Made of Steel

24. Wife of lies

Adriano Di Lauro

'Damn it! She found out a way of going to the meeting.

I arrive at the place and I immediately get down to burst in without paying attention to anything else than my wife.

"Cassandra!"

I find her standing, nailed to the ground and...

Rage shakes my body from head to toe until I feel spasms of pain when I see the American place his hands on my wife's delicate skin. The metal that covers my appearance vibrates and the beast inside me escapes.

Killer instincts take control of my body, propelling me toward them in a hurry.

"Get your hands off my wife!"

I land a punch that knocks him to the ground, taking a table with him.

I kick him before he gets up and hits me in the stomach.

Then I bring his back against the wall and slam my knuckles into his jaw. He may match me in strength, but not in rage, and a raging beast is unmatched.

With an unexpected movement I fall on a table, however, I compose myself in time to prevent his next attack, kicking him in stomach and then headbutting him.

From afar I hear the echo of shattered glass along with terrified screams of the crowd.

They reach my ears only as murmurs, since I am fully involved in hand-to-hand combat. However, I distinguish a voice above all the others: "Stop, please?!"

We stop in our tracks as if we've both been hit by a sonic wave at the same time.

I fix my eyes on my wife and then I notice her condition. She looks so overwhelmed reaching collapse. My anger stays behind and is quickly replaced by an overwhelming desire to take her in my arms to separate her from the world.

Without thinking twice, I walk over to her and hold her hand to drag her out of it. Of course, I give one last menacing look to Devil before I leave.

The eyes in the street fall on us as we pass, but my men manage to control the situation and build a wall around us.

"I'll stay" Pietro intervenes cautiously. I didn't even remember that he had come with me. 'I'll put things in order here".

I give him a nod before getting in the car with the doctor.

"You went to see him", that is all I say as we head home.

"I don't want to talk right now, Adriano", she sighs. "Let's leave this subject for later, please".

"Leave it?", I ask, my voice so low it's barely audible. "I warned you what could happen. You have no idea who Dean Frost is", I reveal, "he's been hunting you like an animal for years, feeding a sick obsession".

"I know".

"No", I reply. "You do not know. You do not know the tricks he has used to get you".

"I know!", she bursts out of the blue. "I know he bought me". Tears begin to spill out of her emerald eyes uncontrollably. "I just found out, so you don't have to protect me from the truth anymore".

I am stunned by his statement while desire to squeeze her in my arms and kiss each one of her tears, emerge from the depths of my gut.

'What's wrong with me?'

'What can I say to calm her down?'

For the first time in a long time I see myself sailing on a ship with no defined course. I don't know which way to go.

"I can imagine how you feel..."

"No", now she's the one who cuts me off. "You can't imagine it. You are Adriano Di Lauro, the Man of Steel. Men fear you and women grovel at your feet. You have no idea what it feels like to be tiny, invisible, treated like a porcelain doll".

Her face becomes a mess from crying, giving me a strange feeling in my stomach.

"This is how it has been all my life, I justified my parents with their archaic thoughts, the image my father had to preserve as an heir to a great fortune and then as a politician. U also blamed society, the stigmas of the last century that they insist on maintaining".

"And now I discover I have been sold as merchandise even as a child", Her voice breaks on last sentence. "Like a bi..."

"Don't you dare say it". Fury returns with greater intensity. "You never have been one, don't punish yourself for someone else's actions. You are my wife now...

"Yes", she laughs humorlessly. I don't like direction our conversation has taken. I don't like sensations that continue to invade me since last night. "A wife of lies".

The car stops in front of the mansion and seconds later, the door is opened.

"So save false words for yousrelf because I have had enough lies in my life".

She gets out of the car in a hurry to run into the house, leaving me alone with my delusional thoughts.

I ask the driver to return to his company while I send a clear text message to Pietro:

'Throw him out of Italy and he can't come back'.

"I'll take care of you, Devil Frost", I think out loud. "Prepare yourself for what is coming. I will be your worst nightmare".