Julia
I open my eyes groaning in pain. I don't know what that fucker hit me with but I swear there's still ringing in my head. Within a few seconds, my senses come back and I drag my ass up from the floor. I'm in a world of pain but none of that matters as I push my body as hard as I can.
"NINA!" I scream my little girl's name as loud as I can but there's no reply.
I know there won't be a reply but still, I keep calling her. I start looking around the house for her even though I already know that she's gone. My heart is pounding, my whole body is shaking and sweating and I know for a fact that I have never felt this scared in my entire life!
"FUCK!" The tears that I have been fighting to hold back fall free hard and fast and I fall to the floor while I scream and cry out all of my pain. What am I going to do? I have no idea where to even start looking for her. I know Mario Deluca's name of course, but I have no idea what he even looks like, never mind where to find him. I've never met him only Nina. "Oh, Nina. What were you thinking?" I've asked that question out loud more than once over the last 4 years but as much as her choices have carried on into my life I've never been mad at her, not truly mad but right now I'm furious at her. How could she be so stupid?
I get myself up off the floor, I may not know where to start looking but sitting on the floor like a useless lump isn't going to help either. "The strip club!" He owns a strip club, and that's how Nina met him. If I can go there then I can see him. I'll smash the place up if that's what it takes for him to talk to me. He won't call the cops on me, he doesn't work well with them so I won't be at risk of them being called on me. granted there's a chance that he could kill me but right now he has my whole world and without her, I may as well be dead.
I run to the cupboard to grab the money, I'll use some to get a cab to the club I don't care how much it costs. My hands shake as I pry open the old tin that I found and stashed my cash in. Finally, I manage to get the tin open only to go and drop it causing all the money to flutter to the ground and land all over the place. "FUCK!" I don't have time for this! I scramble around on the floor and spend the next few minutes gathering all the money together. Once I finally have it all, I fold it up and put it in my pocket to keep it safe then head for the door.
On the way past the kitchen table, I spot Nina's teddy bear and decide to grab it, she will want that when I find her and I will find her. As I run for the door once more I only go and slip on something and tumble to the ground. "Seriously!" God give me strength! I grunt from the pain in my back but ignore it as I roll over onto my stomach and get on all fours to get up.
Just as I'm getting up, a peace of paper catches my eye, what's that? For some reason, I feel the need to get it and only once I have it and open it to see what it is do I realise why. I feel winded from just seeing his name alone and that's without all those feelings that come rushing back. I know what I need to do. I don't waste anymore more time. Instead, I head straight for the door and towards the small town and a cab.
As the cab gets closer to the address that I give him the more my heart pounds. I'm scared because Mario isn't exactly friendly so I don't want to drag them into this but my choices are limited. maybe they could just give me some advice on the best way to do this? Maybe they can help me without Mario knowing?
The traffic is stupidly busy and we are traveling way too slow for my liking, it's not far from here to the address but with this traffic the way it is we could be stuck here for ages. I know a quicker root by foot so despite the pain that I am still in and the fact that my feet are bare as I was trying to sleep when the ape turned up, I throw some money at the cab driver and run like my ass is on fire.
My bare feet slam against the concrete ground as I run with all I have. My feet are cut to pieces from all the debris on the ground, but I don't have a choice but to run. My heart is pounding and my whole body aches, but I keep going. I need to get my baby back. I need help and there's only one person that I can think of that can help me, only one person that I want to be around right now. I don't even know if he will help me, not after the way I treated him before I ran, but I can only hope that he'll forgive me. I'm alone, scared, and in need of help, and he's the only person that I can think of right now, the only person I want to be around.
I arrive at the address and start hammering the large oak door with my fists "Please someone answer! PLEASE HELP!" I scream with all I have which doesn't feel like a lot at the moment. My whole body feels like it's on fire and my heart feels like it's torn to pieces. "HELLO! SOMEONE, ANYONE!"
"Julia?" I spin around the second I hear that voice. "Riley." The moment I say his name my tears return, big, fat, ugly tears. "Hey, what's wrong?" He quickly reaches me and pulls me into his arms and that's when I really crumple and become a bubbling mess so much so that I doubt that he can understand a word that I'm saying..
After just a few minutes I've managed to calm myself down. Riley pulls back from me but takes a hold of my hands. "Julia, what's wrong?" He looks around me and then I see a look of dread appear on his face. "Julia, where's Nina?"
The tears are back but I'm able to talk this time. "He's got her. Please, I know I don't deserve it but I need your help. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. He's got my baby!" In my panic I notice Jamie standing next to Riley but I don't even acknowledge him, I just keep on rambling. I can see he's struggling to keep up with my rambling."Whoah, whoah, sweetheart. Calm down. Someone has Nina?" I nod as I try and take deep breaths while keeping this pending panic attack away. His face instantly pales while his anger quickly surfaces. "Who's got her Julia? Who?"
"Mario." He gives me a confused look but of course he would. How is he supposed to know who he is just by a first name? "Mario Deluca." He takes a step back, a look of shock covering his face. Mario Deluca... as in maffia Don Mario DeLuca?" How the fuck... "How do you know him?" Now I'm the one feeling speechless. "He's my brother-in-law." You have got to be kidding me! "Why has he got Nina?"
I struggle to find my words but he doesn't. "Why has he got Nina, Julia? Yeah he's mafia but he doesn't do child kidnapping or trafficking so why has he got Nina?" He takes a step closer to me clearly trying to rein in his anger. "Julia, what's going on?" His words are a lot calmer than I know he feels. What I'm about to say scares me but finding out that Riley's brother-in-law has my daughter puts a huge twist on things and now well... there's no way of hiding the truth. I'm well and truly fucked!
"He thinks that Ninas is his daughter, that's why he has taken her." I can see his brain whirling at my words "But why would he think that? Wait, you and Mario?" Instantly I shake my head. "No, no. I don't even know him, I've never met him." And those are the words that are the start of blowing my world apart. "Julia, sweetheart, you have got to help me out here. This doesn't make sense. If you've never met him before then why would he think that he's Nina's dad?"
"He thinks he's her dad but he's not." He gives me a disbelieving look and I get it, I get his confusion "None of this makes sense, Julia." I know it doesn't but I'm scared to get the words out. He steps even closer to me and wraps one arm around my waist pulling me into him then uses his other hand to hook his finger under my chin and lifts it up until I have no choice but to look at him. Tears roll down my face, fear spiking every part of my body. "Please, sweetheart, talk to me. Tell me what's going on?"
"Nina... Nina's not my daughter. I'm not her biological mother."