Vittoria

25. Leave

It's been two weeks since Theodore and I agreed to start over. Ever since then, things have been amazing.

We have dinner together privately every other night, catching each other up on what we did that day.

He's taken me out both Saturdays for lunch and whatever else we managed to find.

My family went back to California last week and as much as I missed them, I'm sort of glad they're gone. My fathers constant attempts at conversations were starting to piss me off. My mother was also starting to try and persuade me to give Papa a chance.

I do miss the relationship I had with Papa before this whole mess but I just can't let go of the betrayal I felt from him.

It's Tuesday, so that means Jules and I are going to spend some time together in the basement watching movies tonight.

It's just after 1 and I just finished eating lunch with Eliza. Recently I've been cooking with her rather than having her cook for me.

Walking upstairs, I go into my room and plop down on the bed and grab my phone off the nightstand.

Jules' name flashes across my screen as her text message comes through.

"wya", it reads.

"My room," I send back.

Moments later Julianna walks through my door and joins me in the bed.

"What've you been up to today?" I smile at her.

"I was texting Zach while he's working," she says timidly.

I quickly turns towards her, "Wait Zach as in? Theo Zach?"

Her face becomes red quickly, "Maybe," she smiles at me.

"Omg Jules! Zachary's pretty cute! Wow. Does Theo know?" I grab her hand and make her sit closer.

"No no," she shakes her head immediately.

"Theo would probably kill Zach then me. I don't think he'd like his sister and one of his men together." Her eyes look sad admitting that she can't be with Zach.

"Don't worry about Theo's grumpy ass. How long have the two of you been talking?" I give her a reassuring smile.

"Well honestly it's been about 6 months. We've never been able to go out and do anything together let alone start a relationship. But We've been secretly talking for a while and Tori I really really like him." Her face and neck is red from talking about Zachary. She looks like a school girl talking about her crush.

"I'll deal with Theodore, don't worry. I promise I'll help you in any way that I can." I give her a hug before my phone starts ringing.

Theo, the screen says.

"Hi," I answer the phone with a smile.

"Vittoria. Where are you?" Theo's tone is serious, like something's wrong.

"In my room with Jules why?" I ask confused.

"I need both of you to get ready as soon as you can. Zachary will drive you to my location. I want you both to leave your phones and any other electronics you have. Throw on something comfortable and pack a small bag with any necessities. You need to leave in the next 10 minutes." He demands.

I look over to Jules who's watching me concerned. "Why? Theodore what's going on?" I ask.

He lets out a frustrated sigh, "Listen I need you to trust me and to follow my instructions. I promise you I will explain everything once you're both with me. But please Tori, just hurry and get ready to leave."

"Okay," I say and hang up the phone.

"What's wrong Tori? Why did he sound so urgent?" Julianna asks me with furrowed brows.

"I don't know Jules but he said we have ten minutes to pack a small bag with anything we need and to be ready to leave with Zachary. He said we have to leave all electronics here and that he'll explain everything when we meet him."

Getting off my bed, I grab a small duffel bag from my closet and begin throwing in whatever I can find.

Sweatpants, a pair of shorts, jackets and hoodies, undies, socks, a couple pairs of sneakers. "Okay I'll go pack," Julianna stands from the bed and runs out of my room.

Hurrying to my bathroom, I pack my toothbrush, toothpaste, all of my shower products and anything else I think I might need.

Checking the time, we have to about 4 minutes.

I go across the hall to Julianna's room and watch as she finishes packing a bag similar to mine.

"You ready?" I ask as she zips up the bag.

"Yeah," she turns to me.

"I'm just going to text my parents really quickly," I tell her.

"Good idea."

I pull my phone out and type up a message to Mamma, Papa, and Zarina.

"I love you. I won't be able to talk to you guys for a while. I don't know what's happening but Theo says Julianna and I have to meet him somewhere and to leave our phones. I'm safe."

Sending the message I notice it says not delivered.

What the fuck?

"Ladies! We must leave now," Zachary shouts from downstairs.

"Come on Tori, you'll talk to them when we're back don't worry," Julianna grabs her bag and signals me to follow her.

She's right. This'll all be explained when we get to Theo. We have to leave. Dropping my phone on Jules' bed, I pick up my bag and follow her downstairs to where Zach is waiting for us.

"Follow me," he says to us taking our bags.

We follow him outside to where there's about five trucks all filled with more of Theodore's men all armed and ready to go.

"Zachary what the hell is goi-"

"Please Ms. Abruzzo. Mr. Quintiliani will explain everything. We must leave now." Zachary finishes packing everything into the car and opens the door for Julianna and I.

Looking through the window I see the rest of the house workers—Eliza and Nicco included— getting into some of the other cars with their things.

As we put our seatbelts on Zachary speeds out of the drive way, soon followed by the other trucks.

"Julianna what the hell could be happening?" I ask her.

"It must be something with the Americans. This is exactly how Theodore brought me from my house. Something must've happened." She says with a concerned look.

I sit back in the car and wonder what could possibly be happening.

What about the Americans?

The only thing I can do right now is wait until we get to Theo and have him explain everything to us.