Chapter 245: No More Trackers
Chapter 245: No More Trackers
Gregorio
"How was she?" Adriano asked at this new information Susan was giving us even though we knew she wasn't even close to alright. She scoffed at this, clearly ready to continue on with her lecture that seemed like more of a rant about everything else.
"She wants nothing to do with you guys." She merely said, pausing to allow one of us to talk and respond to her statement and it was Adriano once again who did.
"We know our approach wasn't the best but we were just trying to help her. Susan, you didn't see how she looked when we found her in our house." He said, his face already twisted in pain from the memory.
Everything at the funeral had moved so fast but with her in our house, we could see everything. I could play back every second of the video footage of her in the parking lobby, the poor balls of her feet bright red and covered with cuts from when she had ditched her shoes on the road so Harper would be at less risk. She was sick and I had fed her that day because it looked like she hadn't been able to eat for much too long. She didn't seem to care either.
"You do not chain down the woman you love." She argues, her fists balling at her sides in anger.
Was that what we did? We were chaining her by trying to keep her safe after god knows what she has been through? Camilla was a fire, she was a spark of flame we have only ever wanted to ignite. I know we shouldn't have made her feel trapped but chained, she has already spent too much of her life bound by the barriers life has given her. I would rather die than be one more link of metal to weigh her down.
"You know how dangerous it would be to let her go." Adriano continues, not bothering to stand to find a level ground considering his head was inclined only slightly to look at Susan. He didn't need the height anyways, that is not what this was about.
He had changed much from when he was just a kid, not backing down but still more than willing to listen. It has made him a good leader so far even if it is clear some day more than others how miserable he is.
"We made a judgment call…"
"Camilla is not a judgment call, Adriano. She is a human being who has been on her own for over a year." She huffed, her chest rising and falling with a kind of emotion that had us all quieting.
I have only seen her cry twice, once when her husband died and then when she found out Camilla had been kidnapped. I know she saw her daughter and Camilla seeing her as a mother. Susan had been terrified when we had to break the news to her of the kidnapping, all of us just as scared at the time. I can't imagine how she feels now that Camilla is physically back, yet so incredibly sad. The Camilla I spoke to only hours ago carried a sadness I have never seen in her before even when she spoke to me that day on the hill about Edward.
We were all silent as Susan carried the same look she did just over a year ago and as her voice got quieter, all we did was listen.
"She was brainwashed to believe you liked her mother." She said, dropping down onto the couch across from us as she looked at Adriano.
"Sit down for a second and take that information in, go into Camilla's shoes. Her love, her always, took that from her in the most brutal and cruel ways possible and she watched what she was told was you killing her mother again and again because she didn't want to believe it to be true. It doesn't matter if that bitch wasn't worth the time of day, you can't tell me you didn't cry when Raphael died."
I winced as I looked over to Adriano, remembering that awful night. I know our focus had been our girl right there and then but his life has never been the same since. All in a moment, Adriano had everything stripped away from him. The second that bullet went through Raphael's thick skull, he lost his freedom by becoming the Don. He lost Camilla to the very man who murdered our mother in cold blood.
"I was overwhelmed then." He says, his eyes going cold.
Her voice lowered as if she knew she was about to go into sensitive territory but that still didn't stop her from saying.
"I know you were, but let me ask you what happened after?"
Her eyes didn't drop to her lap as she spoke and it only made every word she had to speak that much more sharp and impactful. There was a pausing silence in the room now as the weight of her questions lingered in the air, no one speaking before she continued with a sense of sadness in her tone.
"Adriano, after realizing your father was finally dead, were you drugged to remain compliant because you couldn't contain yourself into a robot?" She asked, my heart tightening in my chest as my eyes shot towards him.
There was no pause this time, though, there was only the truth.
"Were you forced into a new environment, on your own, terrified? Did you have to force yourself into a new person to hide that fact from the thousands of eyes watching you everywhere you went?" Nobody breathed as she spoke.
"No," she shakes her head, her fingers curling around the arms of the chair.
"You had your brothers." Adriano blinked.
"You had Domenico, you had Gregorio and you had me, Nancy and Harper. You had the freedom to go for a walk when you needed to breathe. Tell me why was Camilla's skin so white? Why was a woman who lived in a state known for the sun and heat for over a year looking as pale as though she had never been outside? A woman whose skin is naturally tanned and warm….."
"I know, Susan." Adriano cuts her off abruptly, his body shaking slightly with each restrained breath.
"I know all of that and it is why we kept her here when all she wanted to do was go. Every second that she is outside, every second that I am not with her to make sure she is okay, I risk her being taken back to that place. To that prison."
This was the side of him I recognized, the side that wasn't simply some robot he has been made into. This was Adriano who was as vulnerable as he was strong and I think it has been such a long time since Susan has seen it that she has forgotten that he was still in there. It just like everything else in the world right now, is just a little different.
"She can't go back there." She whispered as tears bead in her dark eyes, looking at each of us but her gaze later held on me.
"No more trackers, if you scare her off, you know who she is going to run to and it is not going to be someone for her."
We all already know this, it is why we have been so cautious, so careful about how we approach everything now.
"No more." I said in agreement, my voice a little rough from the events of these last few days.
Still, I managed those two words clearly enough that it had the old woman before us sinking into her chair fully, looking slightly defeated but also slightly content. Everything with Camilla has broken into a chaos we have been waiting for over a year. We knew this was coming, we just didn't understand the pain that would come with it.
"Can I get you anything, Susan?" Domenico asked after a small stretch of silence, sighing with an exhaustion that is likely equal to mine.
It was early, almost so early that the sun was only beginning to rise but I doubt an extra few hours in bed would have done us any good anyways. Most of the time we just stay up watching movies together throughout the entire night, passing the time when we were not falling asleep at our desks on top of our work.
"No, thank you." She declined, shifting in her seat as her eyes now held on Domenico, taking a deep breath.
In the end, what was going to happen was going to happen but I also knew I couldn't sit around and let that kind of an ending occur with everything else as well. I didn't want to be a slave to any fate, I wanted to write it out myself.
A few minutes later after Susan had left and Harper came down, cradling in Domenico and Adriano's arms, I retreated all the way to my room on the fourth floor, the curtains drawn open with the cold winter peering back at me. No longer could I let myself be decided for me, no longer would I allow it to happen.
Picking up my phone and dialing the number I knew Camilla was using now, I waited as the sound of ringing echoed in my ear, again and again. Nobody answered my call but I had expected that, preferred it even. When I was redirected to an answering machine, I took a deep breath, ready to take back even these small ounces of control.
'Hey, sweetheart.' I smiled to myself even though she couldn't see me.
'It is me, I know you are angry and scared and confused and what we did when you got here was wrong. I am so sorry for that but if you would give us the chance, I want to make it up to you. Can you come to dinner with us tonight? I know you are sacred but I think talking is what we need right now more than anything.' I paused, debating on just hanging up and leaving it at that but I didn't, I can't.
Too much in my life has gone wrong to not give it myself everything and when it comes to Camilla, it wasn't even a question. She was the only thing in my life I have ever truly chosen for myself and I refused to surrender to my fear any longer.
'And Camilla…' I said with a breath.
'I am not giving up on you.' I sent the voice message, hoping it will get to her.
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