Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“It’s very simple,” he said. “If you want your mother back, you’ll have to bring Alessandro to me.”
My brows drew in confusion. “What? Are you insane?”
“I’ll be in touch,” Paul remarked shortly.
“Wait! No, don’t hang up. Please! Please, just let me talk to my mom. Let me know that she’s okay at least,” I pleaded.
Paul tutted and clicked his tongue. “Aw, such a shame that this willing behavior of yours is coming out now. Unfortunately, it had to come to this,” he sighed. “You know that if you’d chosen to simply stay with me, none of this would have ever happened.”
The call dropped.
And soon after, so did my tears.
*Caterina*
“Aw, such a shame that this willing behavior of yours is coming out now….”
Every single one of Paul’s words felt like a sharp slap to the face.
Oh, how I wished I could’ve just reached through the phone and hauled Paul out the other end. I wanted to pummel his face in. I wanted him to hurt the same way he’d hurt me in the time that we were together, all the times that he’d made me feel less of myself and made me believe that I would never be good enough.
I had tried severing the ties between us. But he kept hanging on and coming like an unwanted virus. And now his venom was spreading beyond just myself. Now it was getting to my family. Paul found a way to snake into my life, and now he was spreading complete havoc.
To think I disliked him before… now I wanted to unleash every ounce of my pent-up, burning rage that prickled through me like red, hot embers. My fists clenched tightly at my side. My nails were biting so fiercely into my palm that I was certain I’d cause myself to bleed.
‘Who the fuck does he think he is?’ I screamed inside my mind.
That psychopath had my mother. I didn’t have the slightest idea how he managed to swipe her without someone else noticing. But I refused to linger on the thought for too long. My nerves were already on edge enough as they were. The last thing I needed was to send my emotions into crippling overdrive.
My anger was seething, nonetheless.
It was, perhaps, the only thing that made me realize that this was all real. Ever since I had encountered Paul at my new college campus, I’d felt as though I crossed over into some messed up surreal dream, a nightmare that my mind refused to let me awaken from. And now things had proceeded to go from bad to worse in just a few short-sighted hours.
That terrible, all-consuming feeling was getting ready to burn a hole through me at any given second. And I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t even tell the asshole off without running the risk of possibly provoking him.
Again, I felt trapped, placed between a rock and hard place with no means of escaping.
As much as it pained me to ever beg him for anything, I needed to know that my mother was, in fact, okay. Right as I opened my mouth to speak, the call was dropped.
My brows drew together in disbelief. “P-Paul? Hey! Paul!” I shouted into the phone but as expected, there was no response.
Elio reached out to rest his hand on my arm. “It’s over, Cat,” he said softly. “He dropped the call.”
The hand that was holding my phone up fell to my side as I swayed back on my heels. Thankfully, Elio was there to steady me, for what it was worth.
The tears that I’d managed to hold back were now flooding down my cheeks. My bottom lip was trembling.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told me firmly.
But I couldn’t seem to understand why or how. How? How could he possibly think that this situation was going to work out in the end?
I shook my head. “No. It’s not,” I cried. “He has my mother, Elio.”
Elio was about to open his mouth to say something when Alessandro stepped back into the room with his phone still held in his hand.
“While that may be the case, thanks to you putting the call on speakerphone, now we know what’s been going on,” Alessandro stated. “Did you get all of that?”
An unfamiliar, deep voice came from the other end of the line on his phone. “We sure did, boss.”
“Good. Expect to see us back within the hour,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
Alessandro ended the call before shoving his phone back in his pocket.
The house fell into a bout of uncomfortable silence for a long moment. The air in the room thickened beyond the point of being able to breathe easily.
Alessandro subtly cleared his throat and turned to face Elio. “We need to meet up with the team,” he said.
Elio nodded his head and took a step back.
The thought of potentially being left there alone made me want to cling to him and never let go. No. I was not about to be left behind like some child who needed a babysitter. This situation very well involved me just as much as everyone else now.
“I’m coming with you two,” I stated.
Elio froze where he stood. His expression twisted into something resembling disapproval. He looked as though he was just about getting ready to deny my request. Little did he know that I wasn’t making one. I was issuing a demand.
“Cat—”
“I’m not staying here!” I shouted.
“This isn’t something that’s up for debate,” Elio countered.
My eyes narrowed with spiteful determination.
“This is ‘my’ mother, Elio. My mother is the one who they fucking kidnapped, and if you think I’m just going to sit back and let you two deal with this—”
I let out a long, shaky breath and pressed my hand into the side of my pounding head.
“It’s my fault this happened in the first place,” I whispered.
Alessandro raised his brows. “Caterina.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Elio hissed. “Nothing about this is your fault.”
I shook my head in firm denial. “Think about it. It was ‘my’ car that was spotted. The people who took mom probably didn’t even realize that it was her driving and not me,” I explained.
“You believe yourself to be the intended target all along?” Alessandro questioned.
I nodded my head whereas Elio let out a frustrated sigh.
“She’s probably right. Paul was the one who picked up the call. He’s the one who’s been after Cat for months. Chances are it was her he was anticipating to catch tonight.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to steady my breathing.