Chapter 4 - THE PEOPLE WHO CAME FOR ME
Austo did not panic.
That was when I understood why people were afraid of him.
Panic wastes time.
He looked at the tracker once.
Then at Tobaya.
“Move the staff to the west house.”
Tobaya nodded.
“Already started.”
I stood.
“What about me?”
Austo looked at me.
“What do you want?”
The question almost made me angry.
“My father is coming here.”
“I know.”
“And you’re asking what I want?”
“Yes.”
I laughed once.
“Apparently I have no idea how to answer that question.”
“Learn.”
Simple.
Merciless.
Correct.
I looked toward the windows.
“If I run again, they keep chasing me.”
“Yes.”
“If I go back, I marry Olindo.”
“Probably.”
“If I stay?”
“They understand you chose not to return.”
My fear shifted.
Choice again.
Always choice.
I hated how powerful it felt.
“I stay.”
Austo nodded.
“Then stay.”
No celebration.
No possession.
He simply accepted it.
Twenty minutes later, three black SUVs appeared beyond the gates.
My father stepped out first.
Vittorio Bellucci.
Silver hair.
Dark suit.
The man who had controlled every doorway I had ever walked through.
Olindo came behind him.
My aunt Renata followed.
I watched from an upstairs window.
My father looked smaller on Austo’s land.
That surprised me.
Austo met them outside.
I could not hear the first words.
Then Olindo shouted.
“You stole my bride!”
Austo answered so quietly I had to open the window.
“She entered my car.”
My father looked toward the house.
“Veronica belongs with her family.”
Austo’s gaze lifted.
He knew exactly where I stood.
Then he said:
“Ask her.”
Everyone looked up.
My father saw me.
For one second, something like fear crossed his face.
Not because I was alive.
Because I was standing beside a truth he could no longer control.
He shouted my name.
“Come down.”
Old instinct almost moved my feet.
Then I stopped.
I opened the window farther.
“No.”
One word.
My father went still.
Olindo exploded.
“You humiliated me!”
I looked at him.
“No. I escaped you.”
Austo did not smile.
But Tobaya did.
Then my father said something that silenced everyone.
“Veronica, if you stay in that house, you will never see Caterina’s grave again.”
I stared at him.
He had used the dead woman who raised me because he had nothing else left.
Then Austo stepped forward.
“Interesting threat.”
My father turned.
Austo continued.
“Especially because Caterina Bellucci is not buried where Veronica thinks she is.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
May you like
My father’s face changed.
And that was when I realized even Caterina’s grave had been another lie.
