Vengeance

Chapter 36

Lorenzo's POV

Dante returned to me after taking care of Ava's wounds. 

"Lei sta bene?" I asked him as soon as he entered Hunt's study. (Is she alright?)

"Non sono sicuro di cosa rispondere." He said with a sigh. (I'm not exactly sure how to answer that.) 

"Che cosa vuoi dire con questo?" I asked him getting a little tensed.
(What do you mean by that?) 

"That head wound she got today is been taken care of. But.." 

"But what?" 

"I saw traces of healing bruises around her neck. I think make up did great job trying to hide them but it could not be missed by a doctor's eyes. If looked closely, you would see the pain and suffering in her eyes. She is hiding a lot of pain behind that innocent smile." Dante's words made a cold shiver run through my spine.

Our Sorellina, our principessa had been through a lot than we can imagine.
13 years is a very long time.

"When I asked her if they hurt her, she chose not to answer. She's clearly hiding something. Doesn't she trust us?" Dante asked sounding extremely sad. 

"I don't think it's about trust. There something darker than that. But whatever it is, I wanna find out. I want to know each and every single minute of her life in this house, since she was brought here." I said in determination. 

"But we also need to respect her privacy. She might feel differently if we try to dig into something she doesn't want us to know." 

"She is our Sorellina, Dante. Our own child. And if she has been in pain, we need to know. That's the only way to help her." I tried to explain.

"She will be alright now that she is with us, but I want to know what those bastards did to her as well. It will help me decide how I will torture that old sack of shit."
Dante and I turned to see Romeo standing at the door of the study. 

"The first time I met her, she had tears in her eyes, I saw her pain." Ryan followed him as well.

"And the second time, I felt how some invisible chains had held her from the outside world. The third time was the last time before today. And that day what I saw had me troubled throughout the night. I saw pure terror in her eyes, screaming to be saved." 

"Why didn't you do anything then?" Romeo asked Ryan.

"Like everyone else, I had no idea about Ava or her past. I thought she was just unwilling to marry him or something like that. But you guys came to us the next day itself. So that's that." Ryan explained.

"No use of pointing fingers at anyone because all of us are at fauly here. It's time to think of ways to find out about her past." Dante said in his usual calm tone. 

"There is one person I think would know about it." Ryan said looking at me. 

"Other than the Hunts?" I raised an eyebrow at him. 

"Yes. Martha. The maid you threatened before." Ryan answered.

We went to the room where all the servants were kept for time being. I saw Martha talking to another younger maid who seemed scared.
"You, come here." I ordered her.
She looked terrified as before but obeyed without a word. 

Now I know why Hunt kept her around. 'Not to speak unless been spoken' to kind of thing.

We took the old hag outside to question her.
"Tell us everything about Ava since she got here. How did Hunt keep her? How he treated her? Did he hurt her? Abuse her? Everything!" Romeo growled at her, scaring her far too much.
I shook my head at him, making him step back a little. 

"We need to know what happened to her in all these years." 

She gulped loudly before answering.
"I-I can't t-tell you everything b-because they always had p-private conversations in the s-study. I d-don't know much at all!" She said trembling in fear. Romeo took a threatening step towards her making her jump backwards. "B-But there is one t-thing which might help. Her diary. I-I gave her a diary when she came here. I am sure she must have used it." 

We looked at each other and then back to the maid.
"Where is it?"

"It's over here!"
We all turned towards the voice.
Vanessa and Veronica stood at the top of the stairs.
Vanessa was holding up a book in her right hand.
They came down to us and handed me a diary.
"We found it accidently, in her closet while picking some clothes for her." Veronica explained. 

I know a diary is something very private and that she would probably, wait no, scratch that, DEFINITELY be upset for invading her personal space like that but these are desperate times. She does not trust us enough yet to tell us everything no holding back. And if there's anything we Mafia can't do, then it's be to patient or be concerned about people's privacy. In fact, we won't be Mafia if we had those qualities.

I looked at my siblings and the Kings with uncertainty. Dante gave a nod of assurance. 

I took a deep breath and opened the diary.

" Dear Diary,
One month.. they bring me here. Martha, the maid, give this book. Scary white hair man, Mr. Hunt, I fear. I know he kill Mama.
They kill her, I saw. Mama on the floor. Red on her neck, on floor. Blood, like wen I fell.  
They all bad peepel. I no sleep, no eat. Bad dreem.
I miss Papa.
And miss frateli! "

The handwriting was messy and childlike with spelling and grammatical mistakes all over, but for a 5 year old, it was quite impressive. It clearly showed how scared she was. I couldn't even begin to comprehend how terrified she must have been at that age after all that she witnessed. 

I was about to turn the page but the book was snatched out of my hands.
I looked up to see Ava looking pale and nervous.
"What are you guys doing?" She asked us. 

"You aren't ready to tell us yourself. We had to find a way." Marco said. 

"Yes, but there is no need. You are all here. I am back with my family. Why do you wanna read my personal diary?" 

"Give us the damn diary Ava!" Romeo stepped towards her but she backed away. 

"No!" She hid the diary behind her while moving away. 

I held off Romeo, who was agitated, with my hand.
I gave him a stern look. That was enough to stop him from pouncing on her.
"Alright. Run along now. You need to eat and rest. It has been a long day." 

She nodded and left with the twins.

"Why did you let her take away the diary, fratello?" Romeo asked in sounded irritated. 

"We can't go against her the first day we got her back." 

"So now we have no other way to know either." Matteo huffed. 

"Who said?" I asked them smirking. 

They all looked confused.
"We're the Mafia. We do things which are not supposed to do. And we do it without letting anyone know."

I am sorry but I will get my hands on that diary one way or another, Sorellina.
Your brother is the Don after all.
I get what I want, Ava.