Chapter 80 - LOCKET

'How did this happen? How was there a switch between the woman I was supposed to marry and the woman that I married to now? I think its best that you start explaining to me because you will not like it when I get angry"

Leonardo threatened them. Everyone who sat in the room looked uncomfortable, until one brave soul stood up and it was Avena

It was the first time that Leonardo had seen her since he had left the altar and now as he looked at her, Leonardo noticed that she was quite a pretty young woman but nothing like his wife. Both women were beautiful with dark-ski but Avena's beauty was still no match to that of his wife.

Avena looked frail and scared of him, looking down at her feet and playing with her hands rather than looking up at him, until she finally looked at him with tears welled in her eyes.

'Hello my name is Avena, I know that you do not know me quite well and that was mainly because Avena took my place the altar. I know that you do not want to hear anything bad about your wife but I must say that she's not as nice as she appears to be. I think its best that you trust me, I've lived with her"

'I don't know you, so why must I trust you?"

'That is because I know Aurora better than you know her, she works for my family but I always knew that she was always envious of me. And I guess that its normal, I mean I was adopted into such a family where she was not adopted after her mother had passed away" Avena explained but even as she spoke Leonardo's blood boiled.

'Just stop it! All I want to know is why it was that she was at the altar that day and you were not there?" Leonardo asked Avena, who then looks around the room and then her attention went back to Leonardo.

'It was all her fault, she made me believe that you were bad person that you would hurt me and so I ran away. She made me believe that she took my place so that she could save me and all these months she's been telling me about what a cruel man you were but luckily for me, I found out that you were not so bad after all"

'How did you find out that I was not such a bad man after all?" He questioned her more, wanting to know each and every detail about what Avena was telling her.

'It doesn't matter, all I know is that I found out the truth and now I'm back. We could get married and we could fix what she broke" Avena told him whilst Leonardo stared at her in disbelief. Avena spoke like a child in a fairytale movie, forgetting that this was real life and that many people were left hurt and traumatized by the events that it had happened earlier that day. He could not help but to feel that the woman in front of him was manipulating, nothing that had happened earlier that day had seemed to affect her at all.

Avena walked towards him to try and touch him but Leonardo stepped back, something about having some other woman touch him other than his wife sent chills down his body. He felt betrayed as he could not believe that the woman he had called his wife for seven months had chosen to lie to him in such a way. She had kept her true identity a secret from him, without thinking of how this would affect them in the long haul.

'Leonardo my son, this here is your wife and you should be happy that the truth came out. Imagine what would have happened if you had married her for the second time? She only wanted your money and properties" His mother explained to him but nothing that she said made sense, Leonardo knew that his wife was not the type of woman who was easily impressed by money or materialism. Something was wrong with the picture that they were painting of his wife and he had to get to the bottom of it.

'My wife might have lied to me but she is no gold-digger, I know—"

'How could you possibly know her that well? She lied to you for seven months of your marriage and how can you trust such a woman to tell you the truth? How can you trust such a woman to not be a gold digger?" His mother asked him and for just a second Leonardo had no response to her question.

'I don't know why she chose to lie to me but I know that she's not like that, there is more to the story than meets the eye" Leonardo defended his wife.

Turning away from his family, Leonardo looked out the window. The sky was still blue and sun was shining, it seemed like such a perfect day but for him it was nothing but a cloudy day his life. His life was falling apart, his wife was missing and he had just found out that he was the cause of her mother's death all those years ago.

Even as he stood by the window, he wanted nothing but to cry as he regretted that fateful day when he had walked out with his father's gun and that made up his mind that he will take his best friend and long and they will shoot into nothingness.

'She lied to you because she was a gold digger, do you remember how hard it was for her to give the lands away? It is because she wanted it all for herself"

'It doesn't matter what you think mother, at the end of the day I am still responsible for her mother's death. I wonder how she must be feeling at this moment. It is not easy knowing that the man she has married is responsible for ending her childhood at such a young age" Leonardo cried out as his heart weighed heavily.

'That was a mistake and you cannot compare that to what she did to you! She deliberately lied to you and you killed her mother by mistake"

'But we covered it up mom! We paid people to say that I was not there and we made Ricardo take the blame for something that I had done" Leonardo tried explaining to his parents, but it seemed as though all his explaining had not affected them in any way. There was no hope for them, Leonardo knew that his parents would always be same selfish people who had too much money than they knew what to do with.

Leonardo had given up on reasoning with his parents so much that he was about to walk out when Avena pulled him by the arm.

'I know that you do not know me well enough, but I want you to know something. Aurora had robbed us of a chance of getting married now that she's gone, I think it is best that you forget her and focus on your life with me" Avena expressed herself whereas Leonardo simply stared at her in disbelief.

'Avena is right about this, you two need to hurry up and get married" his mother jumped in, encouraging Avena's earlier statement.

'Mother for crying out loud I just—"

'I do not care what you have to say, that wife of yours had ruined this family enough when she refused to keep to the deal that was originally drawn up. You were to marry Avena and she was supposed to give you the properties, that imposter destroyed our family all because she refused to sign the property papers and yet Avena here signed it" His mother commended Avena, like she was an obedient child.

'This here is the true daughter of the Russo family and soon she will be a Romano. Lastly his wedding is in four days" His mother's revelation had come as a surprise to Leonardo who stared at her, pupils wide and lost for words.

'Mother you are not going to get me married today or in the next four days" He told his mother as he tried leaving, but only for his mother to call out to him.

'If you won't do this for yourself then do it for me, I saved you from being arrested all those years ago and now you owe me" Leonardo stood at the door frozen, remembered just how his mother has sheltered him from the police the very day they had come to arrest him. His mother had made all the arrangements to make sure that files at the police station had disappeared and paid everyone off.

He was truly thankful for all his mother had done for him and all the emotions welled up in his throat as he tried swallowing it down.

'See you in four days" Leonardo responded to his mother and he exited the house. He got into his car and drove away. The entire drive home was filled with nothing but sorrows, because once he got into his house he would be met within other than silence.

Aurora had only been away for less than four hours and already Leonardo had missed her. He knew that something was not right and even though she had lied to him, Leonardo could not help but think that they could make things better, thinking that he too had lied to her.

Deep down Leonardo had some hope but that hope was lost the moment he unlocked the doors to his house. He switched on all the lights, walked through every room in the house and still his wife was nowhere to be seen.

'Avena!" He called out to his wife but then stopped as he realized that the name Avena was not her real name.
Leonardo was lost for words, he could not explain the feeling of emptiness that overwhelm him as he walked into his room, took his pillow and hugged it tightly. The thought of his wife, his unborn child and not knowing where they were until killed him.

Like a little child, Leonardo cried into his pillow until he looked up from his pillow. His eyes caught onto something, he let go of the pillow and he walked towards the vanity mirror in his room.
Picking up the locket from the table, Leonardo pressed it against his lips, kissing the gold locket and crying as it reminded him of his wife. He vividly remembered the first day he had taken the locket to the jewelers to have it fixed and cleaned.

The locket itself reminded him the of his wife and he could not help but to cry for her, he had tried dialing her number a few times but she has not answered his calls.
Leonardo played with the locket in his hand until he unlocked it up, his heart stopped at the image he saw inside the locket. He did not know what was going on but seeing this picture in his wife's locket told him that there was more to it than what meets the eye.