Chapter 93 Chapter Ninety Three
TWO MONTHS LATER
NAPLES, ITALY.
Sydney’s POV
My l*ps stretched into a smile and the warmth spread to every part of me as I watched dthe videos, my heart getting more filled with love for my boy.
Since I got here, Mark and Grace created a WhatsApp group and they made it a habit to always send me short growth videos of Aiden and random picture they either took of him or either of them with him. Sometimes, it was even like they were competing on who spent more time with Aiden or who had more special moments with him.
Mark had been the one to send the video I was currently watching, he captioned it, ‘Grace’s been away for a week which made me the first to witness the miracle.
Mark was at a park with Aiden. He had dressed Aiden in a cute bright blue onesie that made his eye color pop.
Mark placed Aiden on the picnic mat he had set up and scattered toys around
him.
Then he did a thumbs up to the camera and walked about sis steps away from him.
“Hey boy!” He called and I laughed softly when Aiden didn’t answer him. he was too focused on his toys to answer him.
“Aiden sweetie, Come to Ma, he said and Aiden jerked his head up, mumbled some jargons with his sparse brows raised and pointed from his toys to Mark.
Mark just smiled and nodded through it all. “I know you don’t want to leave your toys, Aiden but you’ve got to come to Ma.”
When Aiden started to pick up words, the first coherent syllable he said was Ma. Every normal person knew that was his mom, right? But Mark was convinced that Aiden was trying to say ‘Mark‘ and truth be told, I think he was right now, as much as Aiden says Mark to whoever, he said it more whenever he had his eyes on Mark.
My heart momentarily skipped a beat and my eyes widened when Aiden suddenly got on his feet and slowly wobbled to Mark’s open arms.
I let out a short happy scream, palmed my m*uth and sat up. My eyes fileld with tears as I liked the video with a heart emoji and proceeded to send several stickers and emojis that portrayed how happy and proud I was.
Truly, this had been the way I had been spending my days in the past two months. Locating Lucas in Italy hadn’t exactly turned out to be easy. And at the end of an exasperating day, I would freshen up, pick up my phone and watch the pictures and videos that I was sure they would have left for me. Those pictures and videos never failed to make my day and they were usually the highlight of my day and the only reason that made me smile and never give up in my search for Mark.
With all that I had been through since I arrived in Italy, anyone would have given up on this seemingly fruitless search but I owed it to Aiden and I owed it to myself, most importantly, I owed it to our memories and my peace of mind.
My journey to Italy had not gone smoothly at all. Nothing had gone right since I had been here. Obviously, since I knew no one here and hadn’t even been to Italy before, I had to do my
research.
Mark offered to help, but I turned down his help, sternly telling him to back off when kept. insisting. Eventually, he stopped bugging me about offering his help.
The only clue of Lucas‘ existence in my life, as much as it hurt, was the ring he gave to me.
It was the only thing I could work with. After staring at it for days, I finally got an idea to google the emblem on the ring since it wasn’t the logo of any of the popular jewelry brands that I knew.
Chapter 93 Chapter Ninety Three.
Turned out that the emblem belonged to a family in Italy, Naples to be precise. The family’s name was Esposito family and the emblem was proudly what they were known by.
It had seemed easy then. Lacas once said that the ring used to be her mom’s so obviously, I could somehow trace him from there.
I got my traveling documents ready, made my research about the hotels in Naple. I narrowed down my results to three hotels then I called each of them and eventually booked the one that suited my preferences and stay more.
I arrived in Naples and started to do all the digging. I first asked around about the Esposito family but everyone seemed not to know them. Now, I didn’t think that was true. It was either they were pretending, or they really didn’t know about the family. I believed more in the former. I also showed Lucas‘ picture to whoever I could but it was the same reaction. What is wrong with these people? I had angrily thought several times.
Now, Italy is an absolutely beautiful country. Infact, I had it written down that someday, Aiden, Grace and I would pay the country a visit. I would have suggested that Mark come along too but he probably had traveled to this part of the world too.
The food in Italy wasn’t so exciting as I had tasted most of their dishes in intercontinental restaurants back at home. Their cultures were exciting too. But what I loved most about Italy was the views, of the views, so beautiful. Plus there were lots of beautiful places here. I also loved the peace and quiet in the country and I could easily see myself living here someday.
“Only if you find Lucas, my subconscious never failed to remind me whenever I daydreamed. about moving here.
But I came to Italy for a different reason and that was what I focused more on. Since the people start to act weird whenever I started to ask about the Esposito family or Lucas, I decided to seek help from the local embassy and police.
To my utter surprise, these guys chased me out of their premises! It was just as I had half expected. They had been nice and all until I mentioned the family name.
What the hell? Why were they all treating the family like they were an accursed one? I have still
till now,
not gotten a sensible answer to this
Since all hope of reaching the family through the people of the country was lost, I hired a private detective. He was a local, well versed with the country so I thought he was the perfect
person
He was the type of person whom you’d have a smooth business with. We had spoken about his charges and all. I mentioned the family name he was to investigate and he also fled without looking back.
I didn’t give up. I hired many other detectives and private investigators who also had the same.
reactions.
Then I met a detective. He was an old man and the kindest of them all. He used to reside in Naples but not anymore.
When I told him the family I needed information on, instead of fleeing like a thief on the run like the others did, he simply turned down the job. Then advised me to leave Naples as soon as possible. Infact, he said I’d be safest if I left the country and went back to wherever I came from as soon as possible.
I thanked the man, really appreciated that he had confirmed my fear that the Esposito family was dangerous, even though no one would tell me why, and that included Lucas too. Though, I hoped he wasn’t because there was nothing dangerous about him. Then I remembered the man that had turned to me, bitterly telling me about his revenge plan for Mark and Rose and how he had planned to take over GT Group and deep down, I knew Lucas was way more than what I perceived him to be…he was more than what he wanted me to believe.
Though armed with this knowledge, I still couldn’t leave. I hadn’t come this far to just go back like that. What would I tell Aiden when he grows up and asks about his father? What would I tell myself whenever I catch myself wondering about Lucas and can’t stop myself? What then?
So I stayed. I hadn’t left my Aiden for this long to go back empty handed. I was persistent. My
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Chapter Chapter Ninery Three
next line of action was to post on several social medias about it, asking whoever knew anything about the family to DM me or maybe even a member of the family.
I don’t think the post had even aged up to an hour before it was taken down.
All these mysteriousness, it was just crazy and if I was going to be bluntly honest, a bit scary. But I refused to back down.
Many times, I had thought about telling Mark or Grace about everything whenever they inquired as to how the search was going, but then I would remember that if something was to happen to me, they were the only ones I could trust with my son so I decided against it. I wouldn’t drag them into the obscurity of all that surrounded Lucas‘ life.
I would deal with this on my own.
Two months quickly passed and I found myself slowly sl*pping into anxiety as my days in Italy were now numbered. My visa is about to expire, same with my hotel reservation and it was almost time to return home. Time to return home to the favorite people in my life. As delighted as that made me, I felt sad that I would have to leave without finding out anything.
or
Well, I did find out that Lucas isn’t who he seemed to be and the Esposito family, which he may may not belong to, was a dangerous family that everyone steer cleared of. Perhaps, I would document this succinct discovery and give it to Aiden when he asks about his father in the future.
After spending almost five hours watching Aiden’s growth videos, my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much, I had my late dinner and afterward, proceeded to surf through the internet for any clue or direction. Even though it was always futile, the thought that I wasn’t doing nothing was quite comforting.
As I scrolled, bored to the extent that I was reading every add that popped up when I suddenly saw a picture of Luigi.
I was dead sure for a second that my eyes were playing tricks on me. I clicked on the picture and zoomed it out and no, my eyes were not playing tricks on me.
I snorted as I read the caption that the girl that posted the picture had attached to it. Apparently, Luigi had deceived her and other girls while he dated them, thereby hurting them and yeah, breaking their hearts too.
So sad, even though that sounded exactly like Luigi’s ways.
I was about to scroll past the post when my fingers froze. It took a second before my brain quickly processed it all.
I met and knew Luigi only because Lucas hired him to keep watch on me and protect me. And when Mark finally appeared, he and Luigi seemed to have a good relationship which means that Luigi had always been working for Lucas. Naturally, finding Luigi would immediately lead to Lucas!
I sat up, thrilled by the latest development, even though it wasn’t exactly a development yet, I was hopeful.
I immediately swiped up and directly messaged the girl who made the post. I couldn’t just go in mentioning the Esposito family name so as not to scare her off so I pretended to be another. victim of Luigi’s emotional deception.
Thankfully, she replied ten minutes later. Yen minutes of me staring at the message I left her. Since I had spent a reasonable amount of time with Luigi and I knew him quite well, I was able to play my role well.
I easily won the girl’s sympathy. We got chatting and I kept throwing comments that required her revealing some things about him. Finally, when I texted that if I set my eyes on him, I would claw his heart out.
She sent a laughing, skull and broken heart emoji, then she started typing again.
When her reply came in and read it, I knew I was just a few steps from meeting with Lucas.
‘He frequents this bar and he might be there tomorrow night, she sent a picture of a bar or maybe it was a club and attached the text.
Then another message came in. You can ch*ck the place out and claw his heart out.’
Another text came in immediately after that; for us.
I told her I couldn’t wait and that I would definitely ch*ck the club out if I was able to get off work early the next day.
We spent more time chatting and the girl was actually a sweet girl. Suddenly, I felt like I had just repeated what Luigi did to her.
But I had no choice. Besides, since she didn’t see my picture and I’d most probably delete the account, she’d never find out.
The next day took cons to come.
Night took even longer and when it finally came, I found myself before a club whose exterior looked like the picture that the girl had sent me. I was dressed in short shorts, a turtle n*eck crop top and sturdy but light boots in case I needed to run. The outfit was designed to make me blend in with other clubbers and also be able to defend myself without having to worry that I might mistakenly strip myself n*ked.
I ordered a soft drink for myself when I got in and scanned the place. It was packed with people but I easily spotted Luigi. He had about three girls swirling around him, each silently fighting to be the one to press herself against him.
As I lazily and uninterestedly sipped my drink, I trained my gaze on him. Maybe it was my gaze that bored him that made him turn but he turned around, his brows drew down.
Blood drained from his face the moment his curious eyes figured out who I was. His movements. became jerky as peeled the girls off him and hurried toward me.
Without a word, she snatched my hands and pulled me to a dark corner outside the bar. He hastily looked from right to left before he turned to me.
“What the hell, Sydney? What are you doing here?!”
“Ah… Your accent, I kind of missed it, I tried to play it cool but Luigi was not having it.
He gripped my shoulder and shook it. “Stop looking for Lucas, do you know how dangerous this is? Go back to your country immediately.”
I asked, a bit confused now that I was hearing from someone that this mission–find–Lucas was dangerous, “What do you mean? Why would it be dangerous?
He looked around and was about to explain when suddenly, a shadow appeared behind him and pointed something at his nape and Luigi froze. Almost immediately, I heard movements behind me then I heard the click of a gun before the cold metal was pressed against my temple.
My heartbeats quickened as fear overtook my b*dy but my fears morphed into utter surprise when Lucas‘ face emerged from the shadows, there were two other men behind him and they also had their guns pointed towards Luigi and I.
Lucas turned to Luigi and said in a cold tone, “Tell me as well. Why is looking for me a dangerous quest?!”
