THE RUIN HE CHOSE

THE LOCKET I HAVE LEFT

AURELIA'S POV

I didn't wait for a shower before I immediately walked out and headed back to the training room. I searched everywhere, my heart hammering in my chest as I crawled on my knees looking everywhere for it.

It might seem like just a very ordinary locket but it's the only thing I have that reminded me of my little sister. Loosing the locket felt like I lost the only part of her that I had.

I never took that locket with me when I was going on missions for Vincenzo. I knew I was more likely to get into fights on such errands and I miss loose it. I've always been careful.

I knew the only place I could have misplaced it was right here in this training room. I walked towards the boxing ring and searched the floor if it had dropped when the punching bag hit me on my face or when Vincenzo and I trained.

That was when it hit me. What if it was with Vincenzo?

I tried to think of what reason he could have to take off my locket without my knowing but I couldn't think of one.

I ran my fingers through my dark hair, trying to calm myself down. I sighed and finally decided to confront Vincenzo. I walked back towards the main villa, ignoring the bodyguards who gave me stares as i walked in.

I headed to Vincenzo's study and knocked on the door before pushing it open. The room was dark, the faint smell of cigar lingering in there, I could almost see the shape of Jeremy's body on the cold tiles.

I stared a little bit longer at the spot and closed the door back heading downstairs to the his room. He wasn't in there either. I stood there for a moment, puzzled and wondering where he probably went to in the space of 10 minutes.

I was about heading back, having it in mind to ask him when I see him later before I heard footsteps and low voices coming from the corridor that led to the floor Vincenzo forbade anyone from entering, me included. I pressed myself against the wall, curious to find out who had dared to venture going into that place. As the footsteps got nearer, the voices became clearer and I realized it was Vincenzo and Slade speaking.

“... pulls a tantrum like that, give her a shot to calm her f*****g nerves down…” I showed myself, and Vincenzo's sentence was cut short. He seemed startled for a split second before he became composed back almost immediately.

“I thought you went to freshen up,” he said dismissing Slade with a flick of his wrist.

“My locket, I can't find it,” I blurted out without hesitation. Vincenzo was quiet. He didn't say anything, instead he walked calmly to his study while I followed him. He was still in the clothes he wore when he trained with me. I noticed he had a little bit of blood smear on the cloth. It wasn't there when we trained.

My mind went back to the forbidden corridor and I wondered what he went there to do.

He pushed open the door of his study and walked inside. I walked in after him, my heart beating rapidly.

“My locket…”

“That's the problem with you Nova,” Vincenzo cut in sharply. He turned to look at me, his expression serious.

“I trained you to become stronger, not to let yourself get sentimental over trivial material things but you just can't seem to get over that flimsy locket no matter how hard I try… If you're going to go on this mission I can't have you lose your focus because you still have that locket on you…”

“That locket is literally all I f*****g have left… Taking it from me…” my voice broke and I couldn't continue my sentence.

“You're going into Zayn's empire today, everything about the mission starts today… look at the way you're acting because of something like this… Zayn is going to run a background check on you before he accepts anyone to work as his bodyguard, if I make your records clean, make it look like you're not associated with anyone and he happened to see Camilla on that locket, he's going to wonder who she is to you.. obviously she's someone of importance for you to have her around your neck almost every f*****g time, I do things for a reason not because I wanted to hurt you or something, if he finds out you once had sister but your records shows you grew up alone it's going to raise suspicion… you want to risk your life because of someone that's already dead?”

Vincenzo's brutal words cut deep into my chest. I let out a small laugh and stared at my feet. I heard him sigh and walk up to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“I don't mean to be harsh Nova, I really care about you, you're like the little sister I never had, but I can't watch you get emotionally attached to something like that, I had to find a way to stop it.

“I understand,” I said and looked up with a small sad smile.

He was right after all. Camilla is gone, it's been 12 years now I guess it's time to move on. Vincenzo smiled down at me.

“Now that's my girl,” he said and ruffled my hair. He walked to his table and picked up a tablet.

“Slade said Zayn's brother, Lorenzo is recruiting bodyguards, the first batch are showing up today, it was a bit hard but I got someone to hack into their server and sneak in your details into the system. All you need to do is to walk in and they'll call your name, they're less likely to figure out that you were never part of the list of bodyguards, they're way too many people on their system. “ He dropped the tab and looked at me.

“I trust that you'll do your best to get recruited, you've got this. Slade and I won't contact you for a few days, just Incase anyone decides to keep tabs on you. Now get ready, you're going to be leaving in 3 hours.”

I nodded and walked, my stance rigid as I tried to take my mind off the locket. The walk back to my room felt like it took forever. I turned up the heat of the shower and got inside, the hot water cascading down my back until my skin turned pink.

I've got this!