Pearce Hudson: #1 My Italian Devil

3. I do

There was an uncomfortable silence before anyone spoke. The news settled and Green spoke again, "Pearce I didn't mean...what I meant..."

"It's okay. He's a monster. I wish I'd figured that out earlier."

"Pearce I hate to put you in this situation but..." Gibson coughed.

I slowly shook my head, I knew what he meant. He wanted me to explain how we met and got married.

"I met him in 3rd year of University. My father and his father were friends. I came from an Italian family and my dad wanted me to marry someone Italian. Dante and I, hit it off pretty quickly, he was 28 and wanted to settle down. We started dating for real and after a few months we got married," I said.

"During that time what did you think his job was?" Green asked. 

"He told me he manufactured weapons for the military and other interested party," I replied. 

"Did you ever look into his job?"

"Yes I was curious. So I looked into his job and it seemed legit. He had the paper work and contracts. My father also corroborated Dante's business."

"Nothing ever made you suspicious? Bodyguards?"

"They were there to protect me because in his line of business it gets dangerous. I was skeptical but I still believed him."

"Did you ever love him?"

"I did."

I looked up and the screen showed a picture of Dante and me at our wedding. Dante had his arms around my waist. We were both smiling and looked like we were in love. That was a long time ago.

"Did you ever know about his side businesses?" Green pressed. 

"No," I firmly stated. "I didn't. But I should've noticed.  When the police would hover around our house he'd chalk it up to harassment or some other excuse. I was too engrossed in law school and I was too in love and too naive to notice what was really going on."

"When did you find out about his business?" Ross crossed his arms over his chest. He had a pissed expression on his face. I bit my lip. I had some explaining to do. Ross and I had been friends for some time, actually since law school, keeping Dante from him wasn't a mistake it was a choice. But Ross was my best friend. 

"We were in DC when I had break from university," I continued. "That was the first time he had taken me on a business trip. I was there when him and his client I assumed were talking about a deal. I only heard bits and pieces about moving something, something about girls and Mexico. Then the pieces started to fall into place. They were smuggling girls out of Mexico."

"What did you do?" Vivian whispered.

"At first I didn't want to believe it then reality kicked in," I looked up. "The first thing I did was go through his luggage, I don't know why but...in his suitcase I found a ledger, a book where he wrote down lists of names, places and dates."

"I grabbed the book and was about to leave when one of his men caught me. He told me to go, get far away as possible and leave the book behind. And I ran. I told Dante I was going shopping. I got into a car and I drove until I found the FBI headquarters."

I was on the brink of tears. I sniffed and wiped them away with the back of my hand.

"We can stop," Gibson said. He placed a hand on my shoulder and checked his watch. "It's getting late. We'll regroup in the morning and discuss what to do."

It was only me and Jake left in the room. Jake busied himself by packing up his gear.

"Listen I'm sorry about pushing you earlier," I apologized. "I didn't mean to. Really."