Two months back

Valentina

"Antonio, I need to tell you something." I moved out of his hold, sitting up on the bed. I knew, this could be the moment when everything perfect in my life would break apart. Yet, the risks involved were too high to hide from him. Puffing my chest, I drained out all the air before uttering, "Elena is alive. She isn't dead."

Antonio sat up on the bed, watching me bite into my cuticles. I felt the sourness reach back to my throat. The air inside the room suddenly turned warm as I waited for him to speak.

Maintaining his stern looks, Antonio tilted his head. "How do you know this?" he asked, sitting back straight. My heart tottered in its place, unwilling to accept that this may be the day when he decides to part ways.

"She contacted me one day. The day I took Sofia to the church. She asked for my help and said that if I don't, then she will tell all my secrets to you. About Ramon, about me being an assassin, of what we wanted to do initially to you." I bit into my cuticles deep enough to make it bleed. My mouth tasted metallic but that didn't stop me from confessing. "And at that time, I wanted to see what she was upto but now I know that the Castros are working for her and she is their puppeteer. And the child..." I stopped at my words.

The selfish part of me wanted to stop from confessing about the child. What if Antonio wanted her back? Then, I reminded myself. It wouldn't be love if I were to hold him from following his heart.

Antonio moved out of the bed, watching me with his arms crossed over his chest. With neutral expressions, he bobbed his head.

I continued. "The child, it seems is alive, although she said its dead. But I know she is lying and wants to protect the baby. And... and... she has a husband who is working with us."

"Why were you hiding it from me, Val?" Antonio asked in his monotonous tone. When I looked up, he stared down at me with narrowed eyes. "What were you waiting for? When were you planning on telling me that the Castros were part of it?"

For a moment, the room fell silent, only echoing my heartbeats. With a step ahead, Antonio called out. "Val," I looked up again, scared to be burned by his wrath. Instead, I saw him smiling. "You really thought I wasn't aware of all of this?"

My eyebrows bridged, trying to make sense of his words. "You knew about it?" I tossed off the bed, facing him. With his smiling nod, my fist travelled, punching his chest. With the reflexes of a jungle cat, he halted its cruise before it made contact.

"You have no right to get mad, Val." He moved closer. "You hid this information from me. Now, you have relinquished the right to be mad." Antonio held me closer in his arms and moved us to his table. Opening a drawer, he tossed a set of photos over it. The photos were Elena's - recent ones. Upon my inquiry, Antonio affirmed on my assumption. "We had Intel on her arrival. I wasn't sure if it was her. But then, I came to know of her escape by faking her death and leaving the country."

I turned to look up at him, holding his hand. "I am sorry that you came to know the truth like this."

He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal, knowing of his first wife's death as fake.

"Why are you acting like this?" I asked, confusion rising like bubbles in boiling water. "You are supposed to be mad, be angry. Even toss things at people."

"Why should I?" Antonio responded. "I was a mob boss and she was doing her job. I fell in love with a woman whose plan was to play me. But now, I don't feel anything for her."

"Oh, because you are on revenge path and know that love doesn't exists?" I scoffed, walking away from where I stood. I was scared for me. For us. I had fallen for a man, who knew the love of his life wasn't dead. It worried me.

Antonio smiled at me, leaning over the desk.

"No, Val. It's because I understood what companionship means, what love means. True love." I remained silent as he walked over to me, kissing my forehead. "You have shown me that. True devotion. You could have withheld it from me and I wouldn't know. But you trusted me and now it's my turn."

"Turn for what?" I looked up.

"We knew about Castros and Elena for long, thanks to Gema. But were never able to keep a finger on the husband who stayed back as her replacement. And he is way better than Elena in staying hidden. So we need you to help us figure out who it is."

Antonio laid out the plan, every minute detail of it and every last piece of information.

~~

It took few more weeks to unravel the mystery of the man who was Elena's husband. When she sent the burner phone to contact her, I approached Mateo for help without letting him know anything. Gabriel was under scrutiny by Antonio himself.

When Mateo retuned, blaming Gabriel of having placed the gift in my bedroom, our suspicion was cleared. I never mentioned anything about any gift or it being in my bedroom. With the security cameras not working that day, he couldn't have known of the details. The rest was done by Nico who successfully dug up Mateo's information. Elena and Mateo's life would have been in danger, had her pregnancy been blown up.

With a blast in Antonio's office that claimed all but Elena, Mateo arranged for her escape from the country. All his call logs and contacts came unravelling when the first piece of the clue came to light.

But there was still a part to successfully conducting the trade. That's where our arch enemy Santos Salazar came into play. He was informed of the deal with the agency and Castro. Willing to let go of the animosity, both men shook hands, moving past decades of bloodshed, each family endured.

We fakes consignments. The real ones were shipped from the port which Carlos and Sofia commanded. Al and Agustin helped us in playing Elena and the Castros. Being prepared for the worst, Antonio was made to wear bulletproof clothing and carry blood bags over him for proof. The plan went according to how we wanted till Dante decided to pull the trigger. A wrong move, a wrong shot and Antonio might suffer a fatal injury.

It was then, where I stepped in, faking betrayal on the family to take over. The shot I fired at him, pierced through my heart. Never did I fathom that I would be fake killing him. Hell, a while back, I was hunting for his blood but now, the very thought of his suffering even a scratch, scared me.

After the first night I spend with Antonio, I knew the stirrings of my heart. I knew what I wanted, whom I needed. Watching Antonio's dead body being tossed aside as if he meant nothing was the worst thing I had to endure. I would take a bullet for him but that day, I had to be on the firing end.

The rest of the plan was simple. The allies who benefited from Antonio's death were executed except for one. Ramon.

The best was kept for the last.

We had driven over to his place. The news of Antonio's fake death spread like wildfire. Ramon tried escaping the day he came to know about Castros and Elena but Gabriel caught him.

Inside my old mansion, childhood memories flooded me. Setting all of them aside, I walked into the room where Ramon was apprehended. His muffled voice emanated towards us through the hallway.

In a dark corner of what used to be mother's work area, Ramon sat, tied to a chair. A piano sat in the corner, where mother used to teach me how to play. Her memories were marred by the man who killed her.

Antonio ripped off Ramon's duct tape and ungagged the cloth stuffed in his mouth. The second he could speak, he looked at me with rage in his eyes. "How could you? You sold out your own father?" he shouted.

I looked away, unwilling to meet his eyes. Anger stirred inside me, ready to wreak havoc on him and his puppets who followed, blind to his orders. Antonio bridged our gap, placing a hand over my shoulder.

"Hey, don't let him get to you." His gaze travelled down to my abdomen. "I wouldn't want you or the little one to be affected by this."

A smile crept at the corner of my lips. I haven't seen my father, but only heard about him. Knowing Rodrigo was a good man gave me solace. But now I had a family who loved me unconditionally. A mother who cared for me beyond measure and people who replaced the pangs of not having siblings. Sure, I had Nico bit he was always the aloof one.

"Kill me, okay," Ramon yelled out. "Kill me and get it over with." He cried, bending low. His voice were grunts, inhaling air that was restricted with the roped that ran over his hands and chest.

"Not so soon, Ramon." Antonio knelt down, tipping up his sweaty face. "You want to die and I promise you, I will kill you myself. But not now. Not before a little torture to see who all knows what."

Pulling up, Antonio turned to Gabriel who pulled a black cloth over his face. "Val," he cried out. "Don't do this to your father, my child. Don't abandon me. I love you, Val. I have always been your father."

His sobs echoed in the room as I walked a step back. Removing his face covering, I knelt the way Antonio did. "Ramon, you might not know, so let me tell you." I waited for him to understand. When his eyebrows bridged, I straightened up. "You are not my father, you never were. You killed my real father and the day I prove it, I will slit you in halves."

"I didn't kill Rodrigo," he screamed. Gabriel and Antonio moved back on either side of mine. "I would never harm the people I love, my child."

"So you didn't murder my mother?" I screamed at his face feeling a ball of fire emerge up my chest. I watched as his eyes darkened.

"Who told you?" he asked in his trembling voice. "Who?"

I nodded sidewise. There was nothing I had for this man but anger and disgust. At one time, I wanted to protect him with my life. I was willing to do things which no girl should even consider, just to get him back his business and reputation from the Moralez. As it turned out, I was the one he brainwashed. Like a keyed toy, I adhered to all his wishes.

I married a man out of hatred, vowed to destroy him and his family. The same family who treated me with nothing but kindness and love. After all this, they still accepted me for who I was. A broken assassin. A woman who craved for love and a life of belonging after all I have been through.

In this house, I was trained by my father and Ramon. Even after all this while, even after all Ramon said and did, a part of me still wanted to forgive him for his mistakes. Mistake. If that's what I could call them.

Antonio coiled his hand in mine. "You know, the greatest feelings of all," he looked at Ramon before turning back. "...it is forgiveness."

"Easy for you to say. He is not your father." I mocked for which his shoulders heaved as if I cracked the best joke of the century.

"I know that but he is yours, even if the truth has changed now. But for the times that he pretended to be your father, took care of you, I ask you to forgive him."

I turned to Ramon. He wailed some more, chest heaving and face blotched red. When I gestured my hand towards him, Gabriel untied the rope from around him. It feel at his feet. Released, he straightened his shoulder and took a step towards me with soaring arms.

"Distance, my friend" Antonio barricaded himself between us. Ramon dropped his hands, walking back. "You are lucky that your girl still has an ounce of love for you to forgive your act."

Although I forgave Ramon, he still didn't earn my trust. Taken to a safehouse, he would stay under our scrutiny till I could have my faith back that he wouldn't plan anything new. Sure, it would be another century by then but hey, I was in no hurry.

We walked from the place I grew up in. The place that fed me poison instead of love and brought me up as a ruthless woman who cared for nobody. Leaving behind the house and its memories, I looked over the dried garden - the place which once used to be lush and thriving with life. Although I had mom's last memories in the same garden, I smiled at the view. It was time to move on. Move over to happier times and places. With people who cherished me and a person who loved me unconditionally.

I was finally going home. My home.

~

And there you have it...

The last chapter of this book. The happy ending to Antonio and Valentina. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it. So recommend this book to others, if you like it...

The next chapter would be the epilogue but that would be for the Second part of this book - 

The King's executioner

This here, is the end of Val and Antonio's love, lust and everything fucked up in-between story. But don't worry, they will all make an appearance in book two also, with better roles.

Love

S