I gasped.

I did it.

The bullet shot her chest, her heart. She tumbled to the ground. Her body was shaking, convulsing. There was blood coming out of her mouth.

Her lungs struggled to breathe—she whithered around like a fish out of water.

It wasn't too late to call the ambulance; I didn't have to be a murderer. I could save her. But didn't move.

I took a life. I killed someone.

I killed my best friend.

I rushed down to Giovanni, who was unlocking cages—selling these girls was what she was doing. I felt disgusted. Bile raised in my throat, I swallowed it down my dry throat.

I helped him. I was trembling as I stumbled to unlock the silver cages. The girls in the cells were crying silently and whimpering. My heart tugged on its strings.

"Are you okay?" I asked a girl through the cage. My fingers fell through the holes of the weighted metal as I held on from the outside. She must feel so cramped in the narrow box. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were blotchy.

She whimpered out of her quivering lips. I fumbled to unlock the cage. Cages like they were animals, I swallowed down my stomach that made its way to my throat.

"You're safe now," I heard Giovanni tell them. "The people who did this do you are gone."

We unlocked them all, not leaving any behind. My cheeks felt damp, but I refused to stop until every one of the girls was out of the cages.

"We make a good team, Partner in Crime," Giovanni muttered.

Suddenly a woman dressed in a long black dress walked out from the darkness and approached us.

Giovanni looked up. His eyes widened, which must mean he knows this woman. His eyes turned glossy. Was he about to cry? I think that I would never get to see another emotion out of him.

"Mama?" Giovanni said.

My head snapped to him at his words. The woman did look similar to have him.

She was Angela De Luca, the name Giovanni had tattooed on himself.

"Il Mio Cuore!" She exclaimed. Her lips smiling brightened her eyes. Her smile could heal a frozen heart. (My Heart)

She was beautiful.

Giovanni looked stunned. He didn't know what to do, and by the looks of him, he froze. He engulfed his mother in a hug.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered in her hair. Tears were threatening to spill over on his cheeks. He hadn't tried in a ping time. He hardly remembered the time when he had.

Angela's dark black hair was shiny and curled in a half-up style.

The girls in the cages were whimpering in the corner, huddling each other. I felt my heartbreak watching the fear on their faces. That could have been me.

I could've been in one of these cages if Giovanni wanted. No matter how much I tried to get over the past. I don't think I ever could. I spent a year of my life knowing if I was ever going to survive getting kidnapped.

I didn't want to be under Giovanni's control as long as I always knew he kidnapped me. He wouldn't ever let go of the fact that my life has always been in his hands.

His mother finally noticed me going towards the scared girls.

"Who's this?" Giovanni's mother said. Her voice sounded sweet on the outside, but her eyes held distaste when they met with mine.

Giovanni's throat went dry. He swallowed hard. Cleared his throat, then spoke, "That's Chanel."

"Chanel," she repeated, her tongue dripping with venom as she won't my name out of her mouth. Her eyes glared at me like she was looking into my soul.

I smiled widely at her, but my eyes narrowed. Now I know whom from Giovanni got his demise glare.

"Come on, let's get you guys out of here."

We got the girls out safely and brought them to the police station to get on with their lives and start a new life.

Hopefully, they could get past it because I knew if I were in their shoes, I would have difficulty trying to as well.

Back at his house, Giovanni still couldn't believe his eyes. It felt like a dream. It had been a week since everything went down with Valeria and the human trafficking.

But he still couldn't get his head wrapped around the one thing that clawed at his brain. She was his mother.

She was wrapped in a blanket by the fireplace sitting on the couch. Giovanni sat down next to her and handed her a cup of warm coffee.

He got the second chance to speak to her and hear her angelic voice. He thought he would never get a chance again.

"Is this real? Are you here? I thought—I saw you die," Giovanni stumbled. "I saw that man kill you."

We lowered her eyes at Giovanni. She had a powerful, strong aura radiating off her. She wasn't as sweet as Giovanni once had remembered.

"I needed to get away from your father. I did what I had to do," she explained. "That's what you had to think and your father."

"So you lied. You put us through hell, and for what? What were you doing all this time?"

"Your father wasn't the man I once married," she continued.

"So you left us behind. Me behind," Giovanni pressed.

"It looks as if you weren't alone all this time," her mouth pulled down in a scowl. "What are you doing with that scoundrel anyway?" His mother snarled.

Giovanni didn't want to disappoint his mother any further. He thought he was gone for his whole life.

"Nobody, she just someone I kidnapped to get revenge on you, she's Richard Blanchett's daughter."

"I know," his mother's lips tinged. "You shouldn't be around her. I need you to get rid of her. If you don't, I will. You are to be married soon anyway."

Giovanni's eyes widened. He sent a glare to his mother. No matter how much he missed her. She was still trying to control his life.

"You can't do this, mama. This was my life. I am fully grown," he argued.

"Enough with this nonsense. You are to be married. That's why I waited all this time, il Figlio, and that's that," she decreed. "I don't want to hear your bickering anymore." (Son)

"To who?" he said, defeating.

"You are to know on the day of your wedding in a week while."

He was about to complain more when his mother brought a finger up to silence him. "Enough," she snarled, leaving Giovanni standing there.

But what Giovanni hadn't known was that Chanel heard everything they were saying about her.

She wasn't going to be a toy just for Giovanni's amusement. She was much more than that, and she needed him to know not to play with her feeling. She warned him already but didn't seem to care.

She dashed outside into the oversized garage and started with the cheapest car out of the twelve in the garage.

Finally, when she made it to his favourite car. She dragged the ragged key against Giovanni's black Maserati. The shiny paint is scraping away, leaving a silver line in its place.

Once she reached the end of and of the second doorhandle. She spelt out her name.

That'll show him.

She was not one to mess around with anymore. Not by Giovanni. Not by anyone.