Act like my wife

29. Questions

For a few seconds, I sat there, frozen by the horrendous sight before me. I had just witnessed the death of a man I despised, yet he was my husband and father of my child. I closed my eyes to say a brief prayer before the shooter blows out my brain too.

After a few moments of waiting, nothing happened. I slapped myself back to reality and got up to run.

"Shit!" I was held down by the handcuffs binding me to the bedpost.

I checked the pockets of Geraldo's corpse to see if he had the keys in there. Thankfully, I found them and unlocked the handcuffs with great difficulty.

When I got free, I ran out and headed for the room downstairs to get Bella. When I got there, she was gone from the bed!

I heard a shuffle behind me and I hid behind a pile of empty brown cartons. My heart was pounding loudly against my rib cage as heavy footsteps approached.

Someone entered the room but I couldn't see who it was. "Vera?" He called.

I recognized the voice! Boy, was I glad to hear it? I got up from my crouching position. "Patrizio."

His face lit up when he saw me. I ran to him and he wrapped his arms around my waist. The warmth of his body, the smell of his cologne, the texture of his shirt against my skin...I had missed him so much.

He broke the hug and assessed me. "Did that bastard hurt you?"

"No, don't worry."

He heaved out a breath of relief. "That's good."

"I can't find Bella?" I said, almost panicking.

"Calm down. She has been taken to another hospital, we can't trust those other guys anymore." He paused. "Where did Geraldo run off to?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean? You shot him."

He had a perplexed look on his face. "No, I did not."

I took him upstairs to the room where Geraldo was lying dead.

I stopped at the entrance and pointed at the bed. "That was where he was shot"

Patrizio walked further into the room while I stayed back to avoid seeing Geraldo's dead body again.

To my surprise, Patrizio looked at me as if I was crazy. "There's nothing here." He said.

"What?! That's not possible-" I walked toward the bed. Patrizio was right, there was nothing there! Geraldo's corpse wasn't there anymore, and there were no stains of blood on the bedsheets or the floor. "But he was here, I swear."

Patrizio held me close and kissed my forehead. "We should go, okay?"

We exited the abandoned, old manor in the middle of the desert. Patrizio led me to his car and held the door open for me, I got into the passenger seat and watched him walk over to the driver's side. He entered the car, revved up the engine, and soon, we were in motion.

There were so many things going on in my head, so many questions that needed answers. Geraldo died right before my eyes, there was no way he could have gotten up and walked out of there. He couldn't have taken the time to wipe off the blood from the duvet. It all felt so creepy.