Chapter 63

Arianna POV: 

We were working closer and closer to my father's arrest, every day I caught moments when it felt like we would pull this off and I grabbed onto them tight. They kept me sane, most of the time I felt a green mist in the air. Something was coming for us we couldn't see, shadows pulling at us as we neared our victory. The slimy and sinking feeling that though we had every scrap of evidence to put him away it wasn't enough. He was too foul a beast to keep breathing. I could see the shiny strings he pulled to get us to move this way and that. 

Giulia had shown up and tried to get me to see some photos of Giovanni doing something that would "turn my stomach". I had pushed her away and left but my skin had been crawling since. It was the simplest interaction she had let me go, and I felt as if I should cling to Giovanni ever since then. The rug was going to be pulled soon and we'd be sent tumbling. 

As hazy as the days were, never seeing where we were heading as I looked over my shoulder for whatever he would throw at us this time, we were still making progress. It felt all the more off balance as I still hadn't heard from Blake, I heard whispers in my ear of the horrible fate I had left her to. 

All the things my father was capable of, the torture, the violence, the needless bloodshed. They drew their demons up and spun around me telling me all of the ways Balke had died, how he had drawn it out horribly, savoring every scream from her. I would do my best to remind myself that Blake was trained, and was good at disappearing, repeating to myself that she had gone underground and would show herself when it was safe. 

Nothing I did could shake the feeling that there was something else coming for us. As the detective would explain the logistics to us, and Giovanni would give some evidence from their past the case grew, the big shield we pieced together bit by bit. 

"You've been quiet," Giovanni told me rubbing his thumb under my chin. 

I couldn't find the words to explain it all, how I saw boogeymen everywhere, how all the missing pieces tormented me laughing with their devilish intentions. "I'm worried it won't be enough," was all I could manage. 

His deep chuckle lit the embers in me warming me up from inside, I buried my face into his chest. "It'll be alright, you've been in this game for a much shorter time than I have. This is the closest I have ever come," 

I grabbed the back of his shirt trying to center my mind on him, and push all of the fears away. "I know, but I can't stop thinking we've missed something," 

He kissed my forehead, "Perhaps you should take a break, go rest?" He looked down at me, normally I would insist on fighting alongside him, but at that moment I couldn't. The fight in me was fractured by this feeling. I nodded and went upstairs to bathe and once again try and reason with my own mind that there was nothing to fear. 

I set up the tub playing over the events in my head, I heard Blake shoot back. If she had a gun I was sure she had a chance, my father's goons were not a match for an agent. At least I assume she was an agent, Blake was so scary I didn't exactly know what she had done for the government. 

Hector had flipped on my father after using the phone call and being turned away, I didn't know what had happened to make my father leave him behind, but it was a twist of fate in our favor why argue? He had given up everything, that there was a bank account, that it was my fathers, my father was using the non-reported money to fund his criminal empire. Drugs are being pumped out onto the streets by untaxed dollars, I would love to think the drugs would be the worst crime, but the Detective assured me that tax evasion was our silver bullet. 

Giulia coming up to me in some hair-brained scheme of hers was the norm, she had tried to kidnap me in Giovanni's house. She wasn't the brightest in her plans always assuming she was the smartest and that no one could think like she did. 

But what if you've missed something? 

I plunged my head under the water to avoid that sickening sensation as my head played with itself. Avoiding the voice that teased me about our shortcomings, reminding me I didn't know everything. I wanted to run away from the problems I couldn't see. 

I played it again and again, we had hector, he hadn't contacted my father outside of the brief phone call they'd had, which was recorded. Giulia was only plotting something foolish, and Blake could defend herself. We had a shot and we had to take it, I couldn't keep suffocating in this hesitation. 

I pushed myself back up to the surface of the water and breathed in a large breath, pulling myself together. I got out and as I did I heard raised voices. 

"What the hell are you doing here? Do you know how close we are if he gets suspicious now it's all ruined!" Giovanni shouted. I pulled on some clothes and hurried out of our room and down the steps. 

As I did hearing the familiar but shocking voice of Marco, "She has a right to know what going on at home, they're eating each other I highly doubt he'll think anything of this," 

I moved quicker wondering if this was it, was this puzzle piece I had been missing? I hoped Marco had come to confirm my fears and rescue us from the clutches of my father. 

"What's going on?" I burst into our office and Marco handed me a file. "Your sister collected this, she was going to overthrow your father," He explained. "Domenico found out, he's lost his mind," He grabbed his phone from his pocket to show me a photo, of Giulia screaming being put in the back of a truck, her face bruised and swollen on one side. 

"Oh my god," I whimpered looking at my little sister desperate to escape, true fear on her normally snide face. 

"I haven't seen her since, this was days ago, she's in trouble," He was desperate. I didn't think for a moment Marco loved my sister romantically, at best he tolerated her, but I could see the genuine worry in his eyes pleading with me to care. He may not love her but he did care for her, probably out of pity for the warped world she had grown up in. 

"What's in here?" Giovanni grabbed the file photos of my father at the bank over several years, proof of his attachment to the account. She had been on the inside and was able to gather a lot. 

Giovanni showed it to the detective who was scrambling to see from his screen. "This is more than enough to convict, this is perfect," He cheered. 

"Perfect," I gripped the phone. "You arrest him," I growled. 

My sister's face stared back at me, fearful arm outstretched for help as the men hauled her into a mysterious SUV, taking her god knows where. My mom's body flashed into my head. "Arrest him now, as quick as you possibly can," 

I didn't believe my sister was a good person, but I did believe she'd never been given the chance to try. Raised by a tyrannical psychopath, she never knew true parental love or unconditional forgiveness. She had walked on eggshells her whole life and was twisted from it. I won't let him steal that chance from her.