CHAPTER 21

ANALISE’S POV

I woke up late today and now I am having breakfast. I had a nightmare. I was back there. Thinking about yesterday and my nightmare cause chills to run down my spine.
Luciano told me to forget about it. Since I have woken up there is only one thing in mind and that is my parents are alive.
I have tried thousand times since yesterday to talk about it with Luciano but he is just ignoring the topic.

Where are my parents? If they are alive then, where are they? I just want to meet them.
He said that first, we have to go for a check-up. He wants to reassure me that baby and I are fine even though I have told him that we are fine numerous times.
He told me to eat breakfast and then get ready because we are going to the hospital as Bianca cannot come here today.
He left after getting ready. I quickly finish breakfast and then stride towards the closet to get ready.

I don’t know what I should wear because everything here is too tight and I want to wear something loose. I don’t want to show my bump.
After finding for almost five minutes, I finally found a beautiful loose frock. It is dark blue and has buttons on it.
I wear it and look at myself in the mirror. As my bump is not too big so it is not showing. I grab white shoes with it and let my hair down.
I still feel sad about my hair but they are growing fast and I hope they grow back to their original length soon.
Shaking these sad thoughts away from my mind I reach downstairs to see Luciano waiting for me.

“Have you eaten breakfast?” He asks in a serious tone getting up and coming towards me. I nod. I wonder why he is in a serious mood today?
“Let’s go.” He takes my hand and we leave the mansion with almost three cars behind us.
I know my baby is fine but there is still some hidden fear. What if there is something wrong? I don’t want any problems with my baby. We reach the hospital and Luciano without any appointment or taking any permission start guiding me towards the doctor’s rooms.

“Don’t we need an appointment?” I ask him as it is awkward.
“No.” He answers in one word.
“Why are people looking at us?” I ask myself because people are looking at us scared. Like we are monsters. The workers move aside when they see us or should I say when they see Luciano.
I guess they know who he is. “Ignore them.” Luciano says stopping in front of a door.

He opens the door without knocking. I look at him confused.
“Shouldn’t we at least knock?” I ask but Luciano didn’t answer.
We enter the room and see a couple is sitting there with Bianca behind the desk. I got to know a few days earlier that Bianca is a gynecologist. As she is the doctor that’s why she also knows how to treat wounds.

Their conversation stopped as we entered. The couple looked at us but suddenly their expressions change to that of someone scared. Bianca said something to them and they scurried out of the room in a second.
Now we are alone. “Hi, Analise. How are you and how is baby?”
She asks excitedly when I and Luciano sit in front of her.

“We both are fine.” I say to her with a smile on my face.

“That’s good. Now let’s do a thorough check-up.”

*********

Now it is almost evening. We reach the mansion after visiting Bianca. She said my baby is fine and there is nothing to worry about. I knew it already but Luciano had to confirm.
Felling tired I get out of the car and start going towards my room when I see someone in the living room.
I am shocked. Is this reality? Am I dreaming? Are they here? I blink my eyes once and then twice and then run towards them before hugging them.
I hug my mom tightly and let tears of joy flow. She kisses me everywhere on my face and then I hug my father. They both are here and crying. I move back and takes
my mom’s hand in mine.

“W-Where were you?” I ask them.
“Come here, Tesoro.” Luciano’s voice makes me look at him. He is sitting on the couch and he motions me to sit beside him.
I reluctantly leave my parents and sit beside Luciano because I can never disobey him.
When I look at my parents closely, I see that my mom’s arm is bandaged and it looks fractured while my father has a long scar from his brow to chin and his head is bandaged.

Why are they injured? As much happy I am I still want answers as to why they were kidnapped and how they are involved in the mafia.
I look at them controlling my emotions and wanting to know everything that they have hidden.
“Ana. We heard that you are married?” My mother asks hesitantly with love. I just noticed that they are a little bit scared. I think that is just because of Luciano.
“Yes.” I answer her in one word. I am happy that they are alive but I am also mad at them.
“She is my wife and we are expecting a baby soon.” Luciano says in his serious tone making my mother gasp. My father was surprised and scared. Why he is so grumpy
today? Angry ass.

Luciano’s hand is on my thigh and he is continuously rubbing circles making me relax.
“I want to know the real reason why you were kidnapped and how you were involved in the mafia.” I ask my parents seriously getting to the point.
My parents look at each other as if communicating through eyes. My father looks at me before saying. “I think this is the time you should know the truth.”
I nod my head with my full attention. Then they began saying.
“We have always hidden from you that we worked for Luciano and his parents. We did it to keep you safe.” My father says making me gasp. I am surprised that they
worked for Luciano. They worked for MAFIA!

“You also have a brother and his name is Niccolo. You might have met him here. He also works for Luciano and is his right-hand man.” My mother says making me more shocked.
“What? Are you serious?” I ask them bewildered. Niccolo is my brother! Seriously? I never knew about it. That’s why we have almost the same habits and features. Why I never thought about it?
“Why I never knew about it and why he didn’t live with us in New York?”

“We moved when you were five years old and Niccolo was twelve. At that time Luciano’s father was in charge.
Something bad, really bad happened and because of that, we couldn’t keep you here in the mafia. As Niccolo was twelve so the boss said that he will continue to live in Italy to become Luciano’s right-hand man in the future.
We thought for months about it. It was too hard for us to leave our son here alone. At last, the boss succeeded in convincing us and we agreed. For your safety, we moved to New York.” My mother stops to take a breath. Tears are flowing from her cheeks.

“What happened that made you leave Italy?” I ask them curious and angry. I am angry because they have hidden the truth from me. Because of them, I wasn’t able to spend my childhood with my brother. They look at Luciano and then lower their gaze.
“We can’t tell you that.” My father says abruptly.
“But-but you ran a business in New York. As far as I remember you were not involved with the mafia.” I asked them still not believing what they said.
“It was really hard for us to leave our son here but we had to do it.

After moving to New York, I started my business there but I didn’t break connections with the mafia.
Niccolo used to come to meet us. Slowly I started to sell drugs. Those who wanted to buy weapons or drugs used to contact me and then I forwarded them to Niccolo.” My father says.
“Why I don’t remember any of this and I don’t even have memories of Niccolo.” I ask them because I never thought I had a brother.
“You were only five. After coming to New York, you would ask every day that where is your brother but with time you started to forget. We never talked about Niccolo in front of you. There was no picture in the house even.”

“How you got kidnapped. I saw the burned dead bodies in your car. The bracelet and watch confirmed that those dead bodies were yours.” I ask them. Today I want to clear everything. I don’t want any more lies in my life.
“That day we were going to meet Niccolo and when we were in the middle of road someone stopped our car and Stephano's man drugged us. Since then, we were in his house.”

“Why you did all of this? Why you never told me the truth? Do you even know how much I cried after finding out that my parents were dead? You can’t even imagine the pain I went through. You can’t even imagine how difficult my life was without you.” I pour all my emotions out with tears.
“We did this to keep you safe. Calm down please.” My mother says getting up and moving towards me.
I also get up and back away from her. “I don’t want to talk or see you anymore right now.” With that said I run towards my room.
I enter my room and break the vase which was on the table. I am so much hurt and angry that I want to break everything.

My whole life was a lie. My parents lied to me. They kept me separated from my brother. I was never a normal girl who enjoyed life. I was never allowed to party or leave the house alone.
At that time, I used to be mad about it. I used to cry the whole night when my friends were partying or having a night over. I sit on the floor crying my heart out.
Luciano’s arm wraps around me and I push his arms away. I look at him with anger. I don’t need his sympathy. He has also hidden the truth from me.
“You knew everything from the beginning. You knew my parents weren’t dead. You knew Niccolo is my brother but you never told me.” I accuse him of lying.

“I didn’t know that George and Amber were alive. I didn’t tell you about them being in the mafia or about Niccolo because I didn’t want you to get hurt.” He explains and again tries to come close to me but I push him. Of course, he was still in his place.
“Shut up. Shut up. You are lying. You are an assh-" I start saying but stop when I feel a sharp pain on my face.
I fell to the floor. I didn’t saw it coming because it was so fast. He slapped me. My cheek is stinging. It feels like it is stabbed with hundred needles.
I sit upon the floor shocked. He has hit me after a long time. I thought he promised to never raise hands on me again.

“Just because you are angry it doesn’t mean that you can insult me. I will never accept this behavior in any case.” He says angrily and his eyes hold the darkness in them. I look at him scared.
“If it wasn’t for the baby then you would have faced serious consequences. Don’t insult me again or next time this baby will not save you.” He says grabbing my hair in a fist.
He looks at me for a second and then leaves my hair. I move away from him scared and crying. He looks at me for a second and then leaves the room.

I continue to sit on the floor crying. My heart has started loving this monster. How can I be so naive? How can I love him?
How can he be so cruel? This life has no purpose. Why did my heart fall for a man who has given me nothing but pain? My family also betrayed me.
With these thoughts, I continue to sit on the floor crying my heart out.
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