PROLOGUE
"Bel, Arabella, listen to me," John mumbled as he embraced his teenage daughter.
He let out a staggering breath and caressed her pale hair, before squatting down to her eye level. "No matter what happens tonight, do not come out of there."
"What's going on, papà?" Arabella replied, hugging her father back at the same time.
He barely called her full name and hearing it come out of his trembling mouth made her anxious.
"Arabella, my beautiful child." He groaned, caressing her face.
Her bright blue eyes widened and tears poured out of them due to the urgency in his voice.
"Don't worry Bel, just promise me that no matter what happens, you will stay right there."
She nodded and her sobbing got intense, she clung to him, "Papà, please."
Her tiny body trembled as she held on. Even as he attempted to pry her hands away, she didn't budge.
The dreadful feeling became intense and she didn't want to let go for fear of it being the last time they'd see each other.
"Promise me, Bel, please promise me," John said as he joined his daughter, sobbing.
He shook his head and bit his lower lip as his hands wrapped around her small frame.
"I promise you, papà, that no matter what happens, I will not come out," Arabella replied with a quavering voice and her hand trembled as she made a pinky promise with him.
"Here, take this," John murmured, squeezing a white sheet of paper in her hand.
"Go there," He paused, brought out a bunch of keys from his pocket and pointed to the corner of the room where another door was situated.
"Whatever you see, take it and leave this place, go far away from here, somewhere he won't find you."
"These are the keys to unlock every door there, do not stay there or else he will find you, just take what is there and go very far away." He added, dangling the keys in his hand.
"Papà, what are you saying, I do not understand you, why do I have to run away, and who are you talking about?" Arabella creased her closely knitted brows and scrunched up her button nose.
"His name is Alessandro De Luca." He answered, wiping off the sweat trickling down his face with the back of his palm.
"Who is he, papà? Is he a bad man?"
"I'm so sorry my child, please forgive me," John mumbled, ignoring her question. His shoulder trembled once more and he burst into tears.
"Papà, why don't we leave together?" She reasoned.
"No, Bel." He said with a slight shake of his head, "We can't or he would find us and then kill you too. I can't let that happen."
"I'm so sorry darling child, my nemesis has caught up with me, and it's time I pay for what I've done." He said and he nudged her into the wardrobe before shutting it.
"Papà, please don't go. Do not leave me here!" Arabella banged her fists on the wooden closet.
Despite her cry, it didn't stop her father as there was nothing he could do to escape the impending death that awaits him.
Tears slid down from his bloodshot eyes as he turned to gaze at his daughter's hiding place to make sure it wasn't obvious she was in there.
Arabella wanted to call out to her father once more, but the gunshots she heard silenced the words in her mouth.
From a crack in the closet, she watched as the door to the room went ajar, and a man dressed in a steel black tux strode in with some men with him.
Arabella trembled as she glimpsed the guns in each hand. She clasped her hand tightly to stop her from yanking the handle of the closet and darting out to meet her father who was on his knees.
"Please Sandro, spare me. I truly regret what I did." John's hand extended as he grovelled in the presence of the man he was twenty years older than.