Gia hurried down the steps in a rush to meet Javan who was waiting outside for her. They had agreed on going to the mall together to shop for her choice of clothes.
"Just so you know, Omri isn't always going to be around to protect you," Camilla blocked Gia's path and crossed her arms in front of her.
Gia sighed and asked drily, "What do you want?"
"Tell Omri that you want a divorce," she said.
Gia stayed quiet and stared at her. She tried to side step her but the troublesome woman obstructed her.
She massaged her throbbing temple. She was already stressing from thinking of the clothes to get because shopping was not really her thing. She never really bothered getting her clothes for herself back at home. There were people for that. Camilla was only adding to her headache and she was in no mood to deal with her. "That's not happening."
"Look girl, you have no idea who I am and the type of things I can do to you," Camilla threatened her.
"As long as you aren't as powerful as Omri, I really don't care what you can do to me. Now if you'd excuse me," Gia tried to sidestep her again.
There were voices in the corridor and everything happened in a blur. Before Gia could comprehend what was going on, Camilla screamed and threw herself down the remaining flight of stairs.
She could hear footsteps rushing in their direction.
"I swear I'm sorry about this morning. I promise it won't happen again," Camilla cried and begged Gia in an act to attract sympathy.
Renzo, Sophia, Luciano and Vinnie were the first to reach her with two other men from the mafia. They helped her up and she had a bleeding nose, a bruised elbow and an ankle that looked dislocated.
They looked up at Gia in contempt. Their hatred for the Salvatore girl only increasing.
"I swear to God, I didn't touch her. She threw herself_," Gia tried to explain but an enraged Sophia slapped her across the face, shocking her to her bones.
Her cheeks stung from the impact and her eyes were clouded with unshed tears.
"You have the guts, because of Omri's protection, to lay a hand on a Martinelli? Do you think even Omri will save you?" Sophia yelled and shoved her hard and she stumbled backwards from unpreparedness.
She stumbled into a wall with hands. She quickly turned around and in the haze of her stinging eye, she was face to face with an annoyed Alvan who stood two steps above her. Despite his annoyance, he helped her back on her feet and his eyes traveled to her red cheek.
"Put your crazy wife on a tight leash. What if something worse had happened to Camilla?" Luciano raved.
Alvan's eyes remained fixated on Gia's cheek that was turning from a bright shade of pink to a light purple colour by the second. For the next few seconds, he contemplated his next course of action. His hand was still wrapped around her arm.
"I didn't do anything. I would never do something like that," she looked up at him with panic and tried to explain.
"Are you calling all of us liars?" Vinnie bit back, "Look at Aunt Camilla for God's sake and you still have the guts to lie!"
"We just had a little misunderstanding, there's no reason to blow this out of proportion," Camilla said meekly, subtly sowing discord.
"How can you even try to defend her?" Sophia asked in disbelief.
Gia looked at Alvan with pleading eyes but he just ignored her and went to help his aunt. He and Luciano left without a word to take care of Camilla's injury.
Renzo said nothing. He along with the other two men walked away silently leaving Sophia and Vinnie.
Sophia grabbed Gia's arm and pushed her down the stairs just like she had assumed Gia did to her sister. Taken unaware, Gia was not prepared for the impact and hit her head on the floor and passed out immediately.
Sophia stared down at her in horror and screamed.
* * *
"You should be yelling at her. You should punish her after what she did to Camilla. Camilla did nothing to deserve that. All she did was express her displeasure about having a Salvatore in our household!" Sophia defended her actions in front of Omri.
"You should have let me deal with her myself! Look what you did to her. What if she had died?" Omri yelled at Sophia.
"Her death would have been a blessing to me and every member of our mafia. I can't believe that you would defend her over your family. If you care about her so much, why is she married to Alvan instead of you?," she raised her voice even louder.
"Sophia," Luciano cautioned.
"No, Luciano. Let me speak what is on all of our minds. You are so protective over her, are you screwing her behind all our backs?"
Omri slapped her hard across the face. "This had better be the last time that you speak to me in that matter."
Sophia's face turned red from the slap. Her face turned a deeper shade of red as she stared back at her brother in anger. "Or what? Will you threaten to lock me up and torture me like you do with everyone else?"
She was livid and far from gone.
"You have no idea the kind of torture and pain I will be more than happy to put you through," he warned, his eyes narrowed at her.
Luciano held Sophia but she pushed him aside in her rage and shoved all the things on Omri's table to the floor.
"Get yourself together, Sophia," Renzo said sternly.
"How can you be quiet about this? That Salvatore should be dealt with for what she did to Camilla. Why aren't you saying something? Are you two sharing her?" Sophia accused.
"That's enough. Martinez, get her out of here," Renzo said calmly.
"Rocco!" Omri yelled. He had had enough of Sophia's tantrum and he had to put her in her place. A guard rushed into his office seconds later and Luciano froze. So did Sophia.
"Take Sophia to the cell and make sure she stays there for the next 24 hours without food, water or light. No one is allowed to see her till she is out," he ordered.
"Omri!" she yelled with tears running down her face. "You won't do that to me!"
Omri just stared blankly while Renzo watched in silence.
"Luciano! Do something!" she cried frantically as Rocco dragged her out of Omri's office kicking and thrashing.
She couldn't believe that her brother would do something like that to her. He was cruel but never that brutal whenever it came to familia.
Her heart was filled with so much hate and anger towards Gia for putting her in that situation with her brother.
"Capo," Luciano tried to beg on his wife's behalf.
Omri lifted a finger to hush him. "Not even a word to plead on her behalf or I'll worsen the punishment."
Luciano felt his heart churn with anger as he watched his brother-in-law do that to his wife for an enemy. Maybe Sophia was right. She didn't have the smartest brain but quite often, her theories were not baseless. Maybe Omri had a thing for Gia.
He left the room with his head down. The wheel of his mind running full speed thinking of all the things he could do to Omri's little slut.
"Gia is not stupid enough to do something like that," Renzo said as soon as Luciano shut the door.
"I know," Omri agreed and went back to sit down.
* * *
Gia was seated on her bed with Javan sitting on the chair next to her. Ila and Valeria were there with her too. She didn't completely pass out like Sophia feared she did. She went blank for a few seconds before gaining consciousness again.
"Why would you do something like that?" Javan asked her gently. His voice was surprisingly calm and not judging.
"I didn't do it. She threatened me and when we heard voices in the corridor, she pushed herself down and acted like I was the one who pushed her," she explained to them, needing their support.
Ila and Javan said nothing to ease her erratic thoughts. She could tell that they didn't believe her, she felt bad but it wasn't unexpected. They barely knew her so she couldn't really blame them.
Valeria said, "I know that Camilla can be a little over the top sometimes but it's hard to think that she would stoop that low. We don't judge you because I for one can understand how unwelcoming this household can be. I was once like you. Still am in a way. So if you did it_"
"I didn't do it," Gia said again.
She gritted her teeth and spoke under her breath. She was not just annoyed that they wouldn't believe her but she was pissed that she didn't actually push Camilla. That was her only regret. Because if she had, all the trouble she was going through would have been worth it.
Alvan walked into the room without saying a thing to Gia. He just went straight to the walk-in closet.
"Don't you see that your wife is hurt?" Ila asked in annoyance.
Alvan turned in their direction, it was only then that he noticed the other people in the room.
"Nonna," he sighed tiredly.
"What happened to your vow of protecting and supporting your wife?" Ila questioned.
"This marriage happened because of a contract. I don't feel anything towards her so I have no obligation towards loving, caring or protecting her. As far as I am concerned, she is on her own," Alvan defended himself.
"As far as I know, I didn't raise a troll. I didn't bring you up to treat a woman with this much disrespect. As long as she bears your name, she is your responsibility to protect," Valeria admonished her son.
"I can see that she already has enough protection. She has you, nonna and Javan, her very own personal bodyguards. And I heard that father threw Aunt Sophia in a cell because of her," his voice dripped with venom at the last part.
The final piece of information was a shock to her. Rather than feel relief, she knew that this would only make the family hate her more.
"He what?" Ila asked in surprise.
"Because she deserved it. She pushed your wife from the stairs," Valeria said.
"The exact same thing she did to Camilla and went unpunished for," he snapped and his nostrils flared as he spoke.
"She said she didn't do it," Javan implored.
"The injuries on Aunt Camilla's body says otherwise. I don't know why you choose to stick with this little minx but I'm done having this conversation," he said glaring at her while she looked back at him with a matched intensity.
Valeria walked towards her son and stood before him, "All I am asking is for you to show your wife some support. Show everyone that you have accepted her even if it means just on the surface. The bullying has only just started and it is only going to get worse from here," she tried to reason.
"Mamma," Alvan groaned.
"Listen to me, figlio," she held his arm and spoke to him softly. "Don't wait until it is too late. You may never get her back if she reaches her breaking point. Just like how far gone your father and I are. You don't want that for yourself, do you?"
Ila, Valeria and Javan left the room to excuse the couple and Alvan remained in the same spot till they were gone.
Alvan pinned Gia with a glare.
"Are you happy now? Turning my own mother, nonna and brother against me?" he snapped at her.
"That's not_" Gia tried to explain.
"One more word from you and I'm sending you back to sleep exactly how Sophia did," he threatened.
"Why do I even bother with you?" she threw her hands in the air and stomped out of the room in rage.