Chapter 21 - Only Jewel, Greatest Diamond

"Y-You hate me? What did I ever to to you?"

"Because you were always so naive about our relationship. All you are and all you ever will be, is a tool to further my ambitions."

This time, he smiled wickedly. A wicked smile that aligned with the burning anger in his eyes. Prisana didn't know this side of him. Maybe, she never knew him. She only thought she knew him because he was feeding her lies so beautiful.

All those smiles, how many of them were genuine? All of those women, how many times did he feel guilt to think of her? She was beginning to understand the version she know of him less and less. This new version of him, more and more.

"So everything between you and I, they were all...lies?"

"Believe that if it makes you hate me. This makes things easier on me now that we're on the same page."

"I can't believe you could be so despicable like this! Gio," she begged, searching his eyes for the boy she used to know. "Please, let me go when the three months are over."

"I need you."

Prisana abandoned her pride. She clutched the side of his suit jacked and found cold, stern blue eyes staring back at her.

"I don't care what you or Erica did to me anymore. Please, I don't want revenge. Nothing. For the first time, I only want my freedom. Let me go! I beg of you, I'll do anything."

"I said I need you."

Her strength crumbled along each ugly line that came out from his mouth. It didn't fall but hardened. She dug her nails into her flesh from hurling out at him.

"Fine," she hissed, hurt in her voice betraying anger. "From now on you are my husband and my worst enemy. Don't ever look for the girl that you used to know. As of now, she's dead."

"Know this. That bastard's son Gio you knew has been dead for a long time...Rather, he was never real to begin with."

The sky blue eyes that gaze down at her were ones of mutual contempt. Giovanni turned his gaze away to resume the long drive. She faced the window and broke again. Broke because her eyes and her ears could not believe that this was the same man who would steal innocent kisses along her hands, her cheeks.

Whisper her sweet nothings, wish her goodnight, goodmorning, and for all of her worries to wash away. He would call hours on end until unattractive snores spilled into his ears.

This was that same man. A waking, breathing nightmare that did not love Prisana but needed her captive and obedient for whatever fortune it would bring him.

These are the last broken tears Prisana would ever shed for Giovanni or her father. To Giovanni and her father, she was weak. These tears were proof of that. But now the ugly truths were in her grasp. Clear and vivid. To Prisana, these tears were proof of men she once loved. Men who underestimated and would lose their pawn. She stopped the aimless broken tears before they could turn to more than one.

Giovanni pulled into a long narrow driveway of pine stakes and trees. His mansion was also situated in the Wellington estates, not very far from her own home. The mansion was just as grand if not more, standing tall and serene above acres of grasslands.

The men waiting out front began to retrieve her bags from the trunk. She waited until Giovanni made a full circle to the door before opening it herself. He nearly toppled backward from the impact of the door swinging open into his shoulder.

"Sorry," she said, trying her best to sound apologetic. "I didn't see you coming."

Prisana brushed past him, hearing him swear a few curse words under his breath. Giovanni didn't need to escort her. She knew his estate like her own backyard. Her father would bring her often to discuss business with Gio or attend the grand parties.

At every chance the pair could get, Giovanni and Prisana would sneak off together into the isolated balcony at his study or any empty room where it would be just them. Now she was walking away, without him and somewhere far away where he would not be present.

Clarice, one of his personal maids who she thought dear of, stood at the top of the entrance. One look was all she needed to grasp the situation. Prisana's tear stricken, beaten down face spoke faster than words could convey. She rushed over to her and opened her arms. Prisana stopped her. She held up her hand.

"Don't," Prisana warned her. "Don't come any close to me or I swear I'll break all over again. It's the last thing I need right now."

"What can I do for you?" was all she asked and that's all she needed.

"A room with a tolerable view. Furthest from his and with a hundred locks to keep despicable men like him from entering."

The old maid wasted no time at all. She turned around and led her into a new castle. Large, beautiful, and suffocating. Prisana followed her along the foyer and up the spiral staircase, down a long hallway of marble statues and elaborate watercolor paintings. Clarice stopped at large white double doors. She opened the doors and led her further into a room that fit the description.

A view overlooking the gardens and considerably the last and furthest room down the hall to Giovanni's room. It would have been perfect if not for the missing ninety nine locks.

"I won't ask," she said and for her patience and understanding, Prisana was grateful.

She settled herself down onto the silken bedsheets.

"I will tell you some other unfortunate day. I'm tired."

"Dear, you look so, so... "

"Ugly? This appearance suits me well. The beauty underneath are all lies anyway. Hell, I think I'm beginning to understand my very existence is a lie."

"Don't say that. Remember? You are your father's only jewel and Giovanni's greatest diamond. Now let me help you freshen up your appearance a little."

Clarice left no room for refusal. She began working on the wild tangles at her hair. Prisana looked at herself in the mirror.

'You are your father's only jewel and Giovanni's greatest diamond'.

This was a saying she has heard countless of times. Prisana was her father's only jewel but now he has given her away. She was Giovanni's greatest diamond but thrown among other pretty little diamonds.

A jewel, a diamond on the outside but a bruised rock through and through.