Valentina

I drove to the location, leaving Gabriel in charge of Sofia. The narrow path was paved with rocks and gravel over which the tires crunched and danced before coming to a halt. "Your destination has arrived," filled up the silence in the car. The LCD screen dimmed itself along with all the lights in it.

The automatic sensing in car was expecting me to leave, unknowing of my unwillingness. Elena was alive. The voice of caller danced up in my ears.

Were the Moralez a part of a larger scam they played on me, letting me believe their first bride was dead? Or were they too unaware of these developments? Antonio's face floated in my mind as I remembered his words to me. We decided to play the part of being each other's partners for the world to see. 

Would it be over, if he knew about Elena?

My heart leapt in my mouth on those thoughts. It was then, I realized the power my husband held over me. The hold he possessed over every cell in my existence. When even the thought of him leaving me shook my world, I realized what Antonio had meant for me. What our deal truly represented.

Leaving the headlights on, I slid out of the car. Pale orange evening cover had engulfed the sky, calling back birds for the nigh, drawing its darker blanket. Winds blew at a lighter speed, carrying dead leaves to their new burial. Standing in the middle of a deserted cemetery, I looked around for a human presence. Anyone else left to stand alone in the middle of a cemetery would have been petrified. But here I was, willing to stand without an ounce of remorse. A part of me laughed back at me when it recalled Sofia's question on love.

Deranged people don't love. That should have been my answer for her.

A jeep rumbled in the distance, breaking the meditative silence of the place. Its headlights glowed closer before a woman jumped off the front seat. Hoodie wrapped her body as she carefully walked down the stairs, leading towards the place I stood at. The darkness of the place engulfed her, protecting her features till she emerged next to me.

Upon peeling off her head cover, the ground beneath me trembled. I fell back on a broken piece of granite that rested behind me. With legs unwilling to support and voice refusing to emit words, it was my hand that did its word, pointing a finger at the woman. Elena.

I remembered her subtle smile from the portrait that hung in Antonio's room. I recalled seeing all those photos with her smile, standing next to the Moralez in photo albums that were now covered in cobwebs in the attic. The last photo I remembered seeing had her in a coffin. She was dressed in a white dress, holding her marriage photo with Antonio over her resting hands. That was her last memory in the album.

"You were buried.." I uttered in my trembling voice. Pushing off the rock, I stood towering over her as she moved in circles around me. "How are you alive?"

"Resurrections darling. They do happen!" She smiled, circling around me as if I was a prey she wanted to hunt.

I was too scared to ask anything. With Ramon's wrongdoings already revving up in my thoughts, I wasn't ready to hear of another betrayal. It would crush me. It was only a while back when I started to believe Moralez to be my new family. Although they accepted me a long time back, it was only now, where I reciprocated the same.

I was taking up the role of the new head. I craved the same happiness that Sofia always beamed about. A part of me even considered the idea of making our marriage work. It would all become fruit of a poisonous tree if the family come to know of Elena's survival.

"You seem shocked," Elena called me out of my wild thoughts. She laughed softly, already able to read what I must be going through. "Don't worry, I am not here to reclaim Antonio."

"How did you survive? I saw your photos. You were dead..buried. How?" I walked back a few steps, watching her every move. If it was indeed Elena, I needed to know everything.

Sitting on a dusty marble slab, Elena straightened her legs and cracked her knuckles, as if preparing her body for a long night. "Where do I begin?" she tapped her chin as a smile appeared slowly on her face.

In the darkness, her features were highlighted by her car's headlights. Sharp features and a round face with fringes fit her description as depicted in the albums. Her smile was the same, full blown with each perfect teeth set visible behind her pink lips.

Clearing her throat, Elena curbed her legs back towards her chest, resting her face on her knees. She looked like one of those people who came to watch a movie on Valentine's Day in a garden rather than look like a person who came to deliver the news of her liveliness.

"I work for the Italian Intelligence. My actual name is Laura Caruso. I was planted here to see how and what plans the Mexicans and Italians undertake. I was supposed to work for years but it seemed like my cover would blow up. So I was extracted."

My mind processed her words while those photos that I saw of hers floated in front of my eyes. My gaze slid over her abdomen and even though it was dark, it was visible enough to notice there remained no bump.

"What about the baby?" I asked. It had been more than two years and unless she was an elephant incarnate, she wouldn't be still pregnant. I knew all that but as my brain snapped, I wasn't making much sense.

Elena's eyes widened upon hearing my words. "Did Antonio tell you?"

"He didn't have to. The portrait made it obvious."

"Ahh the portrait. I hated that. You know Antonio forced me to sit for hours while the painter turned me from reality to canvas." Her fingers made air quotes as she spit those words.

I crossed my hands, exhaling deeply to flush out all those memories. "Does Antonio knows you are alive? And you still haven't answered about the baby."

My heart was aching as if she plunged her hand inside my chest and squeezed it out. My head throbbed with the new information of seeing Elena and hearing her narration.

She took off from her seat, dusting her tracksuit. "No. Antonio doesn't know. Nobody does." A wave of relief hit me. I wasn't played this time. We all were blinded in her ruse. And with that thought came another surge of anger upon realizing that she played the whole family. Moralez was now my family. Those were my people.

"So you have come here for me to kill you?" I scoffed. The anger in me vaporized as words and slipped from between my clenched teeth.

Elena moved closer, almost tip toying at her place to match me. "I had heard that you are feisty. Now I know why they say that," she patted my back. "We need your help, Valentina. You are one of our main implants."

"I, implant?" I wasn't even working for the intelligence. How on earth was I planted? And why does she think I would help her. "You must have some wrong information. I wasn't part of any of this."

Elena grabbed the folded pages from her pocket and shoved it on my chest. Under my phone light, I read my name and all the training I underwent, even the ones which Ramon tried hard to cover. It felt as if there was someone who knew all my secrets and sold me out. My eyes peeled off the papers and looked at her.

"Who supplied this to you?" I tossed them away, frustrated.

My actions weren't bothering her. As if Elena knew for sure, I was expected to reach this way. She knelt, collecting the papers while her expressions remained calm. "We need your help Val."

"Don't call me that. I am not your friend to be called by my nickname." By now, my eyes were heated up and even in the dark, I was seeing red. I craved to punch her smug face and drag her, clutching her hair all the way till the mansion. She made my people suffer and a part of me wanted her to endure the same.

Hands up in surrender, Elena straightened shoving the papers back in her pocket. "Okay, Okay. Valentina," she whispered at my angry face. "We need your help."

"And why do you think I would help?" I was boiling on the inside. Those words spewed out too. "I am not yours to be controlled."

Moving back, I crossed my arms to my chest. I wanted to sob onto Antonio's lap, hug Maria for comfort or simply talk to Agustin till the heaviness in my chest lightened. As of today, I possessed knowledge that none of them knew of. If only I carried my gun from my car, I would have ended her life for good. For the pain she inflicted on the family. My family.

Laughter filled the air as Elena clapped and heaved for air. "You think you have control over any of this," she patted my cheek. Enraged, I slapped her hand off. "You naïve little girl."

Getting things out of an intelligence officer wasn't easy. But I had my ways too. Walking back, I heard my name. Elena may have upper hand with the information but she needed my help. Walking away was the way, I could get her to lose the theatrics and covey the truth.

"Tell or I walk this time and the next you would know is your name on our hit list."

She smiled, raising her hands in submission. Her head tilted sidewise, seemingly evaluating me for my words. When I walked back, she played with her pretense claw, Rarr. I knew immediately, my ways challenged her.

"We are going to take down the Moralez. There are our people who are collecting information on their activities. Every move of theirs is monitored. We need your help to seal the deal." She spoke softly, almost a whisper as if the trees and the surroundings had ears.

It was my time to laugh. I watched her serious expressions grew stoic before a crooked smile cracked through it. At that moment, I know that she knew something I didn't.

"You will help us the way we want, however, whenever. And if not," she moved closer, tugging onto my lapel. "We will leak information on how Roman trained you to kill Antonio. We will pin all the wrongs of that house on you."

"I wouldn't kill him." I shouted, my teeth grinding as I clutched her wrist and shoved it off. My voice disappeared into the surroundings. With steps traced back, I nodded my head sidewise.

If Antonio came to know of Ramon and his plans, he would never trust me. Heck, he would kill me.

"Relax, you don't have to kill him. We will tell you what to do. Nobody dies in there. All we want is the family to face charges for the things they did. We want them alive." Her eyes gleamed in the darkness. This was Elena's power play. I still wasn't sure, what she had on me.

"Who helped you with my information?" My voice had started trembling. My fears were surfacing. The fear that my husband might know of my truth. Of the assassin that I was and the reason I choose to marry him.

Elena nodded, placing her hands in her pocket and clicked her tongue. "Na, na. That's previledged information. I cannot disclose."

"Then pin all the murders in the house on me, I will run. I have, before too." This was a game of chance and I was taking one. Rodrigo Ramirez, my actual father had taught me to play my advantage. Here I was, betting my life for one. I bit the inside of my lips, watching Elena scan the dirt below her feet. "You know, if this is a barter, then you tell me what I want and I will help you with your information."

I was clear that Elena wanted everyone alive. She wanted all the information from every member of the family. Inside information. With her head bobbing a couple of times, she released a huff of air as her hands ran into her darker locks.

Cricket's cries filled the silence while she fished into her pocket for something.

Tossing a photo to my side, she leaned over a cross on a grave. It had my face on it. Even in the distant light from her car, I could make out my face. I couldn't understand what she was trying to convey with my photograph. Her words followed my actions.

"Ramon has been our informant for a long time. He helped with a lot of things for us. In turn, we helped him with his demands. Ramon is the one who helped in the phase one's successful completion."

Suddenly the picture grew clearer, as if it was developing the other image too. In the photo, Ramon and I sat side to side. I remembered the photo. It was taken in Italy where he took me for a business trip. Now I knew, what the business was. I looked up from the photo of Ramon to her.

My eyes brimmed, making her figure hazy. "He helped me escape and planted you in the house. He was the one who was there to tip us off any minute there was any issue with the plan, any suspicion."

Elena's words pierced through my ears. The ultimate betrayal. My own guardian planned our demise. He planted me, helped Elena escape. Everything that happened with mom and..

With my phone ringing up, my thoughts were destroyed. Gabriel. I slid it to voicemail, driving my focus back on Elena.

"What do I have to do and when?" I asked. The issue was deeper than I thought. The betrayal ran its roots underneath the foundations of our trust. I had to know more. I had to do something.

Elena clasped her hand, enjoying my admission to her secret club. The one formed by Ramon for his revenge play.

"For now, let the Italian twins continue doing what they are doing. I will tell you when it's time for your next action," she patted my shoulder. "Welcome to the group, Valentina."

My skin crawled when I heard her call my name. This wasn't how I thought my day would go. Heck, this wasn't how I planned my life would turn. I knew somewhere, the universe was laughing at me as I planned on having a peaceful life. A life of new beginnings and happiness.

Deranged people don't have normal lives.

Elena's back faced me when I called her out. "You still haven't answered me." I shouted for her hearing.

"About what?"

After a minute of contemplation, I mustered the courage to ask, "Was the baby-" my words trailed off, unwilling to ask if it was fake as her marriage and her vows.

She turned. Her hand travelled to her belly as she nodded. "It never survived," she smiled into the night and walked away.

In that moment, I knew she was lying. Her body language, her smile. It wasn't of a woman who lost her baby. It was the expressions of a mother who safely bought a child on earth.

The baby wasn't dead and so was Elena. The only question remained, whose child it was? And what blew her cover?

~

What do you think would happen next? What would be Antonio's reaction if he finds out, Elena is alive?

Let me know in the comments, you thoughts. 

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Love

S