Savage Crown II

3. Three

Natalia Four Years Earlier

"Where are we Gio?" I asked my oldest brother Adrián or as I'd like to call him Gio short for his middle name Giovanni. We stepped out of the town car and stretched our legs, "A Sicilian monastery " he smiled. "You'll stay here for a couple months with them while I can secure a more permanent location for you" he said looking around. "The nuns here run some things for the Lombardi so they won't be trouble and keep your identity safe. Oh and one more thing Nat... We won't be able to visit you while you're here" he frowned, "Callum's burning down the whole city looking for you right now as we speak and we can't have him tailing one of us and lead him right back to you." He paused and took a deep breath, " I'll explain everything to our family back home about the situation, but this is it for now little sis, I love you Nat." He said as he brought me in for a hug.

"I love you too Gio" I cried, knowing this would be the last time I'd be seeing my brother for god knows how long. "No more tears sis, what's happened has happened, we all make mistakes as humans but we just got to get back up" he encouraged me as I cried more, "I'll try Gio.." I said through my tears. "Take care of each other okay?" Gio said as he pulled away from me and went to hug my cousin Nora. "You're all you two will have out here for a while." Gio reminded us as he waved goodbye and got back into the idling car that was waiting for him and rode off. Nora was my rock through all of this, she remained calm and strong for me while my heart was shattered, and the man I loved was unleashing his wrath on the city searching for me leaving no stone unturned. Nora had decided to stay here with me instead of flying back home and nursed my broken heart and mind back to health as much as she could. I couldn't sleep, eat, or stand the heartbreak and betrayal but somehow Nora managed to pull me out of that darkness.

Days turned into weeks and life at the Monastery was the most beautiful place I had been in and the nuns were so kind to me and Nora. The monastery looked like a medieval castle or like something out of Harry Potter. There was a language barrier between us and the nuns but we managed to get by. The monastery was such a beautiful place full of lush green gardens, a lot of quietness and best of all peace. There was no fear of watching your back or the need to carry a gun and be guarded at all times. Life was for once in my life was normal.

My living space for my time here was a tower that oversaw the gardens. The old style stained glass casement windows would always stay open to let in the fresh scent of flowers blow through my window. The fresh scent would help with the non-stop nausea and dizziness that seemed never ending.

What I thought had been a simple case of food poisoning that had death's grip on me the entire first weeks there wasn't truly the case. Saint Lombardi came to visit me and Nora and convinced me to see the doctor and that's when I found out I was already six weeks along my pregnancy.

The same day I found out I was pregnant was bittersweet, it was beautiful hearing my baby's heartbeat and seeing my first ultrasound of her on the screen but being so far from home and realizing that my child would also now have to be hidden from her father for her saftey was heartbreaking. I called my family around midnight to catch them around six o'clock Chicago time to break the news to them but instead of celebrating my announcement it ended in tears yet again having heard that my brother Gio decided to launch an all out war against Callum. As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn't ever live with myself if the father of my child was dead by my family's hands.

Gio called off the attacks after seeing how much stress and distraught it placed me under and left it alone after that never bringing it up again. Gio was ruthless and didn't care what bridges he had to burn with the Clarke's to get back at them for conspiring against us but not me, I grew tired of the violence that almost cost me my life and mama's twice.