C6 Chapter Six

These last two days went like a blur for Bianca. Emergency flight to Italy, uncontrollable tears, her, continuously wishing this was all a dream, her friends trying their hardest to comfort her, her, missing Matt and most of all, her dad, her, getting home and not finding her dad after frantically searching for him both in the huge house and the family warehouse, her, seeing her mom in a desolate state as melancholy was the order of the day.

she remembered her last conversation with her dad. tears cascaded down her cheeks as she reminisced.

it was the beginning of a new semester in her faculty and she'd face timed her dad

she thought of their conversation.

"hey" her dad said when he saw her. he looked busy but he went away from his capos and the others, to talk to her

"hi Dad" she smiled "sup"

"how's my sweet figlia doing?" he asked her

"I'm doing well, dad although it would have been good if you saw for yourself"

"I'll make out time someday, sweet"

"right" her bright countenance dropped

"Bianca---" he started when he noticed her expression

"you've said that dad, for two years now" she grumbled

"and I'll keep saying it until I make it work" her dad assured her

"when would that be, when I graduate? when I'm married?"

her dad laughed

"I'll never miss my figlia's wedding. you know I'll never do that to you, sweet "

"well, I don't know" she said "I might as well graduate before you come see me"

"don't worry about it," he said "just wait a little longer, I'm coming "

where was her dad now? he promised to come and see her? why hadn't he kept his promise? why couldn't he....

Bianca screamed.

"you must be hiding somewhere. this house is too big, maybe I didn't search thoroughly" she made her way into the house, upstairs to search in the rooms again.

"Bianca...." her Mom cried

"I'll go check" she said and she started going but she was grabbed from behind by June, a female soldier who worked for her mom

"leave me!" she screamed as she struggled against June's strength.

"Calm down", said June to her

she screamed all the more as she tried to disentangle herself from June

it happened in a flash. June pulled out a syringe and injected it's contents into her.

her loud screams began to quiet down.

" You're.... you're a bitch" she whispered to June after she figured that a sedative had been injected into her blood.

"you need to rest, Bianca" said June, stroking her cheek and wearing a wistful look "this was the only way"

"bitch...." Bianca whispered again as she felt her consciousness slip from her.

***********

"Where is he?" Lorenzo barked at the soldiers who stood at the entrance, as he strode into the Sforza villa.

He abandoned his business, back where he stayed, to credible hands and took the first flight back to Italy. As he drove in through the gates, his heart remained outside his chest in worry, and he desperately wished he was being pranked by his madre.

"where is my father?"

the soldiers were all frightened. they didn't dare to utter a word. it made Lorenzo pissed, all the more.

"where is my father?" he yelled furiously

"your dad's body was delivered here yesterday afternoon", a soldier finally spoke. "Mrs Barbara's watching his body upstairs"

Lorenzo let out a humourless laughter. how dare the lowly soldier? he raised his fist and it connected with the soldiers cheek, the effect knocking the soldier down.

"what do you mean by 'his body'?" he grabbed the soldier's collar. "tell me what you mean by 'his body'. did you kill him?" a crazy Lorenzo accused, even as he knew how absurd his accusation sounded. "tell me!"

"Lorenzo!" someone shouted his name and he turned.

it was his mother.

"Madre" he called as he left the soldier's collar and ran to his mother.

"papà....?" he trailed off as his mother hugged him

she began to go upstairs and she beckoned him to follow her.

They arrived upstairs and got into the fourth room on the left row down the hallway.

he saw some of his dad's soldiers and capos standing by the sides of the bed. they all had their heads bowed down, some of them were weeping heavily.

On the bed lay someone covered from head to toe, with a cloth.

"who's that, mom?" he asked as he pointed towards the bed but the reply he got from his mother was a sob.

Seeing that she didn't want to answer him, he went towards the covered body. Each dreadful step he took, he prayed that the body wasn't his father's.

he finally reached the body and opened the clothe.

He saw his dad. Eyes closed, face pale and lip drained of blood. his dad had a deep wound on his forehead and he stared deeper, he figured it was a bullet wound.

No! he screamed mentally. This couldn't be Giovanni, his dad was a fighter, bullets couldn't hold him down.

he turned to the capos who stood around "this isn't Giovanni right? this is someone else. why would you guys bring someone else to our house?" he said to them, his voice raising in each syllable.

"Lorenzo...." his mother cried

"Dad?" he touched his dad's lifeless face. "your time has not come yet. I want you to wake up now. Prove to me that you're a fighter"

he waited a moment for his dad to make a slight movement but it didn't happen. Each passing second plunged him into hysteria. He shook his dad's body.

"Giovanni " he shouted. "Giovanni " he shook his dad harder

"Lorenzo!" his mother called him. "what are you guys waiting for" she said to the soldiers present.

the soldiers grabbed Lorenzo and took him away from the room.

"Let go!" he struggled against them. "I can wake him"

his shouts and struggles were futile because they kept on dragging him away from the body and into a room, where they locked him inside.