Chapter 85 Snitch

Chapter 85 Snitch
Antonio and I sit next to each other on the bed. With his hand on my waist and my head on his shoulder, we continue to watch the action movie in front of us in silence. Every once in a while, I glance at Antonio, and whenever I do that, he always gives me an unexpected kiss on my forehead and lips. I can't help but feel guilty inside despite the smile I show him. I'm scared of hurting Antonio in the future. What if all this is real to him? What if he's not pretending to like me? At the end of the day, I'll leave him and be with Dante instead, and that sounds so cruel to me. If he doesn't actually like me and is just pretending, then fuck him. He can go fuck himself and go to fucking hell for deceiving my family and me.

As I focus my eyes on the movie, I fall asleep for a few seconds. When I open my eyes, the movie has shown an entirely different scene. I try to stay awake, but my eyelids droop again, and my head falls from Antonio's shoulder.

Fuck. I can't sleep yet. I need to make Antonio talk. I must stay awake. Tonight is my last chance. There won't be any other chance like tonight.

Antonio looks down at me, and I look at him sleepily, grinning awkwardly like a child who gets caught doing something she shouldn't. Antonio frowns when he realises the state I'm in.

"Are you sleepy? You should go to sleep now," Antonio says.

"Not yet. I still want to watch the movie," I say, laying my head on Antonio's shoulder again. Antonio chuckles and holds my head gently, keeping me in place.

"You can barely keep your eyes open," Antonio says.

I know I can't, but I'll fight through it. If I fall asleep, I lose the battle. That's not what I want, but if it happens, then it is what it is. I can't do anything about it. I'll admit my defeat to my father and force myself to accept him treating me like a child as always.

"Just a little bit more. If I fall asleep again, then I'll go to sleep," I say.

"Alright then," Antonio says.

The knock on my door makes my heart skip. I stare at it, knowing that Dante is behind the closed door. Sitting upright, I tell him to come in. When the door opens, Dante reveals himself. He stares back and forth between Antonio and me, and for a split second, I can see jealousy mixed with sadness in his eyes. He quickly hides his true feelings behind a neutral expression.

Oh god. Did I really strike a nerve this time? Even though Dante already knows I'm only with Antonio to dig out information about his family, I know that he's actually jealous on the inside. He used to be able to hide it, but now that he knows I like him back, it seems like he's having a hard time covering his true feelings sometimes. It's good to know that Dante likes me back, but in times like this, I'm afraid that Antonio will sense there's something between Dante and me, and it will ruin our plan.

Well, now that I think about it, it doesn't really matter if our plan is fucked. As long as I can be with Dante, then fuck it. We barely get anything by making me stay in this relationship with Antonio anyway. We can definitely find another way to reveal the Ricci secrets with the Romanos. It doesn't have to be through me being in a relationship with Antonio. However, I don't think I can give up on this plan just yet. There are so many things we have yet to discover about the Ricci. By staying in a relationship with Antonio, I'll have better access to the family. We don't have to make other people spy on the Ricci. We can easily do it by ourselves. So, yeah. I don't think we can stop everything now, but what I can do is to not get myself too close to Antonio. I don't want to hurt Dante in the process of protecting my family and avenging my mother and brothers' deaths.

"Oh. Sorry for bothering you. I just want to check on you and see if you're fine," Dante says, looking at me. I search his eyes for anything, but now everything's already hidden underneath his usual unreadable expression.

"It's okay. I'm fine now. Don't worry," I say.

"Alright. We need to go back early tomorrow. We'll leave at nine. Your father's order," Dante says.

I don't know why, but I feel like leaving early is what Dante wants, not because of my father's order, and I can't help but smile at the idea. He definitely has had enough of seeing Antonio and me together. If he knows about last night and what I did to Antonio, he'll definitely be even more pissed. Ooh. What if I tell him that tomorrow? Oh, yeah. I'll definitely tell him everything. I want to see how jealous he can be and find out what he'll do about it.

"Okay," I say.

"Okay. I'll leave now," Dante says. He steps out of the room and closes the door again, leaving me with Antonio. Now that Dante's not here anymore, I put my head on Antonio's shoulder again, watching the movie playing in front of us. Antonio also wraps his arm around my back and holds my waist as we sit there next to each in the bed.

"Still watching?" Antonio asks.

"Yeah," I say.

"Alright," Antonio says.

The movie shows us a car chase scene. The protagonist is riding a motorcycle and getting chased by his enemies, who are also riding motorcycles. He rides through the road, dodging cars left and right. He then takes a sharp turn, but the enemies are still on his tail. He then meets a dead end. Surrounded by his enemies, he has no choice but to fight them. The enemies immediately rush towards him, ready to kill him with their sharp knives. The protagonist skillfully dodges their attacks and fights them back with his bare hands.

"I have something to tell you," Antonio says.

Oh? Is this finally the time? Is Antonio finally going to open up about his family? I hope so. I'm so curious about what he'll say, so I'd better stay silent and listen to him now.

"What is it? Is something wrong? Or did something happen?" I ask.

"It's uh- it's about my family," Antonio says.

"What's up with them?" I ask.

"I shouldn't be saying this, but my father is involved in human trafficking," Antonio says.

Wow. He's really snitching on his father. I can't believe the day has finally come. Well, what he's saying is not new to my family and me, but it's definitely an improvement. He finally confesses to what his father is up to. So, does this mean Antonio actually likes me and isn't pretending? Oh, well, fuck.

"I know that your family has a strict rule against human trafficking, so I feel like telling this to you," Antonio says.

What he's saying is right. My father doesn't want to be involved in anything related to human trafficking, not even if it's for saving others. He says the business is risky, and he doesn't want to traffic the wrong people by accident. It's very tricky to transport people, including children, from and into Italy. What if other traffickers are pretending to be someone's family just to get them somewhere else? Yeah, that can absolutely happen.

"How long has he been doing this?" I ask.

"I'm not sure since when, but I just found out a few weeks ago. I overheard him talking about transporting girls in his office, and I don't think it's for a good cause," Antonio says.

Could it be about those girls Fabio transported last week? Yeah. It's definitely them. I wonder how they are doing now. I hate the possibility that filthy perverts have touched them and ruined their innocence. Those poor girls. Oh god. I hope someone has already saved them and the other victims. I can't bear the thought that girls like them have to go through such a cruel experience.

"Are you going to do anything about it?" I ask.

"No. I can't. That's why I'm telling you this. Maybe your father can do something about it. I know we're criminals involved in illegal activities, but human trafficking is a whole other thing. I can't let my father keep doing it, especially to young girls," Antonio says.

So, is he saying he wants my father to stop Fabio from trafficking children? Well, he could do it, but then again, doing it right now might only make things worse. Everything needs to be carefully planned. We can't act recklessly when others' lives are involved. We don't want them to end up dead while we're trying to save them. However, if we really do it and Fabio finds out, won't that mess up my father's relationship with him? If that happens, a war might happen between us, and all hell might break loose. And knowing that the Romanos is possibly on their side, we could easily lose the battle.

"Okay. I'll tell my father about it. I'm not sure if he'll do anything about it, though. It might ruin our families' relationship," I say.

"You're right, but I don't know what else to do to stop him. He's fucking hurting children," Antonio says.

"Okay. I'll see what my father and I can do tomorrow," I say.

"Thank you," Antonio says.

I only nod at him and put my head on his shoulder. After hearing what he said, my desire to watch the movie has completely disappeared, as well as my drowsiness. I can't believe I almost forgot about those girls. If Dante's men haven't done anything to save them, I can't imagine the pain they've went through from being in that place. It's no place for a child nor unconsenting adult. How could someone be so cruel to exploit such innocent human beings? What did they do to deserve such pain?

"Are you okay? I'm sorry for worrying you," Antonio says.

"I'm fine. I'm just worried about those children. The human trafficking industry has always been cruel, and the thought of them getting hurt because of other human's greed and perversion is sickening," I say.

"I hope we can stop it from happening," Antonio says.

"Me too," I say.

We must stop Fabio and the Romanos from doing this. I can't let them keep trafficking more children and hurting them. They don't deserve it. They don't deserve to bre treated like a toy that they can play with however they want and then discard it. No one shouldn't have gone through something like that. We will definitely stop them. We should. We can't be a bystander and let such inhumane things to continue to happen. Not anymore. At least not under our watch.