Chapter 169

Chapter 169
The sound of his footsteps echoed in the shed like a sentence being read aloud. Each step Oliver took toward me made my body scream to run, but I couldn't move. My legs were stiff, my hands cold, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure everyone could hear.

"You think I don't know?" he repeated, his voice heavy with a pain so deep it seemed to have taken root inside him.

I didn't answer. Not because I was speechless, but because any words would die before leaving my mouth.

Oliver stopped in front of me.

"What's your name?" he asked, in an unexpectedly calm tone.

I hesitated. For a second, I thought about not saying. I thought about lying. I thought about everything that could protect me from this broken and dangerous man. But something inside me—perhaps the same impulse that made me speak before—won.

"Rachel," I replied, my voice low.

He inclined his head, as if testing the name.

— Rachel… — he repeated. — Are you one of Vincenzo's lovers?

My stomach clenched. Silence was my only response. I couldn't deny it. I couldn't explain it. I couldn't even breathe properly.

Oliver smiled slightly, a short, humorless smile. And then, he began to turn back toward Rafael.

My heart almost stopped.

Instinctively, I looked at Vincenzo.

It was quick. A reflex. A silent plea for help, for strength, for anything.

But Oliver saw.

He stopped mid-movement and looked back at me. Then, he followed my gaze to Vincenzo. Something clicked into place there, before my eyes, like a cruel piece of a puzzle.

— No… — he murmured. — You're not a lover.

I felt the blood run cold in my veins.

He moved even closer, invading my space, and held my face firmly, forcing me to look at him. I tried to hold his gaze, but I failed. My eyes drifted back to Vincenzo, as if he were my only anchor point in that hell.

"I know that look," Oliver said, almost in a whisper. "I've seen that look before."

My chest tightened.

"Do you love him?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

But I didn't need to.

A tear rolled down my face, slow, treacherous, revealing everything I was trying to hide.

Oliver let go of me as if he'd been burned. His eyes darkened. Not in surprise. In confirmation.

"Love…" he murmured, with contempt and pain mixed together. "It's always love."

Before I could react, he grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me brutally toward Rafael. My body stumbled, my hands tried to grip something, someone, but there was nothing but emptiness.

"No!" I screamed, unable to contain myself.

Vincenzo took a violent step forward.

"Let her go!" his voice boomed through the warehouse.

Oliver was faster.

The pistol pressed against Vincenzo's head with a precise, rehearsed, deadly movement.

"One more step…" Oliver said, with absolute coldness, "…and you die."

Vincenzo stopped immediately.

I saw the exact moment he forced himself to obey. I saw the hatred in his eyes. I saw the despair. I saw the love. And that almost broke me.

Thugs appeared around me. Rough hands grabbed me. Ropes tightened around my wrists. I fought, I struggled, but it was useless. They tied me up too quickly, too tightly.

Others surrounded Vincenzo, Nancy, and the bodyguard.

Nancy tried to react, cursed, shouted something I couldn't understand, but she was knocked to the ground along with them. In seconds, they were all on their knees.

I looked around, desperate.

Rafael was there. Terrified. Crying silently. Tied up. Too small for that horror.

Vincenzo was on his knees, surrounded, with the gun still pointed at him.

And I… I was trapped in the center of it all.

Oliver watched us like a conductor before his most cruel work.

I knew, with a clarity that hurt more than any physical wound, that the worst was yet to come.

And that love—love, of all things—had become the most dangerous weapon in that war.

The crying came silently, as if even my tears were afraid to make a sound. They streamed hot down my face as I stared at the dirty floor of the warehouse, trying to understand at what point in life everything had become this. I wondered, desperately, when this madness would end. If it would ever end.

"What do you want?!" Vincenzo shouted, his voice tearing through the heavy air. "Money? Power? Tell me now!"

Oliver laughed. A laugh devoid of any joy.

"I want you to feel," he replied slowly, "exactly what I've felt all these years."

My whole body trembled.

"A man cannot escape unscathed from his own mistakes," Oliver continued. "I paid for mine. Every day. Now it's your turn, Vincenzo."

"I never authorized the killing of children!" Vincenzo yelled, trying to stand despite the guns pointed at him. "Nor of families! The mafia was family to me!"

The word "family" seemed to trigger something dark in Oliver.

He turned in a swift, violent movement.

He struck Vincenzo across the face with the gun.

The dry sound of the impact echoed through the shed.

Everything fell silent.

I screamed, but the sound died stuck in my throat. My heart felt like it had stopped inside my chest. Vincenzo fell partially, supporting his body with effort, blood beginning to trickle from a deep cut on his forehead.

He didn't react.

He didn't try to fight back.

I knew why.

It was because of me.

Oliver approached him, leaning in like someone curious about something unexpected.

"Family?" he asked, with contempt. "How can you talk about family if you've never had one?"

Vincenzo's blood dripped onto the floor. He didn't lift his face. He didn't answer. I saw how much it cost him. I saw how much it hurt to swallow his own fury to stay alive.

"Look at that…" Oliver said ironically. "You bleed. I really didn't know that was possible."

My stomach churned.

Then he turned his back to Vincenzo.

And started walking toward me.

Each of his steps seemed to echo inside my skull. I pulled hard on the ropes, feeling them burn my skin. Rafael cried softly beside me, his small body trembling. I tried to get as close to him as I could.

"No…" I murmured, feeling panic engulf me.

Oliver stopped before us, watching Rafael as before, with that sick, calculating look. The gun descended slowly, getting dangerously close.

That's when everything happened at once.

"NOW!" Vincenzo roared.

I looked up in time to see him lunge at Oliver.

It was fast. Brutal. Desperate.

Oliver couldn't turn around in time. They both fell to the ground hard, rolling amidst screams and blows. The gun slid a few meters, causing immediate chaos.

The warehouse exploded in motion.

Oliver's henchmen advanced, trying to protect him. Vincenzo's bodyguard lunged at them with deadly precision. Sounds of punches, bodies colliding, screams in different languages ​​filled the air.

"Nancy!" I yelled, with all the strength I still had.

She didn't hesitate.

Nancy ran to me, her eyes wide, but determined. Her hands trembled as she tried to undo the knots of my restraints.

"Hold on… hold on…" she murmured, more to herself than to me.

Rafael was crying loudly now.

"It'll pass, my love," I said, trying to sound firm, even with the world crumbling around us.

I heard a gunshot.

Then another.

Time seemed broken. Each second was an eternity. Each movement could be the last.

I saw Vincenzo fighting like a wounded animal, driven by something greater than anger. It was love. It was desperation. It was the instinct to protect.

When my hands finally broke free, I pulled Rafael tightly to me, hugging him as if my body could be a shield against everything.

Nancy shouted something I didn't understand.

The shed was hell.