POV: KATHERINA
I was over the moon that I was finally home and almost forgot about Luca and the amount of time I spent crying and missing them.
This felt right, and even though a nagging part of me missed Luca, I was happy to see my family, and nothing ever felt as good as this.
I spent the whole day with Ara and my parents, who were deeply worried about me and wanted to talk, but I wanted this peace and happiness before going back to brooding.
It felt good to see Ara carefree and well. The last time I’d seen her, she was weak from what Luca had done to her and had an ugly bruise at the back of her neck.
We watered the plants in the garden and played in the lake before it started to pour rain in the evening, and we went back to the cottage.
Mom and Dad were shocked to see Christopher’s condition, and he and Kevin filled in their side of the story of these past three and half months while my parents and Grams listened to them quietly.
He told them everything, right from the beginning when Luca had first seen me to the time he landed in Rome.
I was sitting on the couch by the window, overlooking the beautiful garden and the mountains of Atrani, wrapped up in a blanket with Arabella in my arms.
I was listening to them, as well as talking to Ara and watching the beautiful sight in front of me.
“Did the tattoo monkey hurt you, Kat?” Arabella’s voice made me quickly divert my attention to her, Chris’s voice fading behind us.
I giggled at her and pulled her close to me.
“No, who told you that?” I asked softly.
She shrugged in response, “Ricky always said that we couldn’t see you, and I was worried he hurt you like he hurt me.”
I rubbed her arms soothingly, looking down at her doe-like eyes. “Rickard visited often?” I asked, and her lips lifted up to a smile as she nodded at me.
“He always brought me chocolate, and he’s nicer than the guards that were around the house.”
“Did anyone hurt you or Mom or Dad?”
“No,” she shook her head, “We were kept in a huge house, and I played every day. No school and homework.” She giggled. I smiled back at her.
Later that night, Grams and Mom prepared lamb trotter soup and roasted chicken with rice and fresh shrimp with pasta.
The conversation continued about the cops and Luca while I kept silent throughout dinner and then quickly went out to the porch to watch the moon.
I smiled into the night, feeling no constraints binding me from tasting freedom. I’m so content that I’m no longer angry with Luca and feel like forgiving him for doing what he did.
A part of me misses him, looking for whatever good that’s left within him, and unintentionally my hand went up to touch the small diamond stud in the golden chain.
I remember the time he gave me this on Thanksgiving night and told me that he couldn’t thank God enough for giving me to him. More like taking me by force.
The conversation I had with Rickard in London surfaced in my mind, and I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.
“There is no other choice left for you, Katherina,” Rick said.
“He has your family, and if you need to get away from all this, from him, you can do it. You’ve got power over him, and only you can bring him to his knees.
“He belongs to you as much as you belong to him.”
Rickard has always been right, even though he couldn’t reveal much information to me and even though I didn’t trust him. I knew he spoke the truth to me.
I never accepted this statement of his until last night, when I actually saw Luca on his knees for me. I’m still confused by the power I had over him when I’ve actually done nothing.
If I had that kind of power, surely I could take control of things.
My thoughts were interrupted when Mom and Dad walked out the back door toward me. I stiffened, already knowing tonight was going to be a long night.
There was no way I could escape this conversation.
“Honey,” Mom kissed my cheek and sat to my right while Dad took his place to my left. “That’s a new scar” Mom touched the wound on my head that had faded into a white scar.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” I said softly.
Mom gave me a sad smile and squeezed my arm affectionately.
“I know it’s difficult, but I need you to tell us—”
“He didn’t hurt me after a while,” I cut off my dad. “In fact, he never even touched me… without my consent.”
Dad looked worried nevertheless, but I continued.
“He wants me, and I think he needs me too. He’s obsessed with me, and though initially, he was nothing but a monster to me, things changed.
“He revealed his true self to me, and even without realizing it, I drew closer to him. I won’t lie to you both, but I want you to understand that he isn’t someone we should take lightly.
“Believe it or not, no one can harm me when I’m with him because I’m in the arms of the danger itself. He will not rest until he has me by his side.
“He will tear apart the world and burn it to ashes if he doesn’t get me back.” I was quick to wipe away the tear that rolled down.
Dad took my hand in his and stared into my eyes, which reflected his own.
“I don’t care how powerful he is. I am not letting him take my daughter away from me again,” he said firmly.
“He will not,” I assured him. “Not this time, Dad. I promise.”
“I will not let him come anywhere near you, Katherina.”
“We don’t have a choice, Dad,” I replied hopelessly. “He promised to give me my freedom if I submit to him, and I submitted myself last night before leaving him.”
Dad tensed, and mother gasped beside me.
“What are you saying, honey?” Mom exclaimed. “You can’t… you can’t submit yourself to that devil! Oh God, what were you thinking?”
“There is no way around it, Mom.”
“Of course there is!” Mom snapped, “Sheriff Newman and Karen are working—”
“Nothing is going to work, Mom. He has escaped death several times. For two years, he was dead to the world, but look now, he’s resurrected!
“We can’t underestimate him and definitely cannot take risks. It all started with me, so let me end it.”
“So, you’re going to spend your entire life with him in misery?” Dad spit out in anger, “Like some slave?”
“He doesn’t treat me bad anymore—”
“That doesn’t justify his actions!” Mom snapped back.
“He could give you the whole damn world, but he still is what he is; a criminal, a bloodthirsty monster who has murdered several men. How will you live with that kind of man?”
“You will be nothing but a living corpse, waiting for death to knock on your door!” Dad exclaimed.
“At least he won’t go around the town, carrying a fucking hammer and breaking bones of the people I love!” I argued back, feeling my own anger rise up.
Why couldn’t they understand that there was no other way? I was trying to make it right. Why couldn’t they realize that?
“I don’t care, Katherina. I will die before I let you live with that monster your entire life!” Dad roared in anger, and silence fell over us.
We were breathing heavily, but I didn’t avert my eyes from Dad’s blazing ones.
Then, without even thinking, the words flew out of my mouth.
“He made love to me.”
There was a moment of silence before Dad released my hand, stood up abruptly, and walked back to the cottage, with Mom following him hastily to calm him down.
I woke the next morning with Ara’s tiny body wrapped in my arms. She refused to sleep in a different room, fearing that once I tucked her in, I might be gone before she woke up, just like last time.
I freed myself and quietly walked out of the bedroom and to the kitchen. Preparing myself a hot cup of coffee, I walked out to the porch and settled down on one of the couches.
The morning air was chilly and fresh. Rising above the thick fog were mountains, and I saw the rays of the sun reflecting brightly behind them.
It was a beautiful sight, and for the first time in months, I was finally able to wake up to a beautiful morning with a smile on my face.
I sat on the porch, marveling at the beautiful sunrise when a silhouette started to approach through the fog toward the cottage.
My hands tightened around the warm cup, and when a woman came into sight, I released a sigh of relief.
I recognized the woman right away.
“Did you wear all the winter clothes from your closet, Aunt Agatha?” I asked, looking at her wrapped in two thick shawls.
“It’s cold in the morning, and I have to walk all the way from town,” she said, climbing the stairs of the porch.
“How are the kids, aunt Agatha?” I asked.
“They are fine,” she answered. “It’s good to see you, bambina. Grams told me you all would be visiting. I’ll finish cleaning and preparing breakfast before your Grams wakes up in a grumpy mood.”
She kissed my cheek and went inside. Aunt Agatha has been around for a very long time, even before Ara was born.
She worked here and in two other houses in the town and at night in the hotel. With a useless drunkard husband, she lived a hard life to sustain herself and her kids.
The sun started to rise when everybody got up from their slumber. We had breakfast in the backyard, and father didn’t wish me good morning or even look at me.
Once breakfast was finished and everyone went back in, Mom tried to talk to me, worried that I was not thinking straight, but I wouldn’t budge.
When I finally told her about Luca and us in detail, she understood how we don’t stand a chance and reluctantly accepted my decision.
She filled me in on what happened to them in these past months.
Rickard kept them in a huge villa in the Bahamas and provided them with everything they needed, except the choice of leaving the place.
Mom was miserable initially, but Rickard found a way to gain their trust. Though he did everything he could to help them, it was hard for them to accept the situation.
Rickard did everything he could to put them at ease, but there was nothing that could comfort parents who were separated from their daughter, who was in the hands of the devil.
That’s when Rickard showed them the pictures of me to make them feel better. Though it wasn’t a great help, Rickard was there for them, and I couldn’t thank him enough for that.
Later in the afternoon, Grams suggested Kevin and I take Chris to an old lady in the town who was known as a healer. She was known to have a magic touch and could heal almost any illness with ease.
I’d never visited her since I never had any disease or life-threatening problem, but my father once told me that he had a problem with his spinal cord at a young age.
When the doctors threw up their hands and told him that he might end up in a wheelchair in his late thirties, Grams took him to the healer.
She cured him with nothing herbs and a healthy diet she recommended he follow for a few months.
Chris delightedly came with us with hope sparkling in his ocean eyes. Even I had hope, which helped keep down the guilt that burdened me.
“The doctors said that his bones are strong. After all, he’s a football player, but the joints are weak,” Kevin said, kicking the stone on the grass as we made our way toward the town.
“If the bones are strong, then there is plenty of hope left,” I replied, looking at Chris, who was moving a few feet forward from us.
“He thought he’d wait to get homeopathy till you are saved.”
“I’m here now, and everyone should stop worrying about me. In the end, it’s going to get you all hurt. You ditched school and came all the way here?”
“Chris is my best friend, Kat,” Kevin replied softly. “I would do anything for him.”
I smiled at him and linked my arm with his, and laid my head on his shoulder, walking down the narrow slope.
The healer’s hut was on the other side of town, and it looked abandoned and deserted to Kevin. He loathed the idea of going inside, but for Chris’s sake, he knocked on the door.
An old lady opened the door, and Kevin took a step back. Her silvery hair shone brightly under the setting sun that was orange in the sky.
Her eyes fell on Chris, and she opened the door wide, already knowing who her patient was.
The hut was cozy and small, and it smelled of pepper and herbs. Old books were stacked up haphazardly on one side while the other side had a shelf with bottles I guessed were filled with medicines.
A grumpy bulldog was lying in front of a rocking chair on the floor. It gave us a tired expression before going to sleep.
There was a small TV on the table near the fireplace.
“Sit.” She motioned toward the couch and dragged a chair from the corner with a screeching noise before sitting on it, her feet hardly touching the floor.
“I see you’ve come for this young man here? Because you three look perfectly fine to me,” she said softly, her eyes drifting toward Chris’s legs.
“You’re right. Doctors said it’s impossible for him to wa—”
“Answer only my question, son,” the old lady cut off Kevin in mid-sentence.
Chris smirked at Kevin, who looked pretty annoyed.
“Your legs are strong,” the healer said, observing his bare legs where the shorts stopped right above his wounded joints.
“I think I’ve got something.” She quickly got down from her seat and walked toward her piled-up desk. She started to search furiously for something on her desk, muttering and hissing all the while.
She took a small piece of paper and walked toward her shelf, searching the rows at the bottom and taking out a small dirty bottle from one of the drawers before coming back to us.
She gave the bottle to Chris, who took it dumbfounded.
“Apply that for three days, morning and evening, then on the fourth day, come and see me,” she told him and dragged the screeching chair back to its place.
We looked at each other, and the Healer looked back at us, confused.
“What? Go now. Do as I told you,” She said.
“You didn’t even examine him,” Kevin said, getting up.
“I did. You were too busy looking at my herbs soaked in water that looks like slimy algae,” She retorted.
Kevin looked irritated. “But the doctors said he can’t walk, and you just save us some oil to apply.”
“I’ve treated patients who had worse accidents than your friend,” she replied politely and dismissed us.
“Old hag,” said Kevin once we were far away from her home.
“That’s rude, Kevin. You can’t underestimate someone you hardly know,” Dad said.
“But, honestly, she just glanced at your legs and gave you some oil.”
“She’s known as the healer for a reason,” I replied and walked back to the cottage as dusk fell.