Page 110 of There Is No Love

“If I just sit in the bed this entire time, I will lose my mind. I can go out, sit in the chair, eat soup. and get caught up with everyone else.”

“Alright, fine.” She helped me up as we made our way out and down the hallway. Arturo ran over and grabbed my other arm.

They sat me down on the loveseat and I took a deep breath. I looked up at the woman standing next to Marco and smiled. “You must be Elena.”

She smiled back. “And I take it you’re Luka?”

“Someone tell me what is going in with you and Marco?” Alora cut in.

Elena and Marco looked at one another and smiled. “Marco has been protecting me as best he can all these years.” “Why didn't you just get her out?” Alora asked.

Marco looked over at us. “Alora, I.”

“Because I wouldn't let him. Gabriele told me if I ever left, if I got away, he would kill you. So, I stayed, I took care of the girls as best I could, and when the opportunity would present itself, Marco and I would get girls out.”

Alora looked at Marco. “You’ve been getting girls out?”

“I never agreed with what my brother was doing. But he has so many behind him, so many on his side. There was only so much I could do. You guys have no idea how big this stretches. It crosses continents. Stefano and Gabriele might be enemies, but the one thing they came together on was this.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Arturo asked.

“They’re partners. They never deal with each other directly, but they move girls for the other, take advantage and share clients if the other has a specific need or want. Some of the other families are involved too. Gabriele and Stefano are the main players, but there are a lot of players.”

I looked at Arturo and nodded. “We had suspicions, but never anything concrete. Every time we’d get close, the trail would go cold.”

“Because they are smart and have this big system of moving and buying that has no connection, because they never handle any of it directly themselves.”

“How do we get in deep? How do we get in and break it all apart?" I asked.

“Someone has to go in, someone they won’t recognize. Someone who can be undetected.”

“Well, that rules out every person in this room.” Arturo sighed and leaned back in his seat.

Alora looked at Marco. “You had no idea you were my dad?”

“As I said, I had my suspicions, but I never knew for sure. Gabriele never led on to me he had found out. I had no idea he killed Sofia, he fooled us all.” Alora shook her head and turned towards the window wiping her eyes. “He took everything from me. No wonder he was always so cold to me and hated me.” She turned and looked at Marco. “I’m going to kill him.”

Marco nodded. “I’ll help you.”

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