Page 123 of Forgive Me, Father

“Get the fuck off me,” I screamed.It was weird how, at times, he almost looked very much like Kai, even if they had no similar features.

“Please, Alfonso.This is not the way.”My mother pulled at him, trying to get him off me.

“It’s the Pontisello way.The only way we know how to heal is to face whatever they did to us.To let it burn us to the ground so that we can be reborn.Stronger.If you do not like this, Kitty, I suggest you fuck off back home to America and let me deal with my wife.”

What he wanted from me was impossible.Hewas the reason that psychopath took me in the first place.

The rage boiled up, and I spat in his face.

He recoiled, then stood and backed off.

I rolled off the bed, dragging my broken body across the floor until I reached the corner.There, I curled in on myself and sobbed—deep, shaking cries I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Don’t go to her.She needs to fight.”Alfonso held my mother back as she started to cry.

“Stay with her,” he ordered someone and took my mother’s crying figure out of the room.

I didn’t know who he’d ordered to stay behind—whoever it was kept their distance, silent and invisible.

Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?Let me disappear, fall apart in peace.I didn’t want to live like this.

The soft brush of the carpet beneath me was the only comfort I had.Somehow, its quiet warmth steadied my breath.

I was so tired.So unbearably tired.

A month had passed since Kai.

But he still haunted me.

All I wanted was sleep, real sleep—but every time I closed my eyes, he was there.His voice, his hands, that twisted smile.

A silent promise in every nightmare:He’s coming back for me.

I jolted awake, screaming until my lungs burned.Then, either Em or my mother—whoever had the strength to endure it—rushed in, trying to calm me, their hands gentle but firm as they reached for me.

At first, it felt impossible.A sharp prick in my neck, followed by the dizzying spell that would come crashing down.And then, as my head hit the pillow, the last thing I’d see was a massive figure walking away.

Now, I prayed for those pricks, for the dizziness, anything to numb the void.But that bastard refused to give me the relief I craved.

He wanted to take me to his dungeon, to do exactly what Kai had done to me, over and over again, until I coped.

He was fucking insane.

That was not healing, that was breaking me further.Killing everything to the root.

Maybe I should just let him do it.Maybe he’d break me enough that I could finally shut down, disappear completely.

Maybe…

My eyes fluttered shut, and the silence swallowed me whole.But behind my tired eyelids, flashes of that room danced—too vivid, too real.I could barely force them open.

Kai was there.His presence, suffocating.That sickening, sweet scent that clung to him like a poison.It was cheap—everything about him was cheap.But it wasn’t just the smell.He made me feel like nothing.Less than nothing.Like I wasn’t even human.

His whispers grazed my ear.“I’m coming, bella.I’m coming, bella.”

LOUD AND CLEAR!“Bella, I’m here.”

I startled awake from the carpet, still huddled in the corner.Light filtered through the small gap in the curtains, and I guessed it was around five in the morning, though it hardly mattered.