Sold to the Capo-Chapter 70: TO KILL OR TO FORGIVE?

ADRIANA’S POV

The apple tasted like ash, but I was truly hungry, so I forced myself to swallow each bite I took.

Vincenzo had paled at his call and I could feel his stare burning holes in my side before he finally hung up and looked at me. Now he was going to stand up and give me the news that he had been called for some important stuff so he would have to go.

I braced myself for it because I knew that was what he would do yet what he said completely shocked me. "Okay, I’m done with the call; let’s continue from where we stopped.." He forced a smile to me, but the softness of the voice wasn’t forced.

"I thought you just received a call," I asked, dumbfounded.

He looked down at his phone and then back at me with a smile. "Yes, I did receive a call then I hung up after hearing what it was"

Something was off, the way his leg was beginning to slightly bounce under the table that we sat at.

"Who was that?" I tried to look uninterested.

Truth be told, I don’t know why I was asking so many questions, I just wanted to take my mind off the stuff that plagued my mind.

"It was Valentina and what she said isn’t important to you, c’mon let’s jㅡ"

"I want to know, though," I said, stalling for a time while I peeled an orange that I had grabbed from the plate also.

"No, you don’t, you just don’t want to talk to me and Tesoro...c’mon..." He leaned forward, placing his arms on his legs as he stared at me.

The fact that he was able to point that out made me look at him before looking back down at my feet. "Why do you wanna know anyway?" I muttered, my voice cracking now.

He scooted closer on the couch to me, so close that our elbows kept brushing against each other, but I didn’t tell him to move away, and he showed no signs of wanting to move away.

"I want to know everything about you, what happened there that shook you up"

"Why?" I didn’t look at him. I stretched my hand to drop the orange onto the table because my hands were shaking, but before I could do that, I felt his hand wrap against mine to steady it.

"It’s part of the contract, isn’t it? I want to know what’s wrong with you. I offered you protection, and I can’t have you scared under my roof," He whispered.

I looked up at that and fixed my gaze on me, a bitter smile on my face. "You offered me protection to look for my father"

He shrugged like it was nothing important. "Then let’s pretend just this once that this is because you were trying to look for your father and not because I failed to protect you as planned"

"Are you telling me to break the rules, Don Enzo?" I whispered, my voice lighter now.

"Can’t tell me you never thought about doing it" He smiled back.

I had to chuckle at that, even though the sound came out strangled. I wasn’t sure why I was about to relay everything to him, but he just felt like a safe place for me now.

"At that horrible place, when he uh... he tried to touch me, I shot him..." I paused taking a deep breath. "In the head. I killed him. I shot the others too, I was... I was scared and..." I had become hysterical now, my hands shaking like crazy even as he grabbed my hands with both his hands and pulled me into him so that my head landed on his chest.

"I’m a monster.... I killed someone, I swear I didn’t want tㅡ" I broke off, my chest heaving as I sobbed into his chest, my tears soaking his shirt.

"You’re not a monster. You did the world a favor by getting rid of men like them who wanted to harm an innocent woman, and you know it..." He whispered into my chest, his hand stroking my hair but I could feel the slight tremble in his voice and hands and the pounding of his chest as I lay my head on his chest.

"Won’t you tell me that I’m being a crybaby right now? You do it all the time, and you don’t come home like this," I croaked, my eyes heavy.

A tense silence followed but he never faltered as he stroked my hair, his chin resting on my head. "You’re not a crybaby, Tesoro... It’s not something that’s easy. Taking a life. It’s not. It’s never easy. Trust me. You wanna know a secret?" He whispered into my hair.

I nodded slowly, my tears beginning to slowly stop as I kept my head on his chest, trying to steady myself by listening to his heartbeat.

"It’s not easy for me too, no matter the front I put out there. I just learned to hide my feelings better; I don’t kill innocent people so that I can tell myself that it was either them or me, I’m just taking the trash out of the world, but it doesn’t make it easy for me," He muttered.

I listened carefully, holding my breath even as I was scared that if I let out a breath, it would disrupt his story and ruin the mood.

"That time when I was still in high school, I was informed that a debtor’s child was in the same high school as mine so I was told to keep an eye on her, to know if you were in contact with your dad as he was hiding from my dad..."

This wasn’t a conversation I was ready to have so I quickly opened my mouth to stop him from talking. "Vincenzo, I don’t thㅡ"

His arm around my shoulder tightened, stopping me from talking, his voice trembling. "No, let me say it... I was supposed to keep an eye on you and god, I hated you..."

"You still do," I reminded him, even though it was more of a question than a statement.

He went silent for a split second and his grip on my shoulder softened. "I hated you; I uh... thought you were too weak, but I didn’t want you to pay for your father’s sin, so that’s why I resorted to my last option, which was picking on you in the hopes that you would one day fight back..."

Tears sprung to my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. Instead, I fisted his shirt in my hands, and my eyes squeezed shut.

"You never did" He completed his words. "I hoped I could push you to the wall enough for you to learn to defend yourself. I knew the others bullied you before I got there, but you never fought back and stupid old me decided to go on because I was sure you would break... I had never been more wrong" He paused to take a breather, his fingers tangled in my hair.

He let out a bitter chuckle and sighed. "After a while, I started to hate you for a different reason, you were so different from me. I broke under my father but you never broke under me, it became a challenge but your will to remain the way you were baffled me and it was like you were the better version of myself... I’m sorry" He whispered, his voice cracking slightly.

No amount of apologies would ever erase what I had to go through in their hands but here he was, apologizing for everything he had done. "They all wanted to please you, everyone who bullied me, they would beat me up then say it was for you to notice them, Cheryl especially" I finally said,

"Cheryl works for a clothing brand..." He suddenly said, his voice hard.

I pushed myself off his chest to look him in the eye. "What do you want to do?"

"Depends on what she did" He shrugged.

"Forget it, I’m way past that. You’ve done something regarding those two boys and that’s enough for me. I know your pranks never really hurt me physically, but it was what caused others to physically harm me, and so you’re the biggest terrorizer, and you should be the one punished," I joked, trying to lighten the mood, but he looked as serious as ever and like he had accepted his fate.

"I was the one who started everything; I should be the one who takes the punishment; you’re right." He suddenly stood up, forcing me to sit up properly as I looked at him in confusion.

He walked up the stairs, and I was staring at him in confusion, wondering where he was going; I heard a door open, and a minute later, he came back down, but he wasn’t empty-handed.

My eyes widened as he walked towards me, a gun in his head and a single bullet which he put into the gun, then looked at me.

"I won’t ask you to shoot me, Adriana. I know you’d not be able to, and I won’t make you do the job yourself, which is why..." He dropped to his knees in front of me and put the gun to his head.

"I have earned this punishment, Adriana," Vincenzo said, his eyes locked on mine, his voice steady and calm. "I have hurt you, bullied you, and made your life a living hell. I have taken away your innocence and your trust. And for that, I deserve to die." He paused, his chest rising and falling with each breath while I watched him, my eyes wide with shock and tears forming in my eyes yet I couldn’t get any words out.

"But I won’t pull the trigger myself. I want you to tell me to do it. I want you to be the one to decide my fate." His eyes seemed to bore into my soul, searching for something. "Tell me to pull the trigger, Adriana. Tell me to end my life as punishment for what I’ve done to you. I’ll do it, I swear. I’ll pull the trigger and end my own life if that’s what you want."

His voice was low and husky, filled with a deep emotion that I couldn’t quite understand. "Just say the words, Adriana. Say, ’Pull the trigger,’ and it’s done. I’ll be gone, and you’ll be free from me forever." He paused, his eyes never leaving mine. "But if you don’t, if you can’t bring yourself to say those words, then I’ll know that you’ve forgiven me. I’ll know that you’re willing to give me another chance, to let me make things right between us." His voice trailed off, leaving me with a choice that seemed impossible to make.

My hands dug into the leather couch as I stared at him on his knees, a gun to his head, a position that I never thought I would see him in ever. I had the chance to take revenge now, he was giving me the choice.

"Tell me, Adriana," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "Tell me what you want me to do."