Fifty Shades of Red

Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Red was stunned with Salvatore Vittori's sudden offer. Then she laughed. She laughed like what he offered was absurd.

Kumunot ang noo nito dahil sa reaksyon niya. "Why are you laughing?"

Red composed herself as she stopped herself from laughing. She smiled but it was tight. "Are you really sure with your offer, Mr. Vittori?"

Salvatore raised an eyebrow at her. He also folded his arms.

"I shot you in your shoulder last night," she added. "I could have killed you. Now, you want me to work for you?"

Huminga ito ng malalim. He seemed calm unlike earlier. "You're good at speaking and understanding languages. You can work for my family as a translator. Like how you found out that Mr. Belucci was giving counterfeit money and was about to kill us. I have to admit, you saved me as well as the lives of my men."

Red fell silent for a second. Then she sighed. "I did that because you saved me first, from drowning... and taking my own life... I am no longer indebted to you. We're even."

"My offer still stands. You got nowhere to go." He replied in his usual commanding voice. Maybe if she was naive and innocent like before her family's betrayal happened, she might have fallen down into her knees and be scared of him.

But no... she felt different.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"What makes you so sure that I got nowhere to go?" She countered. After all the revelations that she learned, the pain that she felt was slowly numbing her. Maybe this was why fate didn't let her die... yet.

"You're dead to everyone, even your own family, you're dead to them." He answered and his words seemed to echo inside her mind. Parang sinasampal siya ng mga salita na binigkas ng bibig nito.

"I have someone..." She replied and she noticed him creasing his forehead. "I know someone whom I could trust... I can stay at her place for the mean time."

"So I don't need your help, Mr. Vittori," she gave him another tight smile. "You saved my life and I have saved yours, we're even. No need to compensate."

Salvatore let out a defeated sigh. "Okay." His expression then changed—from a dominant mafia boss to a soft gentleman. "We'll go back to the land in a few hours. After this, we will go to our own separate ways..."

"It was... pleasure to meet you, Ms. Xiomara Red Fujimori."

Red smiled at his parting statement. The smile she was giving was genuine.

"It was pleasure to meet you, too, Mr. Salvatore Vittori."

• • •

"Red, I don't really think this is a good idea," Red's best friend and her only trusted friend, Erika Desmond, said when they already arrived outside her ex-fiance's house. Nasa loob silang dalawa sa kotse nito habang nakaparada malapit sa bahay ni Russell.

It has been two days since she got back to the land. Salvatore Vittori, true to his words, got her back to the land and let her go. After that, they never got to see each other again. Ito pa ang naghatid sa kanya papunta sa bahay ni Erika. His men chaffeured her until she was safe in her friend's place.

Erika was even shocked when she saw her in flesh and alive. She didn't give her a friend a detailed reason but she told her someone saved her life and took care of her. It was for the better that no one will know that an Italian mafia boss was the one who saved her and she shot him... and she saved his life as well...