”

There was a streak of hesitation in her features. Instead of answering me right away, she gently pushed back the hair from my shoulder to let it cascade over the back.

“That’s because Raffaele Roselli has a reputation,” Kyla answered, withholding the details.

I locked eyes with her. “I don’t understand.”

With a heavy sigh, she began. “Men like him—strong, powerful, and influential—they simply like to toy around with things just because they can. It helps to stroke their ego, to make them feel superior.” My heart began to pound so fast, I thought I would explode. “And you, Celestia, are nothing but an entertaining sport to him.”

Tears pricked the back of eyes, and I had to swallow the lump of pain like it was nothing. Like the piece of happiness I felt after waking up was not scattered across the floor in pieces at the revelation of my mother.

A part of me wanted to discard her assessment and scream at her that she didn’t know him the way I do.

But then, did I really know Raffaele Roselli the way I should?

I choked back the misery and tried to work my throat. “Are you trying to tell me that he has done this before? He has held people captive?”

“Particularly girls like you.”

Nothing gutted me ever like the words of my mother echoing in my brain. Girls like you. My stomach clenched, and it took everything to swallow bubbling nausea.

A mirthless huff of a laugh passed her lips as she shook her head in dismay. “Raffaele Roselli knows that he is a good looking man; rich and sophisticated enough to lure people into his trap. And that’s what he does.”

“Mother, no such things happened. He did not do anything wrong,” I told her, but somehow my voice held no conviction.

“Celestia, please don’t trust him ever,” my mother pleaded, squeezing my hands. “Chances are he’d just ruin you. I had to beg and plead with that vicious man just so I could get ten minutes with you. Can you believe how cruel he is?”

I was thoroughly under the impression that I was not a helpless victim, but all these revelations, all these truths began to taint every single interaction and moment I had with Raffaele.

“What?”

Kyla nodded. “I paid him half the amount and promised that I’d pay up the rest as quickly as possible. But he would not let you go. According to him, you are ‘insurance.’ That is how he refers to a human being.”

Anger and hurt knotted deeper, twisting into my cells. Was that all I was to him? “He said that I am insurance to him?” I asked incredulously.

A small part of me wanted my mother to deny the statement outright but had no such luck. She nodded.

“As a mother, I am terrified every passing second that you have to live under his roof. But my hands are tied, Celestia.”

“Why did you steal the money from a man like him? Weren’t we rich enough?” The hurt frothed out in the form of anger directed at my mother.

Her expression veered between shock and remorse. “I did not take the money—I laundered it for someone else.”

“That is another crime,” I exclaimed. “Surely I do not need to tell you that.”

Kyla cast me a contrite look and hung her head. The veneer of powerful businesswoman was slowly slipping away that she had held on to for years. “You think I don’t know? I had no choice.” The desperation in her voice made me feel a little sorry for her. “Someone came to know about your identity and threatened to declare it to the world. And I was scared to lose you. You are all I have after your father.”

“That cannot be an excuse forever, mother!”

“Celestia, you were just a teenage girl then. I did not know what else to do.” Her lips trembled as she gathered herself. “The thing about crime is—once is never enough. You have to do it again and again. And I am afraid that I made a mistake that puts your life in jeopardy.”

As much as I wanted to deny, I couldn’t. What my mother did not know was that my stupid heart was also in jeopardy.

“I promise that I will take you away from here within two weeks. Just be careful until then, alright? Do not, under any circumstances, trust that man, Celestia. Please give your word.”

Wasn’t it too late already?

Forcing a nod, I assured her. “I promise. I’d be careful of him.”

I was vaguely aware as my mother got up and left, but when I turned towards the door to walk back, he was already there. Standing tall in the middle of the room, he stared at me with his hawk-like features. And the words echoed back in my head.

My mother was right—Raffaele was good looking, but his devious soul was as black as tar.

But did I already sell my soul to the devil?