CAMILLA
"What do you want Dante?" Ferrante asked.
Dante looked at the man with so much malice that he shuddered in fear.
"I want his hands because he dared to touch her. I want his tongue because he dated to lie about her" Dante declared.
The man gasped and fell to his knees.
"Please, I plead for mercy" he begged Dante.
Dante ignored him and looked at the others in the room.
"I should have your tongues cut off for lying too"
Their faces blanched in fear and they fell to their knees begging for forgiveness.
"I will be merciful though, turn to each other and slap yourselves hard until I tell you to stop" Dante commanded.
They looked at each other and quickly obeyed him.
The sound of their slaps echoed in the room as they slapped themselves.
I looked at Dante, he looked unbothered and bored as they slapped each other.
I glanced at the other bosses in the room and they all looked unbothered like this was a normal occurrence.
Only Paolo looked angry but this was probably because of his long lasting feud with Dante.
"Stop!" Dante said. They all stopped and bowed their head in gratitude thanking him profusely.
Dante turned to the man who had abused me.
He reached into his pockets and brought out a knife. He looked at two of the others, "Hold him down" he commanded.
They obeyed and quickly held him down.
I watched as Dante cut off all his fingers, one after the other. The man screamed in pain, he would pass out from the pain and Dante would bring him back and continue.
And then he cut off his tongue, blood sprayed everywhere.
"You have messed up my carpet with blood Dante, how do you intend to pay for it?" Ferrante asked Dante.
"How do you intend for the insult I got here today?" Dante asked in return.
Ferrante sighed and kept quiet. He brought out his gun and pointed it at the man who laid whimpering in pain on the ground and shot him.
"Let's go" Dante told me as he led me out of the building.
Geremia was waiting for us at the cars.
"What the hell happened in there?" he asked.
"Some idiot worker of Ferrante tried to harass Camilla but I thought him a lesson" Dante replied.
Geremia looked at me. "Are you okay, little pet?" he asked.
I nodded in response.
"let's get out of here" Dante said.
Geremia opened the car doors and we entered. Soon we drove off and were on the way home.
"Are you okay?" Dante asked me.
"Not really, did you have to do all that to him?" I asked him.
"Camilla, if I had let him go, it would only make everyone think that you aren't important to me or that I am weak, then everyone would pick on you and harass you" he explained.
I looked down and played with my fingers.
"Did you have to be so violent?" I asked.
He tilted up my chin so I could look at him.
"Camilla, you are in my world now. My world is violent and bloody. I know your dad sheltered you from the violent side of the mafia world. You need to be strong and unfazed to be my secretary or do you want to quit?" he asked me.
I shook my head, "No, I don't want to quit," I replied.
He handed me the pen knife he had used earlier to cut off the man's finger and tongue.
"Here, you can have it. Always carry this with you, to protect yourself" he told me.
I took the pen from him. "Thanks Dante," I replied.
"You are welcome," he answered.
"Who was that woman that helped me earlier?" I asked him.
"Silvana Ferrante, she is Ferrante's wife"
"I should thank her for helping me," I remarked.
"I would advise you to stay away from her for your good and hers," he told me.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"After what happened today, you are definitely under Ferrante's eye. You saw how he hit her, right?" he asked me.
I nodded in response.
"He hit her because she interfered with his business and defended you. I don't know what he would do to her next if he sees her with you"
"Why does she tolerate his beatings, can't she leave?" I asked him.
"She tolerates because she has no choice"
"Everyone has a choice"
"Do you have a choice in being with me?" he asked.
"I was sold to you, is she sold too?" I asked him.
He sighed. "Her father owed him a lot of money which he couldn't pay back. He offered his fifteen year old daughter as collateral instead, Ferrante took her and married her as his wife. They have been together since then. If she leaves him, she will be dead before crossing the gate" Dante replied.
I shivered in fear, what if a man like Ferrante had bought me? I would have been dead a long time ago. I felt pity for Silvana, to be sold at such a young age to a cruel man like Ferrante was terrible.
"Are you okay?" Dante asked me.
"Yes, I am," I replied.
"Do you still want to be my secretary, you can always quit now?" he asked me.
I looked at him with determination in my eyes.
"I wouldn't quit, never" I replied.
We arrived at home and he told me to go and rest while he made some business calls. I nodded tiredly and trudged off to my room. The events of the day had drained me.
I met Maria in the passageway as I headed to my room.
"How was your first day of work?" she asked me.
"Okay, I guess," I replied dully.
She frowned when she saw my face.
"What's wrong with you? Did you and Dante have an argument again?" she asked me.
I shook my head and entered my room and she followed me inside.
"Come on tell me what happened, why do you look so dull?" she asked me.
I recounted the events of the meeting to her. She shook her head in pity when I was through.
"No wonder you look so dull, you had a traumatic experience" she told me.
"Do you know anything about Silvana Ferrante?" I asked her.
"Yes dearie. Her story is really pathetic. Ferrante married her when she was just fifteen. For the Thirteen years, they have been married, her life has been a horror show. He beats her in public at the slightest provocation, it makes me shudder to think how she is treated at home. He doesn't respect their marriage and fucks other women. Once he beat her so hard in public that she had a miscarriage on the spot"
I grimaced in disgust at Ferrante cruelty.
"Do they have children together? I asked her.
"just one, as soon as he was born, Ferrante sent him off to live with his mother (the boy's grandmother)"
"I really feel pity for her, she is practically in a prison" I said in sympathy.
"Do you see now why I said you were lucky? I know it's not ideal to be sold like an object or treated like one but compared to the other mafia leaders, Dante is practically a Saint" she said.
I didn't reply her, I was busy thinking of a way I could help Silvana.
"I will go get you some ice cream, it will help you relax. Okay?" she said as she stood up.
"Okay. Thanks Maria, I've cream would be splendid" I replied.
She smiled and left the room while I continued brainstorming on how I could help Silvana.
DANTE
"Why didn't you just kill him?" Geremia asked me as we sat in my study.
"That would be too merciful to him" I replied as I texted Valerie to come over to the house as soon as possible.
"So you did all this to defend your little pet?" Geremia asked, a knowing smirk on his face that I didn't like at all.
"No, I did it to defend myself and my family's honor" I replied.
"Sureee! I believe you. By the way, what did you guys need to discuss that everyone had to be sent out of the room? Can you tell me or is it very secretive?" he asked as he waggled his eyebrows in a comical way.
"Valerie will be here soon, we can discuss it then" I replied.
"Okay" he said as he relaxed in his chair.
I was very tense as a result of what we had discussed earlier in the meeting room.
Thirty minutes later, Valerie walked inside the room.
"Whatever information you have better be worth me skipping my nap" he said as he sat down.
"And a good afternoon to you too brother" I told him sarcastically.
"I heard about what happened at Ferrante's house, you disappointed me" Valerie told me.
"You told him?" I looked at Geremia.
He shook his head vigorously in denial. "I have been here with you, I didn't tell him anything"
"He didn't tell me anything brother, I have my ways of getting information" Valerie told me.
"What do you mean by I disappointed you?" I asked him.
"You also think he was too violent right?" Geremia asked him.
Valerie shot an unimpressed look at Geremia.
"On the contrary, he was too mild. He should have plucked out his eyes, cut his ear and nose off and stuffed them in his mouth and made him chew them. Cut off his limbs and then his dick too, then stuff his dick into his asshole and then he should have...…."
"Enough Valerie" Geremia yelled, a disgusted look on his face. I on the other hand was unfazed, I had listened to Valerie calmly dissect gruesome torture practices and even watched him perform them.
Valerie rolled his eyes and looked at me.
"So what was so important you told me to come over?" he asked.