Chapter 255: Do You Want To Know The Truth?
Chapter 255: Do You Want To Hear The Truth?
Camilla
"This isn't something I want, if there are people out to get me, they can come get me. If there comes a time where I can fight them off then I suppose that is how fate will have it."
Gregorio narrowed his eyes and shook his head but Adriano reached out with his hand instead, trying to hold my hand even though I wouldn't accept his support. I didn't need it, which meant I didn't want it.
"Would seeing pictures of the men we have punished for trying to hurt you help make you realize how serious this is?" Gregorio asked, speaking up fully for the first time since I have been here. The playful teasing from last night was long gone. Good because I want to know too.
"Maybe perhaps you would like to see the house's pretty picture that got delivered to our door when we got back after dropping you off yesterday?" He continues, the sudden flash of panic in Domenico and Adriano's eyes enough to catch my attention.
"Greg, no…." Domenico began but he didn't seem inclined to stop.
"Isn't this what you want, Camilla? The truth? We all know you deserve it and if it were up to me, you would have known about your father from the very second we did."
I went to open my mouth to speak, not sure how to take all of this information but before Adriano could stop him or Domenico could speak up, Gregorio was pulling out what looked to be three photos. While the backs of them were to me so I couldn't look at what he was preparing, I knew I wasn't going to back down from this. It didn't seem Gregorio was going to let me anyways.
I held my breath as he walked over to my side and I forced myself not to shy away as the first image was revealed to me, my stomach tightening as I took in the man before me. It was a portrait of someone who looked to be in their late forties, bald and with pale white skin. While that typically wouldn't make me think anything of it, it was the look in this man's eyes that made me shiver. He looked dead inside, like someone who was simply being paid for a job and didn't plan on letting anybody get in his way of completing it.
When Gregorio peeled back the photo to show the one beneath it, I actually gasped as my hand flew to my mouth, nausea grasping at the very center of me.
"This is the price he paid for daring to take the people we love." He simply said, no sense of guilt or regret in his voice as I was chillingly reminded of who these men were. The person in the photographer, he wasn't a person any longer. He was stripped bare on the ground with a brutal gash where his penis was supposed to be, his fingers missing, toes gone, slashed and beaten and bleeding from every possible inch of his body.
This man was utterly unrecognizable and it made me see that the three of them were all capable of this. Domenico and Adriano have been doing this since before they were seventeen and it was terrifying.
"Before we killed him, we had him admit what his plans for you were."
His finger turned white from how hard he was gripping the picture, he was angry, so incredibly angry but this time wasn't directed at me. It was directed at the man who was no more.
"Do you still want to hear the truth, Camilla?" He asked, Domenico and Gregorio tensed as though they could see this entire thing going too far within a blink of an eye.
They didn't have to worry about me running right now, though. I don't think my legs would let me if I tried.
"Tell me," I mumbled, needing to know. I don't know why but a part of me said that if I didn't, I would be every bit of the coward I feared I was.
"Gregorio, that is enough." Adriano said, his words an authoritative command but we all knew Gregorio wouldn't serve any punishment for disobeying.
I felt guilty that they were fighting because I knew I was the cause of it all, although I am not even sure I could stop him at this point. Some sick part of him wanted to tell me and the equally sick part of me wanted to know just as bad.
"His orders came from a person known as Ofomata. Could be a woman, a man, old, young. He didn't know because he gets paid not to ask." Gregorio said, his usual warmth fading away into in iciness the same shade of his eyes.
"All he knew was that he was being hired to find and deliver you to a warehouse in Fujairah, unharmed but unconscious."
Goosebumps licked up my spine at the thought of being transported to somewhere against my will but I could tell just by his tone this was only the start of it. Something obviously went wrong along the way that something very likely happened to them. Domenico who was once just as in my face as Gregorio is now looking like he wants to do everything in his power to get me out of here. Just so I couldn't listen to what was being said. I was the only one who could stop this, though and I had no plans of doing so.
I stayed still as Gregorio rounded my body, moving to my back and curling his arms around me so I could once again see an image of the man when he was still alive. He looked like someone who could pass me by on the street and I wouldn't spare him another thought. Perhaps that was the most alarming part of it. He looked like a neighbor, an employee or a server. He could have been anyone and I would have been completely oblivious to know who truly lurked beneath.
"Of course, Disha alerted us of him before he could even come near you but perhaps hearing about the detour he planned to make that involved twelve of his friends would make you realize that you are not as fucking invincible as you think."
I spun away from him as the final word left his mouth, not wanting to show the sickness coiling in my stomach. My previous experience with men had me suspecting enough that the people after me wanted to destroy me but twelve? I don't know why something as simple as a number makes me feel so nauseous when one is bad enough but still I was capable of handling myself. I know I can and yet the thought of slipping up even once and that man being the pricing of it.
"Why are you telling me this now?" I frowned, my hands wrapping around my middle as though I could sense this wasn't the end of it. That there was still something being held back from me. A little of Gregorio's softness came back into his expression as he looked down at his hand, a third picture, not a polaroid being pulled out from the very bottom.
I couldn't see what it was from where I stood but I knew it had to be bad based on the grim line of his mouth where he was debating actually giving it to me. If whatever was in this picture was enough to make him hesitate after what I have already seen, it must be so much worse than the mutilation I just witnessed. Looking up as I felt Adriano's body heat brush against my back, I remained completely still as he reached around me for the photo.
"We found this at our doorstep after we dropped you off from dinner the other night." Adriano said, nodding once as Gregorio offered up the polaroid.
The second it was within my sight, I swear I couldn't breathe as it was flipped over to the coloured side of the picture. There was no doubt about it that it was from us, my hand moving to cover my mouth with each part I took in. It was a shot of Adriano on the ground by my feet, even though the picture only showed the back of his head or what was supposed to be his head. Even with Gregorio and Domenico sitting on the couch on either side of me, my face was the only one that remained. There were three vicious holes in the film, the edges around each spot melted unevenly.
It was as though someone had taken the butt of a cigarette and pressed through their faces until they were no more. Based on the size of the marks, I think that is exactly what had happened.
"What…what is this?"
That is all I can manage to say, my blood going cold as I realized what this means because somebody would have had to get really close to the window in order to capture this, so close they would have had to get past the guards at the front.
Adriano sighed as he moved the polaroid away and into his pocket, like he didn't want to see me scared anymore.
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