The Slave of Pleasure
Chapter 122

Rachel Being alone with Veronica was like staring into an abyss. The silence in the room was almost as suffocating as her presence. My heart was pounding, but at the same time I felt a strange chill down my spine. The image of Nancy leaving that room, defiant and unpredictable, wouldn't leave my mind. What was she up to? Was it some kind of plan or just momentary madness? There was no way of knowing.

My thoughts were interrupted when one of the henchmen approached, carrying my bag. He handed it to Veronica as if it were a trophy. She took the object with disdain and opened it, rummaging through its contents without any delicacy. "Let's see what we have here..." she muttered, throwing my belongings on the table in a disorganized manner.

She took my cell phone, examined it quickly, and threw it aside. She took my wallet, opened it, looked at the photos and cards, but didn't seem impressed. Finally, she found my lipstick. A mocking laugh played on her lips as she held the small object in front of me.

"You're sleeping with Vincenzo Morette, one of the richest men in Italy, and you still wear cheap makeup? How pathetic." Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she twirled the lipstick around her fingers.

I didn't answer. My eyes wandered around the room. The place was as rundown as I expected it to be: peeling walls, a musty smell in the air, old, stained furniture. The light was dim, but it revealed enough to make it clear that this was a place of horror. A place where terrible decisions were made and lives were destroyed.

"How disgusting..." I muttered to myself, but apparently loud enough for Veronica to hear.

"What did you say?" she asked, dropping the lipstick and staring at me with narrowed eyes.

I looked up, deciding that if there was ever a time to try to understand this woman, it was now.

"I said this is disgusting," I replied, more firmly. All of this. This place, what you do, what you've become.

She raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, but also irritated.

"Do you think you have the moral authority to judge me?"

"I'm not judging. I just want to understand." I took a deep breath, staring back at her. "What happened in your life to disfigure you like this?"

A heavy silence fell over us. Veronica's gaze was blank for a moment, but soon transformed into something more menacing.

"What did you say?" She took a step forward, her voice thick with tension.

I didn't back down.

"What happened to you? What happened in your life to make you end up here, on this path of kidnappings, lies, robberies, and involvement with mafias?"

She stood still, staring at me as if she was deciding what to do with me. Her silence was even more frightening than her previous threats. After a few seconds, she spoke, her voice low but thick with emotion. Do you have a family, Rachel?

I swallowed, hesitating. I didn't know if I should reveal something so personal to her.

"From your silence, I'd say yes." She gave a bitter smile. "Well, I don't."

Her eyes seemed distant now, as if she were reliving old, painful memories.

"My parents were honest people. They worked hard, they believed in justice, in goodness... and that never got them anywhere. They were betrayed by my own uncle, who turned them in to the police to save his own skin. They died without ever having a chance to fight."

I felt a lump in my throat as she continued.

"When it happened, I was too young to understand what was happening. But when I grew up, I swore I would never be like them. I would never be a victim."

"And you decided to be like your uncle?" I asked, my voice thick with disbelief.

She smiled bitterly again.

"I decided I would never be weak." I allied myself with him, pretended to be his loyal niece... and when the time was right, I betrayed him. I took everything he had and became the leader of the mafia.

My breathing became heavier as I listened to that. Not because I was afraid, but because I was trying to process how someone could live with so much hate and pain.

"Bottom line, Rachel," she continued, taking a few steps toward me, "being nice like you only gets you one way."

Veronica stopped in front of me, pulling a dagger from her waist. The blade glinted in the dim light, and my heart raced.

"To failure," she finished, turning the blade in her hands as she stared at me with a predatory gaze.

My mind worked quickly, trying to replace a way out of this situation. I didn't know if Nancy had escaped or if she had a plan, but I needed to buy time.

"Vincenzo isn't like you. He chose to get out of all this," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Vincenzo is what I made him." She leaned in slightly, pointing the dagger in my direction, though still keeping a safe distance. He was my right-hand man, my best executioner. He did anything I asked, and did it well. People change. He changed.

-People don't change, Rachel. They just pretend until they can't anymore.

I knew I was playing with fire, but I had to keep going.

-Maybe you didn't have a choice, Veronica. Maybe your life forced you to do this. But Vincenzo chose to be better. And I choose to believe that he is stronger than all of this.

She was silent, her gaze fixed on mine. There was something there, an internal struggle that I couldn't fully understand. Maybe it was the words, or maybe it was something deeper that I would never understand.

The silence was broken by the sound of a phone ringing. One of the henchmen answered quickly and whispered something in Veronica's ear. She nodded and put away her dagger, although she still kept that predatory gaze on me. It seems that your little friend has reached a safe place. For now.

I didn't know if that was a bluff or the truth, but I had to believe that Nancy was okay. Even so, I was still trapped, and Veronica was still an enigma that needed to be solved.

As she walked away, I felt a mixture of relief and tension. I knew that this was far from over, and that the worst was yet to come.