“I always do my homework like any good boy,” Gianluca shot back, smile fixed on his face. “Do you really not know how far Leonardo Bianchi planned, and why Sherry Mitri married Andrew?”
“What?” Paula blurted out. Was Gianluca implying what she thought he was? “No way. Nobody can be that insane.”
“Clearly you have never met your grandfather,” Gianluca remarked.
Paula snorted, “I forgot; I am acquainted with you.” She may not have known her grandfather, but that didn’t mean his murderer had any right to insult the man.
“True, I am insane, although a corporate woman like you has no right to tell me that. They say the American work culture promotes psychopathic tendencies a lot.” Gianluca remarked casually, going off tangent, before coming back to the original subject. “So, speak. How do you know of Aleando Mitri?”
Paula cocked an eyebrow but sighed. It was her turn to share information, and she was also not the type to renege on her deals. She began, “I met him the first time I came to Italy. I don’t know much about him, and he’s just treated me as the granddaughter of his close friend. I don’t think I’ve gotten any extra special treatment from him, outside of the respect he gives me for being Leonardo Bianchi’s granddaughter.”
“Respect is putting it mildly, considering you are under his protection. It’s only a matter of time before I track him down and make him cough up your location,” Gianluca said, his eyes flashing in anger for a moment.
Paula stopped, and considered his words, putting her poker face in place. She was under Aleando’s protection? How? Was he the one ensuring she was safe? She recalled how in his journal Bianchi had written about Gianluca’s rise to power. Paula realized that even if she was staying in a VIP room, it wouldn’t take long for someone to track her down with the resources Gianluca had at his disposal. “Well, you do know who I am.”
“Tch. Aleando always liked to play favorites, so don’t get ahead of yourself. I doubt that schemer would help you if you didn’t have power in the states.” Gianluca waved his cigarette again, now reaching the end of its life.
“That’s just how the world works. You can view it as people just using each other, or people helping each other out. I find that positive spin on things does wonders on the spirit,” Paula said, walking towards the railing.
“Unfortunately, not all of us are able to practice self-deception.” His cigarette died. Instead of tossing it on the ground, like Paula expected, the Italian put the foam butt in his pocket and lit another cigarette. He followed after her, but kept a distance between them, also coming to rest on the railing, scanning the ground below.
The woman was still staying at a hospital. Gianluca had expected that someone like her wouldn’t have been easy to bind to a hospital room, but it looked like he was wrong, or Aleando was just that persuasive nowadays.
Now, how to kill her? He peered at her from the corner of his eye. Gianluca didn’t have to worry about an escape route or evidence, either way, that was the benefit of the dream realm. Whether Paula Bianchi was pushed to her death several hundred feet down or left with a stab found or even ridden with bullet holes, nothing would point towards Gianluca.
The man had shot her last time in the sternum, and she had survived. It wasn’t a point-block shot, although fired near to her, and the sternum was the strongest bone in the body. Perhaps her real body had fared better. Gianluca would make sure not to repeat the same mistake.
“I forgot to ask you last time,” Gianluca said, sliding his hand in front himself like he was rubbing a desk, “Do you have any last words?”
“That came out of the blue, I was just starting to enjoy the view.” Paula almost pouted, but she was looking all around, glancing at the roofs of various buildings around them.
“Well,” Gianluca’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “Well. Sorry, I can’t segue to your death nicely.” A claymore materialized in front of him, the wicked sharp sword glinting in the moonlight. He internally cheered, triumphant at his success. Even if it was not his dream, Gianluca could materialize objects. He was unstoppable. This time, the blond decided, he would forgo the bullets and simply behead the old man’s granddaughter.
“Are you sure you want to do that, Gianluca?” Paula asked, turning around to look at him. Her hands were in the pockets of her scrubs again. “You don’t have to be so fixated on your revenge, for whatever way you might feel wronged, you know. In the end, you are enslaved to it,” she said softly.
“Then I just have to cut the chains, link by link. There’s not many left anyway,” he said, equally as softly, tightening his hands on the black hilt of the sword. “This time, your aunt will be left alone for good. I think I’ll wait a few months, to see if she does my job for me or if I have to step in.”
Paula did not lose her temper as he expected. There was an air of nonchalance about her, an assured look in her eyes that said she would win. “Last chance, Mr. Gianluca.”
He responded to her words by swinging his sword, unaware of the several laser-dots that had been on his person the moment he palmed its hilt. The blade cut through the air in a deadly strike that never struck home. A bullet passed through Gianluca’s shoulder from behind, and he staggered forward with the momentum, dropping to the ground.
“Fuck!” he exclaimed, blood slowly dripping on the roof from the crimson bloom on his shirt. In an instant, his sword switched hands and he lunged again, driving the tip forward to impale her stomach. Paula reacted quickly, leaping backward as more rounds were fired, this time striking Gianluca in lethal places.
“You...bitch...” he grunted, his body feeling hot and cold. His lungs were hit, and the bullet striking his leg had probably pierced an artery, his blood. “What did you do?!” his voice raised to a shout at the end, and he coughed, hacking up flecks of blood.
“I’m a god in this realm, remember?” Paula repeated his words. She doubted she would be able to come up with such a conceited and egoistic way of defining her powers in a dream. Maybe a superhero, but definitely not a god.
“I haven’t spent my days, or rather nights, idling around, you know. Every time I dream, there is a tragedy. But I can’t be in so many places at once. Luckily,” she paused, interrupted by Gianluca’s groan of pain as he craned his neck up to look at her, “I don’t have to. I am just a coincidence, a flaw in the working of the real world, unexplainable, invisible. Just like the SWAT snipers with their scopes focused on you.”
He looked at her, his face morphing into shock. “What? You have that kind of power?”
Paula gave a tired sigh and smiled wanly, “What, you thought I was just checking out the view? I was locating a nice vantage point for the snipers. But they’re not just puppets. If I were to tell a policeman I brought into existence to shoot an innocent, they wouldn’t.” She had learned that in such a weird way too. Paula had thought that the man wasn’t listening because her willpower was lacking, not because the policeman had a will of his own. After a few forceful commands for the policeman to do this or that, he ended up arresting her, in her own dream!
“I see...I overstepped this time. I guess you win this time.” Gianluca felt light, and his pain continued to increase, the edges of his vision blurring as sweat trailed down his face, falling into his eyes.
“There won’t be another time, you poor fool. I knew I would win. You would have always considered this a fight between us,” Paula said, bending down so he wouldn’t have to crane his neck so much. “It must have been a lonely life, right? You never even considered me having an ally because you thought I was the same as you.”
His world was turning black. Was he going to wake up again? Where would he wake up? Gianluca knew he was headed for hell in the afterlife if such a place existed. Everything he had owned was going to be donated to some select charity organizations he was assured wouldn’t mishandle the funding. The blond was lost in his thoughts, one of which caus
ed him to laugh, but it only came out as a wet burble, saliva he couldn’t swallow. Gianluca had never really fallen in love with a woman or a man. He had many regrets, now that he had finally abandoned in his revenge.
He had... so many... regrets. Was this what lay at his core? He had made huge financial gains, clawed up his station in life, and here was now, dying on the floor like a dog because he had tried to snap at someone born in privilege.
That was what he thought of her, didn’t he? Gianluca considered Paula no one but a brat born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and yet, despite his experience, she had defeated him. Was it a misconception that being sheltered would have made her weak?
“It’s... a... shame,” Gianluca said, barely audible, and spoke no more. Paula had no idea what he was talking about. Had those been his last words?
She knelt down and felt for the suddenly silent man’s pulse, only for everything to go dark.
• • •
She blinked and found herself in her bed, her arm outstretched towards the roof, two fingers extended in the motion of someone taking a pulse.
So, that was how it ended, huh? Sort of anti-climactic, but it was a massive burden off Paula’s shoulder. Well, she had work to do, starting with deactivating her parting messages for Jose and Megan. The will could stay the same, though, she mused.
Paula glanced at her aunt, sleeping lightly in on the couch, huddled in a fleece blanket against the chill of the air conditioner. Silently she got up, putting on her slippers, before walking outside in the corridor.
Taking out her phone, she messaged Jose, silently closing the door behind her. The man she admired came online instantly, a pop sound indicating her message was sent and read, and Paula suppressed a giggle.
She checked the time, around 4:31 AM. Which meant that it was past 10 in New York, and Jose was supposed to be at work, in his office. And yet here he was, replying to her messages at once.
Was he even working? Paula decided to just hit the call button, instead of replying to his ‘How are you?’.
The line rang three times, before he picked up, “Hello, Paula?”
“Hello, Jose.” Paula smiled. “Hmm, yeah. I’m coming home soon, wait for me, okay?”
13.
Onward
“Blood stains only?” Aleando held his breath, clutching the receiver of the landline phone. “Are you sure they are his, Iglesias?”
“Yes sir,” Iglesias said, standing outside of Gianluca’s apartment. “The single detail I had assigned to him called me when she noticed an ambulance leaving this place early morning. The door was left open, so she snuck inside. There was no one else in the place, and the blood type matches his – “
“How do we know the blood type?” Aleando frowned, “Did you run some private tests?”
“Yes?” Iglesias was unsure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Discretely?” Aleando questioned further, and he relaxed. It had been a good thing.
“As always,” Iglesias said. “Let me forward you the scene.”
Aleando waited for the pictures to come on the encrypted messaging app his family used, and his eyes almost popped the moment he saw them appear on his smartphone.
Blood. A lot of blood, staining the bedsheets, spreading over the carpet. Was it possible to be alive after losing this much blood? More importantly, who had dared to attack Gianluca, in his own residence no less?
Aleando’s frown deepened, his forehead creasing. He would admit, that except for himself, only a few had the balls to outright assassinate Gianluca. Of those people, he knew none had a valid reason to kill him, as he had been keeping tabs on everyone (just like they were keeping tabs on him).
He returned to his call with Iglesias again, “There’s a lot of blood.”
“Yes sir. I think it’s reasonable to assume that he’s dead,” said Iglesias.
Aleando was hard pressed to deny it. From the pictures, it seemed like Gianluca had lost a bucket full of blood. “Let’s not make assumptions and wait things out for now. Be on guard,” he warned, before hanging up.
Iglesias would have complained about the abrupt ending to the call, if he wasn’t already used to it.
So, they waited for a couple of days, observing Gianluca’s contacts, still seeing no sign of him. A strange sort of tension gripped the underworld as rumors began to spread about Gianluca’s death, and Aleando Mitri began to move openly as well, adding further fuel to the fire.
Yesterday’s enemy was tomorrow’s ally. Aleando knew the iron was hot, and now was the time to strike and declaw Gianluca’s supporters. He began to move and make connections with them.
Even if Gianluca lived, his time was up. Aleando smiled to himself as he got in his car, his right-hand Irmina closing his door. It was time for a long overdue visit.
• • •
A few days later, Paula and her aunt had some visitors in the afternoon. They were shock to Megan, but not so much to Paula. Her past few days had been spent further recovering from her dream.
“You don’t look so surprised to see me here,” Aleando Mitri said, dressed immaculately as always, eyes levelled on her. He was sitting next to her stiff Aunt, whose eyes alternated between the man and his assistant Irmina, making green tea in Megan’s electric kettle.
“Hasn’t this been your doing, anyways? The doctors, the VIP room, the prolonged stay? Someone had to be behind it. Good things don’t just happen like this,” Paula said.
“She didn’t think that way when that damn psychologist wanted to hypnotize her,” Megan muttered to herself, inaudible for everyone. If it weren’t for the fact that the man in front of her had been responsible for taking care of them and their expenses, Megan would have raised hell at his presence, knowing he was the one who had kidnapped her niece.
“Indeed. I’m well aware this old-fashioned style of protection irks youngsters like you, but some mistakes are our own to resolve.” Aleando said.
Hot liquid splashed against ceramic as Irmina poured green tea into three cups. The woman of Asian descent placed a cup of green tea in front of her boss and Megan. She then handed the last one to Paula on a saucer.
“It’s a pity you couldn’t see what our country had to offer,” Aleando said, taking a sip of his green tea. “When do you wish to depart?”
“The first chance available. I’ve made my aunt suffer enough,” Paula said with a dry grin. Megan huffed, blowing on her tea to make it cool and took a sip, before making a face. It was bitter.
“Damn right you have, I aged a year the whole month I was here,” Megan said, abandoning her tea. She glared at the cup, as it was somehow its fault for being so bitter. “When we get back is when I will finally get a decent chance at sleep,” she huffed.
“I’m the one who hasn’t set foot outside of the hospital building yet,” Paula muttered, but smiled lightly. She hadn’t been able to make any good memories in Italy.
Italy. Where she had killed a man. There was no denying it, even if the constructs of her dream seemed to have their own intelligence, she was the one responsible for summoning them in the first place. Paula rubbed her forehead, trying not to think about it any further.
Gianluca had tried to kill her with all his might, and in self-defense, she had killed him. She didn’t have to like it, but she knew it was only fair. Jose would be of help to her, she was sure. Paula snapped to the present, suddenly aware that she had been staring off into space.
“Are you alright?” Irmina asked, surprising Paula, “Is the tea not to your taste? I’m afraid Mr. Mitri likes it quite strong.,
“A-Ah, no.” Paula said, stuttering for a rare moment. “I was just wondering about the main reason of your visit. What happened that you are suddenly here now?” Do you know of what happened last night? The question remained unspoken.
“Right. I will say it openly then,�
� Aleando sighed. “There has been a man long fixated on taking vengeance on Leonardo Bianchi, and everyone related to him. I believe you should have an idea of who he is if you have read the journal.”
“Of course,” Paula replied, “You’re talking about Gianluca Bianchi, aren’t you?”
Aleando’s face darkened. He did not like her attaching the name Bianchi to that traitor one bit. “Just Gianluca, a nameless orphan. Leonardo took him under his wing, but in the end, you cannot change the nature of a snake. I pray to never see his face again. In fact, I think he was the one who put you in the hospital in the first place, right?”
Paula said nothing else about Gianluca, instead probing Aleando. “And what are the chances of your prayer coming true?”
Aleando more or less expected the answer. “If you had asked me that twenty-four hours ago, I would have said never in my lifetime, or at the end of my life. But miracles can happen after all. That madman has dropped off the radar.”
“Pardon?” Paula asked, doubt creeping into her voice, “If I may be so blunt, what proof is there that he’s not plotting something?”
“He is not the type to lie so low. Besides, I received a report that his apartment found empty, with copious amounts of blood. His blood, to be exact,” Aleando said, a satisfied smile plastered over his face, and Paula had a thought, that he was another kind of monster. “He has made many enemies throughout his life. I guess one of them finally ended him, despite his connections and allies which he kept close through manipulation.”
Manipulation, Paula mused. She had no reason to tell Aleando that the chances of Gianluca being alive were slim to none. She did have a question for him though.
“While I remember, isn’t it a strange coincidence? Aleando Mitri, and my mother’s maiden name, Sheri Mitri?” Paula asked.
Aleando did not bat an eyelid. “A strange coincidence indeed.” A poker face was in place, but sometimes, not giving a reaction was a reaction of itself. Aleando definitely knew.
The Family Secret Page 21
