Page 49 of Forgive Me, Father (Don #1)
FORTY-ONE
THE LITTLE RUNAWAY
It’s been more than a week since Alfonso walked out of the house, leaving an eerie silence behind him.
During the day, my mother stays close, guiding me through the motions, helping me wash, and dressing wounds I don’t want to look at.
She’s gentle, but there’s something behind her eyes—something I can’t quite place—like she’s trying to fix me while knowing that she can’t.
Every night, she gives me those damn pills Alfonso would never approve of. I never cared for them before, but now, the relief they bring is almost unbearable. When I swallow them, I slip into a deep sleep, like falling into a void of peace I hadn’t known I needed. It’s blissful—almost too blissful.
When I wake, the world feels slightly less like a nightmare. My thoughts came back, clearer, at least for a while. I didn’t know if it was the drugs or the absence of Alfonso’s presence, but the fog that clouded my mind for so long began to lift, just a little.
I also didn’t dream anymore and that was the greatest gift anyone could give me.
My father was also here. I feared at night that Kai would return. Every time I closed my eyes, I would relive everything over again.
I felt each cut he made on my body. The scars were there to remind me every day. But at least when I slept with the pills in my system, he was gone.
I would never get rid of the marks that Kai left on my body. Not the physical ones and not the emotional ones.
A knock came at the door and my father entered.
I was playing chess with my mother on my bed. She loved chess and taught us from a young age.
It helped with a lot of things in life. I wish it could help with trauma too.
“Look who came back.” Milo entered with his hands in his pockets.
I could immediately see the change in him.
He looked ten years older than when I last saw him.
A smile fanned across his face when he neared the two of us on the bed.
He kissed my mother on her head. Then, he hugged Em, who was sitting in the corner chair reading a book.
She gasped, staring at the same thing we were all trying hard not to draw attention to.
Tears blurred my eyes.
“Camilla,” Milo spoke. I wiped my cheek as a tear trailed down, my first since my time with Kai, and my gaze flickered to his.
A hundred kills. That was what the one under his eye meant.
My father bore the same mark beneath his eye, and so did my uncle. But beyond them, few in our family—few in our tier—carried it.
Not even Alfonso’s brothers carried them.
“Dry your tears. It’s time that those who are not with the traditions start to fear us again. Nobody would touch my family and live to tell the tale.”
“You killed him?”
He stared at me in silence, assessing me before he replied. “He will die soon. I promise.”
He kissed me on top of my head. There was something in his voice, something he wasn’t telling me but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I didn’t want to know either if I was being honest. I’m not even sure knowing that Kai was dead would even bring me peace.
* * *
Twenty-four hours later, Alfonso returned.
He barged through my door and chased my sister and mom out like they had no business there.
The suffocating presence he brought with him clamped around my lungs.
I wish he could leave me alone.
“Get dressed, and let’s go.”
“Where?” My heart rate instantly rose.
“It’s not a request, Cami. You have ten minutes. Make sure you are comfortable.” He left and the palpitations of my heart were the only sign that adrenaline coursed through my body.
I pulled on a pair of jeans, sneakers and a hoody that was way too big for me. The sleeves covered my hands.
True to his word, he came back ten minutes later and waited for me.
I walked to the door. My mother and father stood by the wall.
“Alfonso, please, I don’t think…”
“Enough. She is my responsibility now, not yours.”
My father fell quiet and our gazes locked. Lately, all I saw through hers was compassion, or pity. The two were very similar.
I followed him through the hallway and down the stairs.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You’ll be safe,” he replied.
My heart stammered again as he led me toward the gym. I knew where he was leading me and I stopped. “I can’t do this!”
His fingers grasped my arms. “It’s not what you think.”
“So, you are not taking me to the dungeon.”
“I am, but it’s not what you think.”
My lower lip trembled.
Rapid Italian in the form of Fiona’s shrill voice entered the gym.
Nico led the way and Alfonso’s mother and father accompanied her as they walked toward us.
Alfonso nodded.
What was Fiona doing here?
Fiona calmed down when her gaze landed on mine. We just stared at each other. The only thing we had in common, was Kai Castello.
The door to Alfonso’s dungeon swished open and Nico nudged Fiona gently to walk first.
Alfonso offered me his hand as he spoke Italian to his parents.
I took his hand and followed him to the entrance.
We walked down the steps together. My heart beat like a drum.
The dungeon looked completely different then it originally was. The furniture and the cupboards with all the little sex trinkets gone.
The giant sex furniture, tucked out of sight underneath big canvases.
The place looked eerily abandoned.
Fiona gasped and fired rapid Italian words.
Alfonso reprimanded her as Nico comforted her. He whispered in Italian as she shied away against his chest.
My gaze flickered to what she could’ve seen and then I saw it.
Kai’s body suspended in the air. Apart from the shiner, he was in perfect condition.
I froze. Fear gripped her talons deep inside of me. A deadly silence overpowered my senses as I kept staring at him.
His voice a constant haunting as what he’d done to me replayed in my head.
“Camilla!” Alfonso yelled. My gaze pulled from Kai’s body suspended in the air back to his.
“You do what you need to gain back your power.”
“What?”
Bas handed him a club. I didn’t even see him there, and at once I saw all of them. Bastian, Lenny, my brother, Roberto, they all stood against the wall.
My gaze landed on my brother. I swallowed hard and he nodded.
I looked back at Kai. This was what he meant by he would die soon.
Not by Alfonso’s hand, but by mine. By Fiona’s.
Alfonso still had the club in his hands. It wasn’t a normal club either, it was one with spikes. A torture device.
Fiona said something in Italian and rushed past me, grabbed the club from her brother, and rushed up to Kai.
“Fiona!” Alfonso yelled, but she didn’t listen. She swung with all her might and the club pierced Kai in the side.
He woke up instantly, bulking like a bull.
Rapid Italian fired from Fiona’s lips as she struggled to pull out the club. It was like a horror show.
She spit in his face and punched his dick. He growled in pain as she unleashed her fury. Nico helped with removing the club from Kai’s body. His screams tore through the dungeon.
There was something to his screams, that poured through my soul. It awakened something that I thought was dead. Thought he had killed.
My gaze lingered on Nico, ready to give Fiona the club back, when my feet did the walking.
I grabbed the club instead, and found it quite light to my surprise.
“Bell—”
I struck the club and hit him solid in the hip. More screams.
“You fucking cunt. If I get down here…”
I pulled it out and flesh came with it. Another bulk. I didn’t stop.
I swung at the other side and kept swinging. His screams coaxed out my will to live. A will to fight, a will not to feel this broken. I was taking my power back.
I was burning to a crisp, so that I could be reborn.
In the interim, Fiona had gotten another weapon. I think it was a wrench.
We took turns swinging as if Kai were a pinata. His screams grew silent a long time ago.
I stopped when I was covered in his blood.
Fiona still carried on and I watched her lose it completely.
She pulled off his pants and literally tore off his cock with the wrench.
Reality came back and a scream tore from my lungs. I fell on my knees and sobbed like I’d never sobbed before.
Arms wrapped around me and by the scent of his cologne, it was my husband.
“It’s time to burn, little runaway. So that you can be reborn.”