Prisioner In Your Arms

Deborah had thought that Nicole would intervene on her behalf, but upon realizing that she wouldn’t, her hatred towards her grew. She left the place, trying to contain her fury.

Bruno took Nicole’s hand and they returned to the dining room. Sara, seeing that Deborah had left, took Santi downstairs so he could be with his parents. Later, they went upstairs to put the little one to bed, and as they did every night, Bruno told him a story.

He enjoyed this role as a father; he had always felt that his life lacked purpose, and now he had found it.

Nicole was lying down, and he applied cream to her hands before starting to massage her feet. He constantly surprised her; this wasn’t the Bruno she knew. Perhaps he had changed.

After a while, he rested his head on Nicole’s abdomen.

“You, together with your brother, will be the most loved baby in the world. I will protect you for the rest of my life, I promise you, my little love.”

He fell asleep while she tenderly stroked his head. Bruno might have been exaggerating a bit about the pregnancy, but one thing was clear: he was eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby.

He cooked for her whenever he could. She was already four months pregnant, and since it was her second child, her belly was starting to show a bit.

She insisted on going to the corporate office; they had to deliver the Amadeus projects. The Russian would be back in a month, and they had to have everything completed by then. Bruno had started disappearing for a few hours at a time, which seemed strange to her. Sergio seemed to have given them a respite, as he hadn’t made any moves against them.

On that day, during lunch break, as they left the office, Bruno blindfolded her. He helped her get into the car, and Nicole had no idea what was going on.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, filled with curiosity.

“It’s a surprise, don’t take off the blindfold,” Bruno said.

They traveled for a few minutes, and the car came to a stop. Nicole heard a gate opening, and the car continued for a few more minutes. When the engine turned off, she realized they had arrived.

He helped her out of the car, and she heard a door open. In that moment, he removed the blindfold, and Nicole saw that she was inside a huge house.

“Welcome to what will be our new home. You can decorate it however you want,” Bruno said, filled with excitement. He wanted her to choose everything and have it decorated to her liking.

“Bruno, but the one we have is perfect.”

“No, here you will choose the decor and design the garden. There’s plenty of space to do whatever you want.”

He took her hand, and they went upstairs.

“This will be our bedroom, the one to the left for Santi, and the one to the right for our baby girl. All three rooms are connected,” Bruno explained.

“You’ve thought of everything. How are you so sure it will be a girl?” Nicole was intrigued by his unwavering certainty.

“I just know. I’ve dreamed about her,” he said with a big smile.

Nicole couldn’t help but melt at his whimsical nature. She was definitely discovering a new side of Bruno.

After having lunch, they returned to the office. Bruno had an important meeting with some foreigners, and Bertha was falling behind on her tasks. Nicole offered to help.

“Thank you very much, ma’am,” Bertha said.

“You know you can call me Nicole. I’ll bring the folders,” Nicole replied.

“Please be careful. Those stairs to the file room are not safe,” Bertha warned.

“I’ll be careful,” Nicole assured her.

Nicole went up to the file room. Alizza overheard their conversation and saw it as an opportunity to get rid of her. She waited for Nicole to climb the stairs and then spread a cloth soaked in a large amount of oil on the steps. Alizza casually returned to her place as if nothing had happened, and Bertha observed her arrival.

“Where were you, young lady? You can’t move from here in case someone calls on the phone.”

“I’m sorry, I went to the bathroom,” Nicole said with a smile. Who would have thought that behind that apparent sweetness, there was a demon?

Nicole took the files and quickly descended the stairs. As she stepped on the second step, she slipped and fell down the staircase.

Bertha heard her scream and then a thud. She rushed towards where Nicole was and found her unconscious at the bottom of the stairs.

Alizza, trailing behind her, tried to hide her smile. Her plan had worked perfectly, and now she would impatiently await the results.

“Quick, go call Mr. Bruno,” Bertha urgently asked her.

Alizza pretended to hurry, but once she was out of Bertha’s sight, she started walking slowly. She was truly enjoying what had just happened.

When she was near the meeting room, she feigned being out of breath and entered, interrupting the meeting.

“What’s happening, Alizza?” Bruno looked at her with surprise. Something important must have happened for her to dare enter in such a manner.

“Sir, Mrs. Nicole has had an accident while going up to the file room,” Alizza reported. Bruno turned pale and without saying a word, he rushed out. Dante took charge of the meeting.

Bruno reached Nicole and found her bleeding.

“No, my God, Nicole.”

“The ambulance is on its way, sir. She’s not responding,” Bertha informed him. She had tried to revive Nicole.

Shortly after, at the hospital, Bruno was asked to wait outside the area where Nicole was being treated. Her parents, Sophie and Max, arrived a few minutes later.

“They’re taking too long. I can’t handle this anguish. If a doctor doesn’t come out soon, I’m going in,” Bruno said, his anxiety mounting.

“Stay calm, son,” René and Mara, who had just arrived, tried to reassure him.

Two hours later, the doctor came out, and from his expression, they could tell that things weren’t going well.

“What happened, doctor? How is my wife? And our baby?” Bruno asked.

“Mrs. Nicole is in stable condition. I’m very sorry, but we did everything we could to save the baby.”

Bruno felt a sharp pain in his chest. It was incredibly difficult for him to process this. He had been preparing himself to experience and understand the whole process of pregnancy, and now his daughter no longer existed.

He didn’t care who saw him. He sat on the floor and cried like a child. His mother approached him and hugged him. It was so difficult to accept that the baby he had dreamed of would never come to be.

In the corporate office, Alizza was talking on the phone in the bathroom, unaware that someone was listening to her.

“Sir, just to inform you that I completed the order you gave me. Probably by now, both Nicole and her son are dead. Hahaha, it was fun to see her lying there in a pool of blood.”

“Perfect, you know that if you follow my instructions to the letter, your family will be safe.”

“I know, sir. Believe me, I did this with pleasure.”

“Keep me informed.”

Bertha covered her mouth, slowly retreated from there. How was it possible for that girl to have so much evil within her?

She returned to her place, about to call Bruno, but she knew he was going through a very tough time. René had informed Dante about what happened, and he relayed the information to her.

Alizza returned to her seat, noticing Bertha’s strange attitude towards her.

“Is something wrong, Bertha?”

“Nothing, it’s just that what happened has shaken me. I’ll have the stairs cleaned.”

“Oh yes, how dreadful! They’re all covered in blood.” She made a disgusted face.

Bertha got up to talk to Dante, asking Alizza to do some tasks, not wanting her to know that she knew what she had done.

“Mr. Dante, may I speak with you?”

“Tell me, Bertha, what’s the matter?” He noticed she was very nervous.

“It’s something very serious. Earlier, I was about to enter the bathroom, and I overheard Alizza talking on the phone with someone. She caused the accident with Mrs. Nicole. It sent shivers down my spine to hear her mocking about it.”

“Have the stairs been cleaned?”

“The cleaning service is just starting to do it.”

“Go back to your place, keep her occupied. I’ll go check. There might be some evidence of what she did. There are no security cameras in those stairs, but there are in the corridors.”

Dante headed towards the archive stairs, there were several of them. He noticed that they were definitely at a poorly constructed angle, and the cleaning boy was getting ready to clean.

“Wait, kid, let me check first.”

He went up and started inspecting the steps with his hand. He found that oil had been smeared on the first few steps.

“Stay here and watch, don’t clean. This wasn’t an accident. I’ll call the police.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dante went to his office to make a call. He asked two of his security guards to keep an eye on Alizza from a distance. They couldn’t allow her to leave the corporate office.

The girl had no suspicion that she had been discovered. She thought she had been very clever. In her twisted mind, she was already imagining Bruno consoling her for Nicole and her son’s death, and soon they would fall in love and get married.

Dante called his father. Bruno was in the room with Nicole, who still hadn’t woken up. He didn’t know how to break the news to him.

René answered Dante’s call.

“Hello, son.”

“How is my sister-in-law doing?”

“She still hasn’t woken up. Your brother is devastated. He was so excited about this pregnancy. Nicole should have been more careful. Your brother asked her not to work.”

“Father, Nicole isn’t to blame, and it wasn’t an accident either.”

“Are you sure?”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“It was Alizza. I’ve called the police. I know she’s your friend’s daughter, but this can’t go unpunished. She has killed your grandchild.”

René fell silent. In what damn moment did he allow that girl to enter the corporate office? Now he felt guilty. How could he tell his son that it wasn’t an accident, that their baby had practically been murdered?

In the room, Nicole was waking up at that moment. She immediately noticed that Bruno had been crying. She didn’t need to ask what had happened; his face said it all.

She started screaming terribly, and Bruno called a nurse. They had to sedate her. They were so excited about their baby. They asked the doctor to hand them the baby in a small box. They wouldn’t allow their child, despite being small and unborn, to end up discarded somewhere. He was a deeply loved baby.