The Missing Princess

24: Light

Chapter 24

-Isabella Di Luca-

"You don't know? You don't fucking know what you did? You killed my mother! Because of you, my mother fucking died! She fucking died giving birth to your useless fucking self! You killed her!"

"And because of what you did to my mamma, Papa was so fucking broken that he was barely himself anymore after what happened. He hated you so fucking much that he dumped you in an orphanage and left you there, the best fucking thing he did! Not only did you kill my mother, but you also broke my father, and he hasn't been seen since then! Do you fucking understand now, Isabella?"

Sandro's words continued to loudly ring in my head; the flashbacks of everything that had happened in my life played back, and there was nothing I could do but force myself to endure everything.

Everything that bad man said to me was true.

I deserved it. I deserved everything that happened to me. I deserved Sandro and Nicco's hate. I hate me too.

I wish I had never been born.

I wish I was dead.

But then...

I could see the smiling figures of Enzo, Gio, Uncle, and Kiri. The four of them took me in and saved me in their own way. They love me. But what if it was all a lie? What if everything—all the kindness and love they've shown—was just an act? And the truth is, they all hate me because of what I've done. But that doesn't seem right. If they really hate me, why would they bother to lie and act like they care about me and that they love me? For the past few weeks I've spent time with them, it didn't feel like a lie or an act.

"You are loved and you are always going to be loved"

Was Enzo telling the truth when he said that to me? Am I really loved? Do they really love me despite what I did, despite the life I took, and despite everything I ruined? Was he just lying? And why didn't he or anyone tell me the truth in the first place?

I hate myself so much. I wish I could disappear.

"Lorenzo, just fucking listen to me for a moment and stop before you do something you'll regret!"

My body jolted awake, and my eyes suddenly opened after hearing a loud yelling voice from outside my bedroom. That's Gio's voice. What's happening?

My body started to shake a bit. I am still afraid of loud noises.

"O-ouch." I whimpered all of a sudden as I felt a terrible throbbing pain at the back of my head. I massaged the painful area with the palm of my hand and remembered how I slipped and fell in the bathroom before I lost consciousness.

Before my thoughts could ponder what happened after I lost my consciousness and suddenly woke up in my fluffy princess bed, another loud screaming voice interrupted my thoughts, and my eyes widened in fright.

"Ti avevo detto di non ferire nostra sorella, cazzo! (I told you not to fucking hurt our sister!) And yes, you didn't this time, but instead you did so fucking worse than that! That little girl trusted you, loved you, took care of you even when you were nothing but a fucking asshole to her, and yet you just let Alessandro hurt her and ran away!"

That's Enzo! Tears quickly made their way into the corner of my eyes, and my lips wobbled, clearly hearing how loud and scary he sounded. I've never heard Enzo sound so mean before. But that's not what I am most afraid of. It sounded like he was screaming directly at Nicco. Oh no. Enzo's blaming Nicco for what happened.

It's not Nicco's fault! There was no one to blame for what happened except for me! Enzo should be angry at me, not Nicco!

I quickly got out of bed despite the throbbing pain in the back of my head and opened my door to go to where Enzo and Nicco were. I need to stop Enzo. It wasn't Nicco's fault. It was mine. It was all me. But I was suddenly stopped by Luigi, who was standing just outside the door.