CHAPTER THREE.
1568 Words
To love him is to despise him.
She pushed the door open slowly, not expecting anything. Just her room, her thoughts, her mess, and that strange, lingering memory of Luciano. It felt utterly surreal. Like, was it even real? Did she actually meet a guy like that? Was he really there? Her heart was still racing, and her fingers trembled as she turned the knob. The door creaked a little too loud, like it was warning her.
And there he was. Her father sitting in her room. On her freaking bed. He lookedlike he had been waiting for hours because his hands were clasped together, and his eyes were somewhat unreadable
She felt her legs freeze up .
She could still hear the echo of his voice from earlier this week, when he said he’d be flying out for a business trip. So, what in the world was he doing in her room? And why did he look like he already knew everything? Why was he looking at her like he was about to sentence her to life imprisonment in hell?
“Close the door,” he said in a cold voice.
She felt her breath hitched.
Her father wasn’t the yelling type. No. He was worse. Cold, calculated, loving, you name it. You couldn’t see it coming with him. One second he’d be calm, and the next, you’d be in a cage without even knowing how you got there. Nonetheless, she knew he loved her and he cared for her.
She shut the door gently and leaned against it, trying to keep her composure, but she already knew something was off.
“What were you doing out?” he asked, not bothering with small talk. Not even the usual “how are you, how’s school.” No, he just straight into it.
Her mind was a maze, full of dead ends, she couldn’t even come up with a proper excuse nor a lie.
“I… I just went for a walk,” she said eventually. But they both knew that she was lying through her teeth.
He scoffed. A short and dry one. “With who?”
“No one,” she answered too fast.
He stood up slowly like he had all the time in the world. Then walked over to her, not in a rush, but that was what made it worse. Her heart pounded as he approached. He wasn’t even angry on the surface and that made it more terrifying.
“No one,” he repeated, like he was trying to taste the lie on his tongue.
He looked at her like he could see right through her skin and into the memory of Luciano’s touch, into the fire in his eyes, into the way she had stared back at him like she was already addicted.
“I saw everything,” her father said quietly.
Her stomach dropped instantly.
Everything?
“I saw the cameras. I saw him dropping you baby, I saw you let him touch you. I saw you smile like a fool, really Amina? Smiling over a stupid kiss?”
Her knees went weak.
Cameras? A stupid kiss?
“You—what?” she whispered.
“I said stay away from that boy. Whoever he is. You hear me? Stay. Away. From. Him. Or else, You know better.”
“Papa—”
“No!” he thundered this time. “You don’t get to explain. You don’t get to lie anymore. You’re grounded.”
Grounded? For real? She thought.
“For how long?” she asked, voice cracking in the process .
“No more school. No more parties. No more stepping foot outside unless it’s with your guards or myself. This house is now your world. Congratulations.”
The tears stung, but she blinked them away. This wasn’t fair. She wasn’t a criminal. She wasn’t reckless, okay, maybe she was curious, but that wasn’t a crime.
“You can’t just lock me up,” she murmured.
“Oh, I can. And I will.” He said with determination
And he did.
That was the thing. Her father never made empty threats. So the next morning, her uniforms were gone. Her phone was taken. Her laptop too. Her friends were blocked from calling the house line. Her life was paused like she didn’t even have a say in it.
The walls started to feel like they were closing in.
Each day bled into the next. She stopped counting them after the second one.
No school. No noise. No laughter. Just her in a room full of silence and stolen glances at the window. She missed the world. She missed everything. She missed him. A total stranger, yes she did.
She had asked herself questions about him several times. What kind of name was that? What kind of guy was he? She still didn’t know. But she couldn’t forget him. He had walked into her life like a question she didn’t know how to answer. He had something in his eyes, danger, yes, but something else too. Like, maybe he saw a version of her she hadn’t met yet.
It was around 2 AM on the third night when she heard the knock. It was soft and sharp at the same time. Once, twice then she sat up. She was sure it was her father and definitely not the staff.
She got out of bed slowly and crept to the window. She peeked out between the curtains and saw him.
Luciano.He was leaningagainst the wall like he had been born there, with a black jacket. A calm facial expression and the same storm she had seen in his eyes.
She didn’t think, she just moved.
She tiptoed down the stairs like a shadow. Her breath shallow. Her heartbeat like a drum in her ears. Every creak in the floorboards felt like a siren. But she made it. She opened the back door and stepped out into the cold night.
“You’re crazy,” she whispered.
“I know,” he replied. “You coming?”
She should’ve said no. She should’ve gone back in. But something about him made her forget everything else.
He took her hand and she followed.
They didn’t walk too far. Just three blocks down, into an alley she had never noticed before. At the end was a metal door that was rusted and dented, with loud music echoing behind it. He knocked once, and it opened like magic.
She gasped at the view infront of her.
It was a fighting pub.
A real fighting one.
Like in those movies. The dim lights, the sweaty air and the loud roars. Two guys in the center of a metal cage, with fists flying, and blood dripping, the crowd was screaming like it was all normal. People were gambling, laughing, smoking. The entire place smelled like smoke and adrenaline.
“What is this place?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Home,” he said, and pulled her deeper inside.
They found a spot by the railings, just close enough to see the action. The fighters were wild. With no rules, no gloves. One of them was already missing a tooth. Blood glistened under the lights. The crowd was electric, almost hungry. She should’ve been scared, but instead, her blood rushed in a way she hadn’t felt in days.
It was chaos. Utter beautiful chaos. And she loved it.
Luciano handed her a soda. “They don’t serve alcohol to minors here,” he smirked. “They have some rules.”
She took it, still staring at the chaos.
“You come here a lot?” she asked.
“Used to fight,” he replied casually.
She looked at him in disbelief. “You? Seriously?”
“Still do. Sometimes. For money.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer. Just kept his eyes on the fighters.
She watched him instead. The way his jaw tightened with each punch. The way his fingers tapped on the railing, like he was measuring the time. The way he stood like he owned the place.
“Why did you come back for me?” she asked.
He turned slowly, looking right at her. “Because I knew you’d need a reminder of what freedom feels like.”
And that was it.
She knew she was never going back to the same version of herself.The one that listened. The one that followed rules. The one that waited.Because something had cracked open inside her. And now, there was no going back.
The fight continued with the bodies slamming. The crowd screaming names she didn’t recognize. Someone passed a drink. Someone else yelled a bet. It felt unreal. Like another world. Like a version of her life she wasn’t supposed to see.
And then. She glanced across the room, she froze up. No. No way. Her heart stopped. Her stomach twisted. Her fingers went cold.
There, at the far edge of the crowd, in a corner.Half-hidden behind the shadows, but unmistakably present was her father. He was standing amd watching with his eyes locked on her. He stared right at her without blinking or moving And suddenly, the noise faded. The blood. The crowd. The cage. Everything blurred out until there was just that look that sent chills to her spine. It was like the world had shattered.And the pieces were falling all around her.
She was doomed.
- Writer
