Don de Santos

30. Confrontation

Ana

Everything happened so fast. We were ordered to stay home surrounded by so many guards while the rest left on the mission to Italy. At first, Alba and I got defeated because we couldn't help, but then Alba came up with the craziest idea. She told me that she had a friend who had a boat that could get us to Italy without anyone detecting us.

"What about the guards?" I had asked her.

"Don't worry about them. I will make them leave," she had replied.

I didn't question her as long as she would take me with her to Italy. I hadn't anticipated that she would take one of the guns in the basement, shoot a guard in his leg and threaten the rest to kill him if they didn't leave. When a few guards ran her way to fight with her, they underestimated her. She kicked the one she was holding in the head till he fell unconscious, and fought with the rest, using the training her father taught her at a young age.

What I didn't think would happen was that she would take them all by herself, showing that these guards were useless.

She contacted her friend, and told us to meet him at the port, and took us to Italy. From there, Alba started looking for this woman, Amalia Ferrari. We surprisingly found her easily, only because we looked into surveillance forcefully. We found Rafa and the rest in one of the footage and we went to the location.

Unfortunately, we didn't find anyone at home, only guards, who were ready to shoot us, but didn't once we told them who we were. Amalia had a helicopter parked on the roof of her mansion, which we took forcefully as well.

There was only one problem.

We didn't know where they were.

But Alba solved that quickly.

"Did you plan on coming here?" I asked her, surprised to see a tracking device in her hand.

"I planned all along because I knew they wouldn't take me with them. They think I am still young, idiots."

That is how we knew their location and flew to it. I wasn't really prepared to witness Alba shooting someone's head with a sniper from the helicopter, but that is a story for another day.

* * *

A day later, we are back in Canada. Amalia insisted that we stay at her house for a few days, but Victoria wanted to return to heal from the traumatizing experience he just had.

Victoria stayed in her room with Manuel and didn't want to come out for a while. Thankfully, Manuel told us that Ricardo didn't do anything to her.

I was in Alba's room when she asked me about Rafael.

"So, what is going on with you and Rafa? We have been back here for two days and he hasn't been around much."

I sighed, knowing that I can't run away from this.

"I honestly don't know..." I replied. "He started acting weird ever since your mom was kidnapped and didn't talk to me about it again."

She shook her head as if she knew he would do that. "Of course, he would do that."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She replied while putting her mascara on. "Well, he is scared that he is going to lose you. You are his weakness."

Oh.

"So he would just ghost me like that as if nothing happened?"

"Typical Rafael's behavior. He always detaches when something scares him. He gets scared because he thinks he can't protect you."

"I didn't know that he felt that way," I replied with a frown.

That meant that I didn't know Rafael that well, but I kind of understood him because it is not easy to deal with these emotions. I just wished he talked to me about it.

"Do you think I should talk to him?" I asked.

She sighed before turning to face me. "Yes. He needs reassurance."

"Okay..."

I went to Rafael's room and knocked on the door. When I didn't hear anything, I pushed the door open only to find him asleep. He looked so peaceful in his sleep that I wanted to caress his hair all night. His brown hair looked so soft. I didn't want to disturb him, so I switched off the lights because they were on, and turned out to leave.

"Ana?" His sleepy voice called, making me face him again.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to wake you up," I replied, getting nervous.

"It is fine. Did something happen?" he asked.

"No...no, nothing happened. I just...I just wanted to speak with you."

"Sure, come." He patted the mattress in front of him.

I closed the door and switched the lights on again. I sat in front of him on the bed and started fidgeting with my fingers as if we aren't a couple...or weren't?

"Tell me."

"I just...I know it is basically not the time after what happened, but can we talk about us?"

He sighed and covered his face with his hands, but didn't say anything.

"If you are scared that something might happen to me because of your job, don't. Nothing will happen to me because you will always be beside me."

His eyes met mine as if I just caught him in the act. "Did Alba tell you this?" he asked.

"Don't change the subject, Rafa."

"Fine...I am scared, yes. You don't understand, Ana. What happened to my mom...I can't live that again."

"So what? You just give up because something might happen to me? You can't do that, Rafa. The thing is...even if we break...up...I will stay in this house. It is the same thing."

"You're right...I am sorry, Ana," he replied.

"Look," I started as a tear fell down hitting my cheeks. "I don't want to force you. If you don't want to be with me...I would understand."

"Don't say that, please," he replied, taking one hand in his while the other wiped the tears away.

"Tell me, Rafa, what do you want?"

* * *