Chapter 10 Escape Plan

“What's the situation?!”, Luciano asked.

“It's worse than we think sir!”, Andreas answered.

This made Luciano stop in his tracks as he turned to look at Andreas.

“What does this mean?!”, Luciano asked, this time, turning around to look at Andreas.

“The resistance have people on the inside telling them specific details as regards shipments, plus they have eyes on the shipment network across the city!”, Andreas answered.

This only seemed to annoy Luciano even more as he punched the wall to take out his anger.

Not even flinching, Andreas continued, “Nobody's to be trusted in this entire operation! Even the walls have ears at this point!”.

“So this is why Venice never really turned in anything major!”, Luciano said In realization.

“Your uncle's incident just showed how much work needed to be done sir!”, Andreas said, very certain that his words wouldn't anger Luciano.

His words might be sharp and cut deep, but Luciano always liked his brutal honesty.

“There's about to be a whole bloodbath in Venice!”, Luciano said to Andreas as he headed out of the hospital.

Indeed, shipments in Venice under Luciano had been disrupted, leaving no room for growth in the city.

Luciano was determined to make sure his visit to the city was not a waste, and he needed to fix things there.

The incident gave a clear interpretation that his uncle's management had become weak. That seemed like the reason why there were so many rats.

~~~

Isabella heard a knock on her door as she awaited Mia to show her around the house like they agreed earlier.

Not knowing what to say, Isabella simply approached the door and opened it for whoever was knocking.

She wasn't surprised to see Mia waiting for her with two buckets in her house.

“Hi, did you get some rest?!”, Mia asked as Isabella came out of her assigned room.

“yes, yes I did. I unpacked too!”, Isabella answered, her hands in the pockets of the dress.

“Good then. Madam Paula won't be coming out soon, thus, she told me to tell you what to do!”, Mia said as they walked towards a different section of the house.

“She wants us to clean the yard and cook dinner later!”, Mia said as she waited for Isabella to catch up with her.

“The yard…?!”, Isabella asked curiously!

“I’m Mia, and yes, there's a yard and a big one at that…!” Mia drawled.

“You know I never really got your name!”, Mia completed.

“Isabella, but you can call me Isa for short!”, Isabella answered.

“Okay. There's a yard, it's at the back though. You can go through the yard from the front, or the back, which is where I'm taking you now!”, Mia said as they took another turn.

“We keep taking turns. Just how big is this mansion?!”, Isabella asked curiously.

“Big! Quite big for a bachelor I guess. I clean all the time, keeps me busy and pays me quite well! So I don't mind!”, Mia said as they passed by a store.

“What is stored inside there!?!”, Isabella asked as they headed towards a door.

“Come on Isabella! Remember what I told you about minding your business!?”, Mia asked in return.

“Yes!”, Isabella said.

“It's exactly one of those, it's off limits to housekeeping staff! Only selected people have access to that store! So mind your business Isa, stick to the parts of the house you're supposed to!”, Mia said one more time, reminding her of what she had said in the kitchen.

“Okay!”, Isabella answered, stepping away from the store like it was disgusting.

“Also, why do we have to carry buckets?!”, Isabella asked.

“When we pull out the weeds between the tiles on the floor, we can't pile it up, so we put it in the buckets and throw it away In the trash!”, Mia answered.

“Ohhh okay! I can do that!”, Isabella said.

Due to the course of events that followed since her arrival at Luciano's mansion, Isabella started to think she was going to be cleaning the house.

She had no clue she was doing all that because Luciano didn't have her time yet.

‘My stay here will be a breeze!’, Isabella thought to herself as they got to work cleaning the yard.

~~~

“It feels so good to be back home!”, Mrs Morales heard as she went down the stairs.

‘Could it be?!’, she asked herself, unsure of the voices she heard.

“How about mama and papa?!”, another familiar voice asked her younger daughters.

Getting closer, Mrs Morales confirmed she wasn't hallucinating as she saw her first two daughters in her house.

“Girls?!”, Mrs Morales called, getting their attention.

All four of them turned towards the voice of their mother.

“Mama!”, Mrs Morales' elder daughters called out as they ran to hug her.

“Girls! What happened?!, why are you back? What happened to your husband's houses?!”, Mrs Morales asked, wondering why her elder daughters decided to visit the same time Luciano took Isabella.

“But mama! Why can't they visit!?”, The very last Morales girl asked.

“Oh no, it's fine! I'm just surprised, that's all!”, Mrs Morales said as a bright smile formed on her face.

“What would you like to eat! I asked your sisters to prepare lunch, if I had known, I would have asked them to prepare yours as well!”, Mrs Morales said as she ushered her daughters to sit.

“There's still time, we were just preparing the ingredients!”, One of Isabella's younger sisters said.

“Even better! Go on now!”, Mrs Morales said as the younger girls went to the kitchen.

“There's something that the both of you need to know!”, Mrs Morales said, her voice a notch lower.

She certainly didn't intend to keep the situation from them.

“Okay mama, but, where's papa, and where's Isabella?!”, One of the elder siblings asked.

“It is about Isabella amore! Come now, let's go upstairs and discuss this better!”, Mrs Morales said as she pulled her elder daughters.

Opening the door to Isabella's room, Mrs Morales closed the door behind her.

“Your father is asleep in our room, but there's something that you both need to know. It's about your sister!”, Mrs Morales started.