Chapter 88

Chapter 88
Arianna POV: 

I couldn’t help but laugh at my current situation. I knew that trying to put my father behind bars was going to end badly. I knew it was a fool's mission, but I had done it anyway, blinded by hope and love. If I had listened to the logical part of my brain, perhaps I wouldn’t be here. 

“Who helped you get the bank account information?” he asked me, but I wasn’t really paying attention. He pulled a knife out and waved it in my face. 

I hope when they do find me, Gio goes home. I hope he doesn’t try to avenge me. That, too, was a useless wish: he would burn the world to the ground when he saw me. 

“Who helped you?” My father repeated. His teeth gritted. “The only way you get the sweet release of death is to give me answers.”

We both knew that was a lie. He was far too angry with me, I had betrayed him. Hell, I hadn’t even given him a chance to enact his plans. He had this vision in his head of his prodigal daughter returning and solving all of his problems, and instead, I had become his downfall. I had made every wrong decision in his eyes. 

He took the knife and ran it across my leg slowly, the serrated edges tearing me apart. I tried to keep the cry inside, but it was next to impossible. A whimper slowly escaped me until I howled. 

He grinned in satisfaction. He didn’t care about the questions or the answers, anybody who had even breathed in our direction was going to be buried. That was the only way he remained in control. He knew that, and I knew that. 

If Giovanni had any sense, he’d return to Italy and hide. He won’t, though, he was already running around trying to find my father, turning over empty stones in the wrong direction. 

He asked me another question, but this time he completely took the knife out again, and again, I let out a wail. Let him enjoy himself, have his phone while I sit here and slowly bleed out. 

I looked over and saw Guilia in the corner. Perhaps my chiefest mistake in this entire saga was trying to see the good in her. She had been the one to kill our mother. I think I had known it for a while, but I didn’t wanna believe it. 

Even now, as she stared back at me, a wicked grin on her face as if she had won some stupid game, I still wanted her to understand that it didn’t have to be this way, but I didn’t blame her. I knew she was just a product of her upbringing. All those nights alone as my father had gone out, God knows where, doing God knows what, only to be trapped once more when he got back for saying the wrong thing. She had been used to persuade men into doing my father’s bidding, and I don’t even wanna know how long it has been happening. 

I felt a tear escape from my eye. After all this, after everything we’ve done, even her running me over, she was my sister, and I felt a responsibility for her. Knowing everything that had happened to her. It gave me an excuse. I still loved her. Don’t get me wrong. I saw her as she was. She was a spoiled brat who always tried to get what she wanted, and if she didn’t, she’d kill you with no remorse. But it could have been me in that situation as well, and I wished At this very moment it had been. Then my sister could have had a better life. 

That shall be my one regret, then, before I die. That she had to suffer so much. 

Giovanni will burn them to the ground or die trying, but at least we had each other for that short while. At least we had someone to care for and touch us, make life full and beautiful. 

I felt my mind slipping away from me as another scream was dragged from my throat. I don’t think I had much time left. 

I thought I heard gunfire, now I knew I was going insane. 

“Godammit!” My father shrieked and stabbed the knife into my leg to hold the blade while he stomped off. I screamed in a sharp tone. 

My ears rang, and I waited for my father to return. I looked around, trying to focus my blurry vision. 

“Stop it! Stop it!” Guilia shrieked, and I spun to look at her as Marco carried her out of the barn. 

Men shouting at him and flailing to pull their gun and shoot, torn between Huilia and the action outside. 

Marco…

My heart skipped a beat. There was no way it was possible. He couldn’t be here. 

“Giovanni!” I called for him. “Gio!” 

If there was a god, I prayed that Gio could hear me over the gunfire, that he knew I was in here. 

“Shut her up,” one of them said, and a big, dumpy man came in front of me, slamming his fist into my face. 

It didn’t work, but it knocked me over, and I was able to see more of the action. 

I saw the pops of light as guns shot back and forth beyond the door. The two men are left in here with me. 

My father stomped back inside, grabbed me, and placed me back up and kneeling. 

“Your boyfriend really is a tiresome little pest,” he told me as he untied the rope.

I let some of the blood that had been trickling down my throat pool in my mouth for a second before I shot it out through my teeth. 

It hit my father in the face, and I laughed. 

“You are the most stupid, poisonous little bitch,” he growled, grabbing my hair and pointing a gun at the doors as they opened. 

Giovanni stood there, gun at the ready. He shot the one who hit, and his father popped off his gun in the air. 

“I’ll kill her!” He shouted. “You know I will!” 

“Yes, I know you will,” he stated, laying down his gun, his eyes darkening as he saw me in my current state. 

He still looked beautiful, like something from a dream. 

“Now here’s the deal, you're both gonna be buried in a shallow grave, and that’s gonna be the end of it. We just gotta pick who goes first,” my father announced. 

Then, from another door to the side of the barn, Luca poked his head out. One gunshot rang out. The hand gripping my head went limp. The man next to me started running, and Giovanni grabbed his gun, dropping him. 

I looked down to my left, there he was. No more smirk on his face. His mouth hung open in shock. 

Sirens filled the air, and I tried to hang on, but I just couldn’t. The relief filled my body, and my brain let go. I drifted off away from all the action into total darkness.