Third Person's POV:
Bianca stammered and fearfully said, "Ariana, I...I am sorry. I shouldn't have said that to you."
"Can you forgive me baby? I will get better, baby. I promise. I really like you very much." Bianca said tearfully.
"Scoff* I think you are delusional. I can't believe that I didn't see your true face before and fell for you." Elio said, shaking his head.
"Men come here and get her out of my sight." Elio yelled furiously.
"I am sorry. Please baby forgive me. It won't happen again. Please don't abandon me." Bianca cried out fearfully.
The men quickly covered her mouth and got her out of there.
"Elio, check her out thoroughly. I think there is something fishy about her. We have to be careful." Antonio said at last.
"Yes Tony. I will. I am sorry princess that you had to go through all of that. I don't know how I couldn't see her true face. I am really sorry." Elio said remorsefully.
"Fratello, you aren't at fault here. Don't be sorry. You were deceived and I can't blame you for it. You stood up for me where most people would have believed their girlfriends. So I think that you are already doing your best. Thank you for believing in me fratello." Ariana said while giving him a hug.
"Still it's my fault that I couldn't see through her facade and led her in our family. I can't imagine what would have been if we didn't discover her true face in time." Elio said. He was feeling very guilty at the moment.
"I think we should go inside and sleep. It has been a very eventful day today." Leonardo said and they all went inside.
Upon reaching inside they saw that all of the elders were waiting for them there and then they remembered that they had to tell them the truth also.
"Elio, go to your room. I will handle this here." Emilio said, patting his shoulders.
Elio was feeling really burnt out at this time. He was grateful for his understanding. He went to his room.
"Nonno, nonna, everyone, when we went outside for a walk Bianca and Ariana had a conflict...." Emilio started telling the incident.
"Preposterous. I couldn't believe this. How dare she? Where is she?" Leonard burst in anger.
"Nonno, calm down. It's okay. Elio fratello already sent her away. Nothing happened." Ariana hurriedly calmed him.
"Pay attention to your health. Don't affect your health, old man." Isabella said.
"Yes dad. Don't anger yourself. I am sure that Elio will handle this properly. Aren't you happy that we got to know her true face before anything serious happened?" Robert said.
"Yes dad. I am sure that Elio will handle it and besides this is a chance for him to correct his mistakes. We should also think about him. After all, he has been hurt by her. She was his first girlfriend after all." Gabriel said.
"This is his fault also. How can he not know how to judge people? Is this how he will handle the mafia in the future?" Leonard said angrily.
"Shut up old man. Just shut up." Isabella yelled furiously.
Everyone was stunned hearing her burst out in anger. They didn't think that she would react like this.
"Can you calm down first?" Leonard was also looking at her in shock. He nodded his head.
"Now listen carefully. No one could have thought that this would happen. You can't blame Elio entirely. Yes I accept that he didn't judge her properly but if we don't let him make mistakes then how he will learn. Now we should focus on him. Don't you think he is hurt that his own girlfriend tried to belittle and harm his princess?" Isabella said softly.
Leonard also listened carefully and calmed down completely. He knew that he was wrong in blaming Elio. He felt that Bianca was to be blamed for it all, not Elio.
"You are right. I will not blame him. Bianca is to be blamed and I will deal with this matter properly."
"Leave it to me nonno. I led her into our home and let her insult princess. I promise that I will deal with this." Elio said coming into the room.
"Elio, why are you here? I told you to go and rest." Emilio said.
"I know that you told me to but how can I leave all of this to you, when this is all of my mess." Elio said.
"Elio we do not blame you so please don't blame yourself too." Isabella said.
"I know nonna but I can't forgive myself for what happened today. You all were very happy and then this happened. This is all my fault. I will only feel better after I have set this right." Elio said.
"Fratello, I think you are beating yourself over it excessively. I don't blame you so you also shouldn't." Ariana said.
"Alright. Now go and rest everyone. We will talk tomorrow." Leonard said. He knew that everyone needed rest now.
Everyone nodded and went to bed. But Elio couldn't sleep tonight as he was feeling both hurt and angry. Hurt that the girl he liked after so much time had turned out to be like this. Angry because he let her fool him and let her hurt Ariana.
He poured himself a glass of whiskey and kept drinking to numb himself. He still couldn't believe that he fell for her. He really thought that she was a nice girl and she would accept him and understand him. But who would have thought. He smiled bitterly.
At this time when he was going to drink more, suddenly a hand stretched out and snatched his glass. He was startled and quickly turned his head to look that Emilio and Antonio were there.
"No more. You had enough." Antonio said.
"Let me drink more Tony. It hurts so much without it." Elio said.
"No. I know that you are hurting but this is not the solution. You will only harm yourself. If you want to make this right then go and sleep. When you wake up you will go and investigate it properly and we will be there with you on every step. Don't worry Elio, there is a much, much better girl waiting for you. She will love you and cherish you like how you should be." Emilio said.
"I don't believe it. I think this happened so that I can see that I have to keep a distance from women in the future and no one will be there for me." Elio said bitterly.
"No, there will be. So what if you met a bad one? Are you going to let your life be dictated by her? Then aren't you letting her have too much power and control your life? Then isn't it better that you go and be with her?" Emilio argued back.
"I can't ever win you in the argument." Elio said.
"Of course otherwise I wouldn't have been a great lawyer." Emilio said grinning.
After that they helped him in the bed and he went to sleep after some time. Emilio and Antonio also went out of his room after ensuring that he was sleeping.
"It will take some time for him to be alright." Antonio said.
"Yes but we are here and we will all help him." Emilio said and Antonio nodded. After bidding each other goodnight they went to their rooms to sleep.
******
Morning came and all of them felt yesterday's weight on them. After having breakfast everyone went to their work and Elio, Emilio and Antonio went to the place where Bianca was kept. They had told their men to investigate her thoroughly. From her birth to now. They didn't want to miss anything because they all felt that something was wrong here. They just hoped that everything would be alright soon.
They reached where she was being kept and went inside. Their men were already waiting for them there and one of the men, Nico, who was the most trusted man of Elio, stepped forward and gave Elio a report that contained the details of Bianca's whole life.
"Sir, this is the information that we have gathered on her according to your orders." Nico said.
Elio nodded and read the information in detail not wanting to miss out anything. Antonio and Emilio also read the information. Then they looked at each other and understood why she was targeting Ariana.
"Didn't you investigate her before?" Antonio asked.
"No. I just did a light research to respect her privacy. I didn't know that she had an ulterior motive." Elio said feeling regretful again.
"Elio, remember from now on whenever new people get close to our family, no matter who they are, you have to investigate them fully because we don't know if they really have pure intention or want to harm us. So you have to do this if you want to keep everyone safe because we have a large mafia and a family, we can't afford to let them get harmed. We have a very big responsibility to carry and we can't afford to make mistakes like this." Antonio said.
"Ok Tony, I know that this is my fault. I will be careful from now on." Elio said.
"I am not blaming you but you have to learn from this mistake and not make it again. You too Emilio, even though you are a lawyer and not much involved in the mafia, you have to be alert also so that both of you can keep the family safe."
They nodded and went to meet her and end this as soon as possible so that they can go and tell everyone the result.
When they arrived inside her cell they saw that she was sleeping in the chair and didn't have a single bruise. Elio has ordered his men not to injure her and just scare her a bit and keep her locked here.
"Wake her up." Antonio said and a man went to her and threw water at her to wake her up.
"Ahhh." She woke up startled. When she saw that Elio was there she immediately felt that he had come to save her and started feeling happy. She couldn't be more delusional.
"Baby, you are here finally. Please help me out. I was so scared last night." Bianca sobbed pitifully.
"I will let you out when you answer my questions truthfully." Elio said with a stoic expression.
"What answers baby?" She said fearfully and confusedly.
"Did you say all of those things to princess?" He asked seriously. He knew that she had said that but he wanted to hear from her mouth.
"Consider it very carefully and then answer. I don't want to listen to nonsense. Your answer will decide whether to free you from here or not." Emilio said.
"I...I... yes I did say that." Bianca said fearfully because she knew that she had to tell the truth.
"Why?" Emilio asked furiously.
"I...I was just jealous of her and said those words. But please believe me that I didn't mean any harm to her and just said those words." Bianca stuttered.
"Do you really like me?" Elio asked expressionlessly. No one knew but he was very furious and was feeling hurt right now.
"You know that I do."
"I don't know that. That's why I am asking you."
"I do. I like you really."
"Then why did you plot against me?"
"Wha..what do you mean by that? I don't understand." Bianca was now feeling fear.
"You know what I am saying. You came to me because you had an ulterior motive not because you really like me. I know that it was all a plot when you had that 'accident' when I saved you. You knew that I would be passing from there and also knew that I liked animals especially dogs so you waited for me there to fall into your plot. I just want to ask why?" Elio roared.
"I..I didn't." Bianca shook her head repeatedly.
She was now feeling really full of fear. She didn't know now that there was even worse coming for her if she didn't cooperate with them. They can't be blamed after all she was the one who came knocking on to find trouble.
****
Here's another chapter guys.
Happy reading.
Love, Stella.