AIDEN'S POV.
"Fucking bastard!.." I said on top of my voice.
"After all these years... I fucking thought I killed that bastard!" I roared. "He dares to show up to my face again?!" I continue to lament.
"How dare he Marcelo, how dare he show up in my den" I said even more again. "Boss, I think you need to calm down," Marcello said.
"How do you fucking expect me to calm down huh?.. Don't you fucking tell me to calm down Marcello!" I said to his face.
I could feel his body vibrate out of fear. "We need to kill him," I said.
"What?" Marcello foolishly asked.
"There's no other way out, we need to find a way to get rid of him" I told him.
"Come on boss there can be other ways to make him leave you alone instead of killing him" Marcello suggested but when I asked him to give one of the ideas to make Ethan disappear from our lives he had nothing to say.
I was in deep shit and I could feel it. I didn't want to speak with Marcello. He had no idea what I was going through. He is just a big fat head. I wonder what made me think he could be a good bodyguard to me. He can't even kill a rat.
Just as I was in deep thought, Cecilia walked in with the kids, we needed to talk but I allowed her to take the kids upstairs and lock them in the room sleeping.
"Hello Sandro.. Are you okay?.." she asked me. "We need to leave the country," I said.
"What?" she asked me.
"You heard me Cecilia, we are moving" I told her.
"Why?.. Why are we moving?" she asked but I said nothing to her.
"Talk to me Sandro, why do you want us to move? Is something the matter?" she asked me again but yet I gave her no response.
"What is this about Sandro because you have been acting l strange to me ever since we got back from dinner the last time" she stopped.
"Did I do something wrong?" she kept asking.
"That's enough Cecelia, no more fucking questions, you will do as you have been told."i said and turned to leave.
" What about me Sandro, have you ever thought about how this would make me feel? Have for once just think about me, what about my job? What will happen to it"she started.
"From now on I don't want to see you anywhere close to the office or going to that Goddamn house you think needs your touch or whatever you call it, do you understand that?" I asked her but she gave no response .
"Are you listening to me Cecilia, I hope you do cause you do not want to dare me" I told her, it came out more like a warning to her.
"It's not even about what I did it's about Ethan right? I saw the way you looked at him in pure disgust, now you're using your insecurities to make me leave everything behind, well get this Sandro, I and my kids are going nowhere, do you fucking understand!.. "she cried out loud.
" You won't dare talk to me like that " I told her in a very harsh tone.
" What did I ever do to you huh? What the fuck did I ever do?! "she said. Don't you fucking ask me question!" I warned her.
"What is wrong with you huh?!.." she said in a very angry tone.
"You better watch your fucking mouth loser" I said on top of my voice and quickly followed it up with a slap on her face and some few punches to go with it.
There is the damage to the skin, yet the damage to the brain takes far longer to heal. For rewiring back to empathy, to happy memories and a positive sense of self requires the patient layering of neurons daily. The damage of moments requires the healing of years. Being beaten up is, in reality, being beaten down.
"You're going to do as I've said you fucking slut" I said and gave her a hard punch on the abdomen
She could feel the tension and hear the intensity in my tone. There's a great deal of emotion behind these words I was speaking. And then she did something new.
"I you have been fucking with him, haven't you slut!" I said and spit on her.
Instead of waiting for a disaster to unfold and then stress of the relationship she calms herself and thinks of where my usual responses take us at these times. All she can do is try to make a new and hopefully better choice and see what unfolds. So instead of being defensive she says I can accept and understand how she came to feel this way, that in the same situation I would feel it too. She needs validation of my emotions.
"I love you Nuella, I fucking do.. Am so sorry... " I punched her on the face and before I could calm down she had already passed out.
Not all solutions or apologies, And things do go different, not magical fairytale-esque, but there is some healing and more damage is prevented.
The shadows of the beating were on her skin and on my heart. The knowledge that her own husband could do such a thing just broke something inside of her, something that would remain long after skin and bones were healed. It was a sadness in her eyes, a heaviness, an unyielding sorrow that slowed her speech and robbed her of her once easy smile.
Cecilia lay in the hospital bed, eyes fixed on the window until the kids walked in. She turned, knowing already what face they would make, especially Ethan.
His eyes got that wide look, his bottom lip trembled and he hurried to sit by her bedside. His eyes walked from one injury to another, taking in the gore that was her husband. They could see the conflict already, she's trying to be strong for him, for them and the raw need to weep welling up.
"It's alright mum" Ethan croaked
"You can cry." It was all the permission she needed.
Head down on the white woollen blanket, minutes passing until she could speak his name.
"Am sorry Ethan, am sorry" she apologized like she was not just talking about now, she was apologizing for all the things she knew of and those she was yet to find out.