Intertwined

Chapter 66: Change in the Air

Chapter 66:

After spending the rest of the day going over information and plans with Agent Rovina, Niko and Ermis were booked into another room at the hotel where Asha and Mia stayed. In two days, they would be leaving for Naples, where they would spend the next week, before, hopefully there would be enough evidence for the Central Bureau, with the help of Interpol, to arrest Antonella Sarracino and a number in her inner circle.

The car ride back was silent.

Ermis was digesting the information they had given him on his daughter; she was alive, well, a successful research doctor and had grown up thinking her mother was Antonella Sarracino. That thought made him sick, even though Agent Rovina let him know it appeared the woman had a good life and went to the best schools. He had relayed to everyone how Antonella had killed her best friend out of jealousy, after the baby was born. She had injected her IV with insulin. But the investigators were paid off by her father and the official cause of death was brain aneurysm, complications from her injuries of the attack she had suffered months prior and the stress of giving birth.

Mia had let Ermis know about Leni, his stepsister, that she was suffering with a genetic disease that was making her extremely ill. That her life may be a lot shorter because of it. He was also coming to terms with the fact that Roger had hoped to groom him, as a kind of criminal apprentice. Mia left out the part Morgan had told her, where Roger had written in one of his diaries he saw strength in the cruelty of Ermis. The redhead suspected that some of his behaviour as a teen and young man had been a reaction to grief, of losing his own mother at a young age, insecurity and jealousy, rather than the man she saw before her now, who was broken and carrying the weight of years of self-loathing and shame. Mia had started to feel different towards the Greek man. She knew there was a shift within her when she heard him speak, but nothing in her was ready to admit it to anyone.

Niko heard that his wife now had begun a relationship with his old friend Morgan Bradbury and while he wasn't happy about it, he knew Morgan was a good man. Niko also knew that Bella deserved to be happy, he had caused her pain and anguish at one of the most vulnerable times in her life. He didn't deserve her.

To get out of the web Antonella had him in, he was relieved to have the help of the others but struggling with the thought of anyone else being hurt because of him. He kept trying to suggest ways of leaving Asha and Mia out of the plans, but agent Rovina ignored his protests as they spoke and Mia narrowed her eyes. 'You don't get to decide that Niko,' he sighed, defeated but silently promised he would do whatever he could to keep his friends safe, all of them. He had so much more he wanted to talk to Mia about, but he knew one or two conversations weren't going to fix what he had broken. Niko hadn't realised how much he had missed her, until she was right there in front of him.

Agent Rovina said that the information they had on human trafficking would be the best way to infiltrate the compound Antonella had in Naples and it was the strongest part of the International investigation. The problem was people refused to testify, so they needed other concrete evidence, which up until now, they struggled to get their hands on. Asha planned on seeing Riccardo's mother once this was all over and she quietly spoke to Nadia Rovina about the boys' murder and that she wanted to be able to tell the story of the boy and the impact such crimes had on small communities.

Agent Rovina was thoughtful, 'Reporting is important to shed light on such things, but what happens after the light goes out, after you type the last word and someone closes your article? Who helps beyond the looking, beyond the spotlight?' Asha felt heaviness settle in her for a moment, 'I'm not trying to discourage you Miss Seymour, not at all, but you and your family have considerable resources and contacts. There must be some of that, that you have access to, that could be used to give people who have been victims of human trafficking, a way forward. A pathway to life afterwards,' Nadia offered a small, quick smile. Optimism flashed in her eyes for just a moment before returning to the business of the day. Asha being the person she was, had not stopped thinking about it. Mia had noticed. Every pause between conversations, she saw Asha's mind wander to ideas and plans she was mapping out in her mind, that made this mission, simply the beginning of something else.