Time stopped.
Everything stopped.
"Isa..." I raised my hand to silence Sydney. I wasn't ready to listen to him. I wasn't ready to look at him. The note was scrunched up in his fist but I didn't look up.
Is this Russo's plan? To break us apart on our wedding day? We're still on the road to Sydney's apartment but I've received the biggest shock of my life. I had a pathetic life because of the family I just joined. This was supposed to be my happiest day. The day I married the man I love. My mother. Oh, mother. She lost everything because of these monsters. How I'm I to look past that and live with him.
I feel something touch my face snapping me back to the real world. Sydney's thumb wipes the tears I never knew I had but I move away. "Let's go and talk about this. You're stressing the baby." Sydney says.
"I don't want to be with you in one place. I'll take a cab." I say as I take in deep breaths to cool me down. Sydney insists on taking the cab but I don't have the strength to argue and so I just get into the waiting car.
“How about I buy you a drink? You look like you need one.” I looked up from the beer I was drinking and my eyes landed on a very handsome man. He had a perfect jawline with a 5 o’clock shadow on it. His lips looked so plump and inviting and I imagined how it would feel to smash my lips with his.
I remember the first time I saw him. He looked so handsome. So dark, mysterious and dangerous. Why would I get involved with someone who had that type of aura? There were so many men I could choose from but I chose him. I had to choose the man whose family destroyed mine.
"Where are they?" He slurred as he looked for the bottles of beer. I pretended to help him search but I knew where they were. I gave them to Miss Julia who in return gave me some food or money to buy it.
"Where are they, you stupid child?” He pulled my hair and dragged me to the smallest and cleanest room in the house - my room. "Give them to me." He roared making me flinch.
"You made her leave me. Now you're taking my beer? All these because I needed the cash? We could have just left you in the streets to rot. You destroyed my life." He always said this but I never thought about his words.
His usual beatings and kicks left me bleeding on my floor. He was always interrupted when he started hitting me but no one came today. Miss Julia didn't save me today.
'I can't go anywhere. He'll always find me.' That was my last thought before losing consciousness and succumbing to the darkness.
I wake up and find myself in bed tucked in. I feel so tired so I don't try to sit up. I look down and see my enormous belly. "At least I have you." I whisper to it as I rub it and try to think of how our lives will be. I know I'm trying not to think of the note and betrayal and I don't think of Sydney but I find that impossible.
'What should I do?' I groan. I'm almost seven months pregnant. I can do this. I can make a plan just for me and the baby. We can totally do this. I don't think I'll be ready to forgive Sydney or his family soon.
"Isabella?" I hear Sydney's voice from the door. It's midnight. What does he want? I don't answer him.
"I've been checking on you. You had a nightmare an hour ago." Sydney says. I want to scream at him that he shouldn't care at all. He shouldn't pretend that he now cares.
"You knew all along but never told me." I state. "Why didn't you tell me anything?" I feel something burn my chest. I feel it squeezing and clawing but I try to persevere. I've gone through worse. But this hurts more.
Sydney moves next to the bed and stands in my line of sight then kneels to my level. "Yes." He says that and the feeling in my chest intensifies. "I figured it out a month ago but I had no courage."
"You people destroyed my life." I say as matter of fact.
"And I have no excuse for that. My family has killed so many people without a care in the world." Sydney takes my hand and lifts it to his lips but I yank it away. I need a clear mind.
"My mom. Her fiancé died when she was eight months pregnant. The man she was going to get married to in two months. She almost died of shock and had an early birth. Three years later she's separated from the baby. How could she be sane after all that?" Tears run freely and I don't wipe them. Sydney has to see what they caused me.
"Izzy." His voice cracks. "I might be this cold hearted man but I... “I don't let him finish. I don't want to listen to his lies.
"Why?" I feel so tired. "Why would you kill my father?"
"He was a threat. He discovered us." I let out a bitter laugh.
"And now I'm part of you're stupid family." Talk about irony.
"I'll get us out of this Isabella. I swear." Sydney says with so much hate making me look up at him in surprise. The mafia killed his mother and sister. I remember him telling me that.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask still looking at his face.
"I didn't know how. I planned that I would after everything was over. You don't need this stress." He says but I say nothing.
"Izzy. I won't let anything happen to you." He takes my face in his hands and for once I let him touch me. My father died when Sydney was only two years old after all.
"You said there's no getting out of the mafia." I remember.
"I have a plan. But first I need you to do something."
I look at him curiously. He always has a plan. "What do you need me to do?"
"What do you think of merging our companies?"
I didn't expect that. "Why?"
"Think about it. We're going to be gone for a while and you're supposed to take over in about eight months. Merging will both benefit us and since we're married, our child can take over."
"Let’s talk about this some other time. I'm still not over my dad's murder." I say and Sydney nods in understanding.
"You have to move to the safe house in Toronto in twenty hours’ time. I already planned for you and your mother. I don't know how long we'll fight with the Italians but I promise I'll be back." Sydney kisses my lips and I return it immediately.
"I have to tell you something but promise me that you'll trust me." I nod immediately.
"The blood in the box." I remember the box had blood and the note was placed in it. Why do I feel this isn't good news? "Another note was placed inside and it was covered in blood. It was Harry's. They have him but I'm going to get him back to you."
I cry. Sydney takes me and hugs me for a long time. "I already have people looking for him. I didn't want to tell you but I can't keep anything from you."
"I promise I'll get him back baby." He says after a long time.