The Black Silk

Chapter 9 ✨

"Cellina!"

She was jerked back into reality. Memories flooded back—the tender moments, the betrayal, how his dirty hands stretched across her body violating her every inch until there was nothing left but bruises, and the nightmarish aftermath that followed their breakup.

Adrian's hands clenched into fists at his sides, his pulse quickening with a mix of anger and apprehension. He had thought he'd escaped the shadow of Nico's intimidation, but now, faced with him again, the old wounds reopened with painful clarity.

Cellina sensed the tension escalating and moved instinctively towards Adrian, her concern overriding her discomfort. She touched his arm gently, her eyes silently urging him to stay calm.

"Adrian, it's okay," she murmured, her voice a soothing balm amid the turmoil.

But Adrian's facade cracked under the weight of his memories. He took a step back, his breath coming in short, shallow gasps. The beach seemed to blur around him, Nico's presence amplifying the sense of suffocation he had fought so hard to overcome.

He staggered to maintain his steps as the painful memories unleashed like a tsunami. He was stronger than this; he was the Capo of the New York Mafia. He could wring out a man's life with the sheer power of his hands. Every inch of his agitated heart wanted to do just that but his body couldn't comply.

His father had almost beaten him to death with a steel rod once the news of his son being helplessly mulled around by the rival group's son had reached his ears.

You're a disgrace. Should have killed you in your whore mother's rotten womb. What could a bitch have birthed if not for a dog.

His voice had ricocheted in the empty room like thunder. He had wiped the metallic taste of blood off his mouth and made a decision.

Nico. Dead.

A death so painful, slow, and menacing he would be begging for sweet sweet mercy.

The woman who held his arm with an ironclad grip had some past demons of her own. She had been anything but a badass bitch for the mere time they had spent together but her sudden anxiety made him realize there too had been some bad blood between her and Nico.

Cellina acted swiftly, guiding Adrian away from the confrontation, her hand steady on his arm.

"Let's go," she said quietly, leading him towards the relative safety of their shared room in the beach resort.

Nico's voice became a distant howling in the wind as they inched farther from his menacing presence. He dared not come after them for whatever reason

They entered the room in silence, the door closing softly behind them. Adrian sank onto the edge of the bed, his hands trembling as he tried to steady his breathing. Cellina remained standing, watching him with a mixture of worry and empathy.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly, her voice breaking the silence that hung heavy between them.

Adrian looked up at her, his eyes clouded with lingering panic. "I... I didn't expect to see him," he admitted, his voice hoarse.

Cellina knelt in front of him, her hands resting on his knees. "I know," she said gently. "But you're safe now. He's gone."

Adrian nodded slowly, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly under her reassurance. "Thank you," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion.

She smiled faintly, her fingers brushing his cheek. "Anytime."

She realized it was ages since she had last consoled someone like this. She didn't know she still had it in her. After what that demon had done to her and her baby. Her body shivered from head to toe.

She was hit with a sudden pang in her belly and her cervix started to ache, sending her reeling back to the most horrific night of her life. Adrian was quick to sense it as he saw her face crumple in pain.

She lay down on the bed beside him and tried to close her eyes as her body started to go numb. Tears started to stream from behind her closed eyelids.

"What happened, Cellina ?" He steadied his voice enough to comfort her.

"Is it him?"

"What did he do to you?"

She just flicked her head to avoid giving any answers to him.

He reached out to her. His hand, a comforting presence in the storm that whirred in her mind.

She turned on her side away from Adrian's prying eyes and spoke in the weakest of voices. A voice so broken Adrian felt his heart sinking.

"He killed my baby."

A deep silence.

"He raped me."

A deep silence.

" He tore what little shreds of womanhood I had. Shattered me to pieces."

A deep silence.

Adrian felt all sense escaping his body as anger became the only emotion his body could feel.

Cellina turned to his side now as she sensed the space behind her in the bed become empty.

She looked like a meek lamb surrounded by the whiteness of the room around her as she began crying fully now. Letting her pent-up emotions do the talking. She peered at him with the icy blue eyes almost begging for him to stay.

Adrian who had gotten ready to end Nico's life there and then sensed that she needed him more than anything in the world right now.

He closed the distance between them as he laid her back on the bed, with her head resting on his shoulder pillow as he switched off the lights around them and pulled the sheets over them.

She nestled peacefully in the crack of his chest, as she continued to sob, he peacefully ran his fingers through her hair as he felt her growing calmer with every sob as the sounds started to grow faint.

Soon he felt her gentle breaths tingling his broad chest as he realized she had drifted off to sleep.

He planted a kiss on her forehead. Lately, he had been craving to do this. But not like this. Realization hit him like a train, he had wanted this but not in these circumstances. The way she rested against him now as puzzle pieces perfectly put together made him think that this cruel world could be a perfect place.

He rose from the bed careful enough not to wake her up. He went up to the foyer and pulled back the curtains to let some light in, then he took his seat beside the window.

He had added one more goal to his life.

Kill Nico

Make Cellina Vittori his wife.