Repaying the Mafia’s Dept

Emelia

I’ve been waiting for Massimo. It’s been hours. The doctor left a while ago, so I expected him to come and dole out his punishment.

My mind told he me would, but then I remember him saving me.

He called me back from the dead. I heard him.

I remember the man who cried as he held me. His heart beating so close to my ear speaking of love.

Then we got back here, and it was like I entered the Twilight Zone. Everything felt abstract and surreal. Things have been happening around me, and yet I don’t quite know what.

What I’m certain of is that Massimo is furious. I just don’t know what he’s done with that fury. He would have known that either Candace or Priscilla told me about the boat, and since I’ve seen Priscilla twice in the last few hours but no sign of Candace, I’m inclined to believe he knows it was her. I just pray he didn’t do anything to her.

I’ve been in here going crazy with worry, my mind all over the place. I haven’t even thought of the fact that I’m alive. I’m alive, yet the plan went to hell. Dad sent those men to get me. They were shooting at Massimo and his brothers. People died. I never expected that to happen. I’m sure Dad must know by now that we failed.

I recognized one guy. His name was Vlad. I met him at the charity ball. Dad introduced him as an investor.

The door smashes open, and I jump with fright, leaping off the bed.

Massimo stands before me like a raving lunatic, eyes red and face blotchy. Rage and fear are all over his face.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I’ve never seen him look afraid until today as he held me. This is worse.

“Tell me what happened. Tell me everything. And don’t you dare lie to me.” He raises his right hand and balls it into a tight fist. In his left is an envelope. “Skip the parts about Candace. I know that part. She’s already filled me in.”

I start to shake.

“Talk, Emelia, tell me what happened!” he demands. “Things were good between us, then you suddenly decided to do this today?”

“I saw you with Gabriella. She was sitting on your lap in the sitting room. Naked.”

“I didn’t do anything with her.”

“You didn’t push her away either. And what about last night? Where were you? I saw the message she sent you telling you to go to her, and you went.”

“I didn’t. Fuck, Emelia, fucking hell. I think I’ve proven to you more than once that I will only tell you the truth. I didn’t see her until today. I would never cheat on you.” His gaze clings to mine and he grits his teeth. “I threw her out and made sure she knew to never try anything like that with me again.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to think…” I manage, but rage still fills his stare.

“Tell me what your father had to do with this. You called him.”

“At the fundraiser, he said he was trying to get me back and that I shouldn’t trust you. He said you would never love me. Then I saw you today with Gabriella. I thought he was right.”

He runs his hand through his hair and shakes it. “Well, Emelia, it’s time I give you got a rude awakening on who your father truly is. I will tell you exactly who that man you’re calling father is.”

I tense right up, my body so rigid I can’t breathe.

“When I was ten years old, your father stormed into my home with his men and threw us out. No warning, no nothing. No time to pack a fucking bag. Dominic was six years old, practically a baby. As he clung to my mother’s side, I watched your father tell his team to destroy everything inside the property and get everyone out. Us and all the people who worked for us. My father went broke overnight. Literally. Your father cleaned him out. Took everything and turned people who could have helped us against him. He threatened the others. If they helped us in any shape or form, they’d die. Them and their families. That is who your father is.” He tightens his fist and continues spewing out the vile words of a man I don’t recognize. Dad said he did things he wasn’t proud of, but this is awful.

“For years, we struggled just to have a place to live. Everywhere my father went, no one would help him, and you know why? It was because your father was in love with my mother and she wouldn’t choose him. That’s why. Then it ended with her death. He dealt his last blow when he held a gun to my head at my mother’s funeral. I was twelve years old, Emelia. I was standing a breath away from my mother’s grave. We’d just buried her, and your father came to the cemetery and thought he should do that to me. Threaten to kill me and my whole family. How can you do that to a twelve-year-old?”

My cheeks burn, and my hands fly up to them. I pant as I try to catch my breath.

“Oh my God…” I breathe.

“That’s the summary of me. How about we skip to you. He only took you to that charity ball with him because he wanted to sell you. It’s the kind of ball where you do things like that, in a covert way, to secure a business deal. A business marriage.”

I continue shaking my head. “What?”

“Did you meet anyone at the ball?” he asks.

“Yes… the man on the boat today who was shooting at you.” I feel sick, and Massimo looks worse for wear.

He gives me a crude laugh. “Your father is one nasty piece of work. But please, do not take my word for it. After all, you can’t trust me, remember? He told you not to trust me. Don’t trust me. Trust yourself. Trust what your eyes can see.”

He pushes out the document to me to take. I walk to him and reach for it.

I don’t actually have the strength to do that, but good old curiosity moves me to see what I’m supposed to see.

I look at the document and can’t believe what I’m reading.

It’s a contract for sale.

Sale of me.

It says

This Sales Agreement is entered into on November 17th, 2018 by and between Riccardo Balesteri (the “Seller”) and Vlad (the “Buyer”) to agree the sale of Emelia Balesteri for

$30 million dollars.

Terms of contract

The Parties agree as follows:

Emelia will be delivered to your residence in Florence, Italy, on July 10th,, 2019.

Emelia will join the other women in the brothel and conduct all services requested by your clients. Her body will belong to you to do as you choose.

You agree that she will be able to go to art school when she isn’t required to work for you…

I stop reading. I can’t read any more.

At the bottom is my father’s signature, with two blank spaces next to it. A space for me to sign, and another for Vlad.

“Oh my God,” I gasp, my hands shaking so much I drop the contract.

“Vlad would have only wanted you in his brothel to replace one of the women he killed, Emelia. You know what he does to women?” I wish he wouldn’t tell me.

“Don’t tell me.” I shake my head.

“You need to hear this. He rapes, and he tortures, and he makes you beg for death. When he gets his eye on a prize, he doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants, and it’s all for fun. That’s what he did to Tristan’s wife. Then he thought it would be funny to send him her head in a box with a note and her wedding ring.”

I cry out from the horror.

“Your father sent him today to get you to fulfill the fucking contract. That’s who your father is, Emelia. I… I won’t get my girl’s head in a box.” It’s the second time I’ve seen him cry.

I wouldn’t believe it if I weren’t looking at the tear rolling down his cheek and nestle in his beard.

I wouldn’t believe it. But I’m so overwhelmed by what I just heard and read that I can’t stop crying.

Bile rises in my stomach. I run to the bathroom. I heave and start throwing up. My poor body wrenches forward, and everything I ate since I got back from the boat comes up.

Massimo follows me. Takes hold of me and holds my hair back.

I start crying hard while he holds me.

This horror truly is a nightmare. Dad was going to sell me to this man, and there I was, angry at him because he sold me to Massimo.

“I’m sorry,” Massimo says. I look up at him, trying to see him through tears.

My legs give, and I crumble to the floor in a flood of tears.

Massimo keeps holding me as I cling to his shirt and hold him back.

I kept asking myself who the monsters were in this story. This nightmare fairytale. I wanted to know so badly because I didn’t know who to trust.

The monster was the person I’ve known my whole life.

Dad.

My father.

He’s the devil.

I don’t remember falling asleep. Or laying on the bed.

I’m here, though, and the only light that’s coming through the window is that from the moon.

Massimo is sitting by the window, shirtless, in just his boxers, staring outside. He looks like he’s watching over the house, over me.

I shuffle and see that I’m naked. Since I can’t remember taking my clothes off, I imagine he must have done it when I fell asleep. When I sit and pull the covers up to my breasts, he looks at me.

“Massimo,” I rasp.

He walks toward me and gets in the bed.

“Go back to sleep, Princess,” he whispers, brushing his lips over mine.

I feel so fragile, and I don’t want to sleep anymore. I just want him.

“Can I just spend time with you?” I mutter.

“You went through a lot today. I nearly lost you. You need to rest.” Pain still lingers in his eyes, but his voice is gentle and it feels like I’m talking to that part of him again that wants me.

“I don’t feel tired anymore. You were looking out the window.”

“Just keeping an eye out,” he replies. I know he was watching for Vlad.

“You think he’ll come back after what happened?”

He takes my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t want you to worry about that.”

“He will, won’t he.” He made it sound like he would.

“I won’t let him take you, Emelia. I won’t let anybody take you, not even death. I’ll keep holding on. I’m stubborn that way. They’d have to pry you from my cold dead fingers to try and take you from me. Or tie me up to try it.” He brushes his finger over my cheek. Warmth spreads over my heart.

“You’d do all that for me?”

“You’re my wife.” He offers me a weak smile that shows his exhaustion. “You are mine. My girl.”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry for everything, for all that my father did to you, and for betraying you.”

He shakes his head. “You can’t apologize for your father, Emelia. You can’t.”

“Then I apologize for me. My part yesterday. I saw Gabriella, and I just lost it,” I answer, but I think it’s time to be honest. “Before I saw her, when I first got here, I was planning it. I stopped after we got closer… then, when I saw my father at the fundraiser and he said you’d never love me, I believed him.”

He reaches forward and cups my face. As he lowers to my lips, I move toward him too. Our lips meet for a kiss that seeps into my veins and heats my blood. It flows through my body, and for the first time, I feel alive.

I’m alive, and every inch of me awakens when he starts touching me. He runs his fingers over my breasts. We fall back onto the pillow, into the heat of passion and that primal force that always comes for us.

We kiss hard, with the emotions that weigh in heavily on us. It feels like he’s tasting me. The way he touches me and kisses my body is a mixture of need and longing. Sweet and strong, soft and hard. Lovingly and ravenous. Ravenous, like he’s hungry for me and craves me. I crave him too. I need him too. Want him too.

Need and want are on the same level in this moment. His lips nip the hard bud of my clit. His tongue thrashes up inside my pussy as he eats me out.

I moan, coming on his face when he pushes into me. He rises, taking my arm to bring me forward.

“Get on your hands and knees and look in the mirror,” he commands. His voice is hard and demanding. Just like him.

Arousal has my head spinning, but I do as he says. He switches on the light as I get on my hands and knees and turn toward the long mirror on the wall so I can see myself. My hair falls forward, and my breasts hang before me like pillows with the nipples hard and pebbled form his wild sucking.

He gets behind me and takes his cock into his hands, pumping along the length. He does it so I can see him in the mirror. I look at him, beautiful and gorgeous, all male and muscle, pumping his cock while I submit on my hands and knees beside him.

“Remember, Emelia, trust what your eyes can see. People can tell you anything, but when you see it, you know. When you feel it, you can believe it. When you believe it without seeing it, you’re unstoppable,” he says and grabs my hips.

I manage to take a breath before he plunges in deep inside me. So deep I feel the length of his cock touch my soul-if such a thing were possible, that’s how it would feel.

He starts pumping into me, and I moan from the pleasure.

I dip my head, but he growls. “Look at us. Don’t look away.”

I listen and do as he says, watching him fuck me in the mirror. The sight makes my mouth water and sets my body aflame with fire that scorches me all over.

My breasts bounce with every thrust. My hair tangles, hanging before me like strands of silk. All I can see through the river of brown strands that flow before me is us. Me and Massimo.

Then I see what he means. Us

Us like this. It’s the first time I truly feel like this wasn’t about a contract.

This is us as a couple, doing what we’d do if it were just us and nothing else mattered.

I see and I know.

I feel and I know.