208

Isabella

I felt a slight tug at the pit of my stomach, a sign that something grave had happened. I looked at the screens in front of me. Everything was normal, except that I saw Damon shrouded in black mist. Suddenly, a surge of negative emotion rose as my hand touched my belly.

"Are you okay?" Paula asked as she stepped into my room.

"No," I said with a bitter smile. "How can I be okay? I lost my baby and potentially the ability to ever get pregnant for the man I love. I may just as well be the last member of my family." I laughed bitterly.

"Bella," Paula said, her voice soft and warm as she sat on the bed beside me. "Don't say that, please."

"Don't say what? Don't say the reality of things?" I replied. "I've looked into my future, Paula. I've looked at yours, and there's light, there's so many beautiful children in your future.

You have babies with you, and you're happy. But me... it's gray, Paula. It's very gray, like a long continuous storm that refuses to let up. There's no eye for this storm. It's just miles and miles of never-ending dark clouds in my vision."

"So what do you want now?" Paula asked gently.

"I want revenge," I said as I turned towards her.

"Bella, you know that's not you. You know, revenge... please, don't talk like that," she pleaded, grabbing my hand and pulling it to her chest. "You're not the kind of person that seeks revenge. Not even when you came back. Not even when you saw Cossandra die, you didn't mention that word once. It was always about the city and your father's legacy. It was never about your personal feelings."

"Well, it's personal now!" I exclaimed, yanking my hand from her grip.

"You don't know what it feels like. You don't know how small and sweet that little spark of life was. She would have been the next mafia Queen. I saw her future.

 She would have ushered us into a new age of prosperity for the city, and she would have expanded it. Everything was beautiful. But that spark of life is gone." Tears ran down the side of my face.

"It's gone, Paula. Even if it was just a hope, if it was God, I wouldn't complain that much. I would just grieve and be done with it. But this feeling, this ache in my chest, it won't let me be until I answer it." I began to hit my chest.

"But it's different. It's not just my daughter that is gone. It's my future, children. My future is gone. Damen... how can he love me the same? How can he love me when there's no future with me? When his dynasty is going to end with him?"

Paula started crying as well and reached for my hand again. "Who did your father raise? And for me, Bella, what kind of woman did your father raise?"

I shook my head. "Someone who shouldn't be afraid to take revenge," I said as I stood up from my bed and walked to my window.

My phone buzzed with a message. "I have them," he said. I walked straight to my closet, feeling Paula's eyes burning holes into my flesh. I rapidly pulled on a pair of black trousers, a black shirt, suspenders, and an overcoat in my hurry.

 As I was walking out of the room, I was pulling on my black gloves after stepping into my shoes.

"Where are you going?" Paula asked, worry in her eyes.

"Talking to the faces of those that caused the death of my child in the first place. I'm going to do this the old ways. I'm going to wipe out the entire family, Paula."

My friend's mouth opened wide as I walked out of the room and headed straight for the helicopter. Dave was standing beside it, waiting for me.

"Let's go," I said and was flanked by one I remembered to be called Mateo. Not long after, the helicopter lowered into my family's estate. From the sky, I could spot ten of Diamond's vans parked around the fountain just before the stairs that led to the front door.

I smiled as Dave landed on the well-manicured lawn behind the boulevards that led from the gates to the fountain. Quickly, I stepped inside the house and found Damon sitting with his legs crossed in the main parlor.

"Where are they?" I asked him as I watched him sip from my father's favorite whiskey glass.

"I'm sure you were aware of the basement of this house. It has miles and miles of catacombs and a prison. They're in one of those. It's quite amazing downstairs," he said, pointing to a seat.

Then he looked different. The air around him seemed to be moving differently, as though it was trying to stay away from him.

"You look scary," I said as I lowered myself down to the seat. He shrugged as he took a sip of the whiskey.

"What happened? Please tell me. Patricia... no, wait, that's Martinez, his wife. She tried to, let's say, blow us all up. But I got there. It was less than a second and I was there. Perhaps if I had that speed, I would have..."

His eyes fell to my belly, and my hand instinctively reached to cover it as I felt danger in his eyes. "I would have saved both of you. This shouldn't have happened in the first place," he said and took another sip of the whiskey.

"That's not what happened. That's not all that happened. Tell me everything they've been," I urged.

"I'll tell you later. I know that I can't keep it from you for long. But for now, don't you want to see them?"

"What am I going to do to them?" I asked, my voice laced with venom.

"I'm going to kill them. And I'm not just going to kill them, I'm going to take everything they have and everything they hold dear, and I will burn it in front of their eyes as they watch it crumble to the ground. Especially Patricia. I'll kill her in front of her mother.”