Chapter Fourty Two

                                    

                                          
Antonio impatiently waited for Arabella to finally walk through those doors. At last, she'd be his wife. He checked his watch and frowned as he saw Arabella should have already entered five minutes ago.
                          
What's going on?
                          
Just as he was about to leave, Rafael came bursting through, a panicked look on his face. It told Antonio all he needed to know, his heart sinking. He called out Arabella's name throughout the whole house but received no response.
                          
"Please, don't leave me, Arabella... I need you," he whispered aloud, crumpling to his knees once the last room was checked. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and saw Valentino looking at him with pitiful eyes.
                          
"We'll get her back, fratello, but for now, I need you to stay strong," Valentino told him, pulling him onto his feet. 
                          
Antonio walked into the dining room to see everyone sitting around the table, all with worried faces. He fixed his face before taking a deep breath and addressing them.
                          
"I don't know what happened to Arabella, but I do know that I will stop at nothing until I find her. If you find out or know something about what happened, tell me."
                          
He dismissed everyone but felt a small hand clasp around his bicep. He craned his head down to see it was Sofia. He raised his eyebrow in question.
                          
"Um, I have something to tell you about Arabella, which I think might be the reason she's taken."
                          
Antonio roughly grabbed her, pulling her into his office before pushing her into a chair in front of his desk. You may think he's being rude, but if Sofia had this information all along and never told him, he took that as mistrust. This family cannot afford that, especially from his own blood.
                          
"Speak!"
                          
She winced at how loud his voice was. She wouldn't look Antonio in the eye which infuriated him. What the fuck was so bad that she couldn't look her own cousin in his eye, its not even her history.
                          
"When I met Arabella, she was all but homeless at the time. She never met her father, because he didn't stick around after he found out her mother was expecting her. Her mother was heartbroken by this, and turned to drugs and alcohol to take the pain away."
                          
Antonio ran a hand through his hair. He knew all of this already, he ran a background check on her and it mentioned all, what's her point.
                          
"One night, after I took her in, I persuaded her to loosen up and drink a little. Suffice to say, she ended up being shitfaced by the end of the night. I helped her get into bed, but as I was about to leave, she pulled me closer to her and told me the truth about why she left."
                          
Antonio could feel the nervousness coming off of her, but he was just as anxious to find out what happened.
                          
"Arabella's mother was incapable of taking care of her in the state that she was, and Arabella didn't know either how it came about, but her father's brother came to take care of her. The only problem with her uncle, is that he had anger problems."
                          
"Anger problems? Like what?" he asked, confused.
                          
"Antonio, have you ever actually inspected Arabella's body? Arabella told me about what he did to her, but I never knew the extent to which he went to, until I accidentally walked in on her changing. God, Antonio, the marks... you don't even give your captives injuries like that before putting them out of their misery."
                          
"Antonio, if he has her, I fear for her life. He has this disorder where once he gets angry enough, he blacks out and does something that always comes back to Arabella being hurt. You need to find her. He's the only possible reason for why she isn't here."
                          
 His jaw clenched. Of course he needs to find her. Why didn't her file mention her uncle? Shit.
                          
"Oh, and, we found this where we think Arabella was kidnapped," Sofia informed, handing him a small box before leaving.
                          
He opened it to see a card and a baby's pyjama. It wasn't until he read the card that things began to register in his mind. 
                          
Fuck, she's pregnant!