The Mafia's Bride (Book 2)

Chapter 26

"So what did your dad do?" Klaus asked as he handed me my spoon to stir the cooking onions.

"What could he do? I mean my mother would get what she wants whether someone dies or not. He took out some of my trust fund money and soon after she had dimples." I closed the pot then took the chopping board and poured down the garlic on the marinating bowl Klaus was using.

"I threw a fit when I found out, now looking at it my father was probably in a lot of stress all the time. As much as we were close I would sometimes threw my tantrums and Mom was just always on his neck complaining about everything and anything." I said looking down feeling so guilty on how spoilt I would get.

"Why did he not just divorce her?"

" I do not know really but I could see it in his eyes that even after all the things she did he still was smitten with her which I think is absolutely foolish and amazing at the same time." I said tiding the mess we had created.

"Enough about me, I want to know about you?" As soon as he heard that his face went stone cold.

"What about me?"

"Your family, your whole life but if you do not want to share its okay." I said.

He went silent, the atmosphere changed and the tension around the room grew. I threw the onion peals and was about to talk about something else when he spoke up.

"Well, when I was born both my parents were so happy they threw a feast but they were all happy for different reasons. My father was happy to have someone to leave the family business to and my mother was just happy to have a child of her own. The older I grew the more they fought; my father would take me for weeks upon weeks, training. He would take me to the forest up beyond the mountains and just leave me there all by myself, first for a day until it went on to months and months. My mother would go insane, she would get so angry she would even beat my father up with a feather duster when he came back with me, I mean who wouldn't get that angry; I was barely seven years old after all.
The fights got intense as my father would steal me during the day only for my mother to find me gone when she came back from the city. It was at the point of my mother threatening to leave but even through all this they were so in love, the thought of being apart left them depressed beyond measure so my father proposed a deal. 'My mother would get pregnant and she would keep that baby all to herself as my father would do anything with me'.   My mother was reluctant but as soon as she found out that the baby she was carrying was a girl it made it easy for her to give me up to protect her baby girl from going through what I did.

Nicole was born, I knew what it meant for me but I still could not help but feel excited. I was getting a baby sister, everything else did not seem to matter. As soon as the baby opened her eyes in my mother's arms she was in love. The day after I was moved from the main house to the servant's quarters. 'How could I learn anything when I was sleeping in a warm comfy bed and ate beacon' my father had said. At four o'clock I would be awake collecting firewood for the kitchen. I would then run as fast as I could up the mountains barefooted whether it was cold, snowing even thundering. When I got to the mountain Mikael would be waiting for me in the shed to for combat, shooting and knife skills. By two o'clock I would be running down that mountain making sure I was doing it as quietly as possible. Half past two I would be in the study room, having taken a bath, waiting for professor Howard and Jacob for my private lessons. At seven I would be having my first and last meal which I had to cook myself after class. Eight o'clock I would be tied up a pole or down a chair whether I was being flocked, water boarded or cut, not that I had done anything but they were training me to withstand torture." Klaus paused looking straight ahead deep in thought. As for myself I was frozen in place lower lip quivering, I did not even know what to say or do. My heart felt as if it had been put in a plastic bag and was constantly being knocked against the wall. How could anyone do that to a child? How could anyone survive that?

"But after all that every night when everyone was asleep I would find myself having climbed up the tree looking through the window watching my baby sister sleep so peacefully in her crib. I would forget the pain I was in, forget the sadness and loneliness that was rotted deep down my core. She had been so beautiful Harley," he took a deep breath. I walked towards him and wrapped my hands around his waist laying my hand on his back as some sort of comfort. He brushed my interlocked hands.

"One night I took a chance and broke into the house through a window. I had never been so scared in my life, I had walked up the stairs until I found myself standing right in front of her door. I could hear her soft cries and without a second thought I had slowly opened the door, walked in and closed it behind me so carefully. I had been so nervous and excited at the same time. This was the first time I would be so close to my little sister. As soon as she saw me her cries died down and my heart was stolen. She had looked me with her big glassy eyes and I fell under her spell. I had picked her up with my rough scarred hands rocking her in my arms. She burst out laughing making me smile after such a long time. The door had busted open only for my mother to scream so loud I swear the whole house shook. She had not seen it was I, I was taller than the last time she had seen me and much bigger. When she realized it had been too late for my father was running through the door with his loaded gun. I had never been whipped so hard in my life Harley, I screamed until I thought my lungs had torn. My mother sobbed until she was laying in the dirt and I guess after that night she just switched off her emotions towards me as a way of coping with what she had done. When my father was done the pole was dripping with my blood that had pooled on the floor. They had told me to stay away from the main house, never to even look through a window but who were they kidding I was as stubborn as they were. I would look through the nursery every night pretending I was my sister's body guard.

As she grew we got close, she would sneak out left over food for me and we would chat through her window every night. I went through the torturous days thinking of the ten minutes I would have with my sister. I did not mind that she was sleeping in a warm well decorated room, I did not mind that she ate at the dinner table with our parents laughing and chatting, I did not mind that every year they threw her a themed birthday party where it seemed like they had invited the whole country except me, I loved her and wanted to protect her no matter what. The day after her birthday I had stood upon the tree waiting patiently with her birthday present which was a bird I had caved almost losing two fingers in the process. After hours of waiting she had seen me and immediately closed the curtain to never open it again. The next day at nine o'clock I had climbed the tree, the bird in my hands and just as I got to the level of her window my father had been waiting there with a pistol in his arms. I had been so shocked I almost slipped off to the ground. 'What did I tell you boy.' my father had said and that day was the first of many where they tested the electrifying chair. Nicole would scream every time she came across me. Apparently I would threaten her, poke her and one day she had dropped to the ground splitting her lip in the process leaving me confused, when the guards got there she would cry bloody murder leaving me trying to explain that she was lying but who was to listen to the lowest member of the household over the princess that seemed to get spoilt and cruel with each passing day."

I heard glass shuttering causing me to jump and slowly peer out from his back to find broken glass coated in blood over the counter. In my head I kept asking myself if this was the same Nicole that I had met a few months ago. None the less I pushed my thoughts aside, wiped my tears which just kept on running down and took the towel he had on his should to wrap around his hand. When I looked up at his face I quickly looked away. If looks could kill I swear Nicole would drop dead now wherever she was.

"Thank you."  He said, quickly walked away and up the stairs. I was left there staring at the stairs now feeling so many emotion leaving my heart broken and I perplexed. I cleaned up the glass and blood as I hiccupped over and over again and that is when the smell hit my nostrils so hard I started to sneeze.

"Shit," I ran over and switched both plates off. The onions were so black the pot would never be salvaged while the potatoes were not as bad. I took a kitchen glove and pulled one pot off the stove only to dump it in the sink then went for the other.

'Should I follow him? Or should I give him some space? 'I did not know what to do. I wished I had not asked because now he was angry. Having decided I took the meat that he had marinated with such skill and put it in the oven then afterwards I opened the fridge taking out a packet of lettuce. I tried to concentrate on the lettuce but my mind was elsewhere. My mind had put images to his words and now a film was rolling in my mind of all the horrible things Klaus went through. He had suffered and had been treated like a slave by the people who were supposed to care for him yet he still turned out to be a remarkable man which talked volume on his personality.

After washing the leaves I chopped them and put them in a bowl then I chopped onion rings, tomatoes, cucumber and many more which I placed in the bowl then mixed it all up. Satisfied with the first salad to make in my whole life I placed it in the fridge and headed up stairs. The sun had set and the lights had automatically turned on all over the house. The cabin looked even nicer at night. I went up to the nursery where I woke Czarina up and took her to bathe. I was so scared feeling like I would drop her or squeeze too tight. After taking off all her clothes and diaper I placed her in the grey baby washing dish which had clean warm water. She started hitting the water sending them splashing on my face as she sat with my hand supporting her back. With the other hand I was trying to soap her wash cloth and when it was foamy enough I rubbed it all over her body as she giggled and had the time of her life in the water. Five minutes I was drying her up, I let out a breath I did not know I held. I wrapped her in a towel then walked from the bathroom after draining the water.

"We did it baby girl," I said to her kissing her forehead.

Slowly I lay her on the changing table which was covered by a fluffy thick blanket. I poured baby powder on my hands then brushed it over her tiny bums after which I applied baby petroleum gel all over her body. In no time she was dressed in her grey fluffy body suit and was tucked before feeding and reading her a bed time story. I stood by the door watching her chest rise, looking so cute in her crib. I switched of the light only for the stars to shine bright.

I looked through every door that was at the second floor but I could not find him, I wondered where he was but did not ponder on it as it meant he wanted some space so space was what I going to give him. I felt so hopeless and as if I had failed to comfort him. Sighing I plopped down the couch and picked at my food in complete silence. I had served the grilled meat with a lettuce salad and two rolls. It had been all I could do looking at the fact that I could only cook spicy macaroni. It seemed as if my appetite had went down the drain so I stood up and emptied my plate in the bean before putting the plate in the dish washer and washing it along with the pots. After tiding up I placed the plate I had made for Klaus in the microwave then walked out the kitchen and up the stairs.

My sore feet carried me to the room which I had assumed was the master bedroom as it had been well decorated and bigger than any other room in the house. The cabin in total had three bedroom, three bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. When I got to the room I went to the glass sliding door which as I thought led to the closet where my clothes were hanging and others packed. Slowly I slid my jeans down to the floor then the jacket and shirt followed, soon I was butt naked. I grabbed my big grey fluffy towel and wrapped it around my body before picking up the clothes and placing them in the grey washing basket. In a matter of minutes I was soaked in warm bubbly water with my hair tied into a messy bun. I lay there not moving trying to clear my mind which was impossible.
'Where was my love?' I thought missing him and wanting to comfort him, I wanted to kiss his sadness away. I wanted to show him that he was not alone and that he was loved.

After the long bath I dried myself, applied lotion then wore my silky shorts before turning off the lights and slipping into bed. As I lay there the light coming from a door I had not seen before caught my eyes. With a speed that could put The Flash to shame I was out the bed. I walked to the closet and wore my silky red summer robe, my feet carried me to this door as my heart beat accelerated. I knocked twice before opening the door and there was my better half tapping on his laptop keyboard with so much anger in no time I was sure the keys would fly off.

"My love," I called out only for him to continue typing. I took a few steps towards his desk then walked around it. My arms immediately went around his neck as my head lay on his shoulder.
"Come to bed love." I said it so sweetly he froze, soon after his cheek was brushing against my own.
I almost chocked on my own saliva as I thought how much I was deeply in love with this big teddy bear of mine.