Mistakenly Eaten

92. Helping Irene

]Salva, who stood in the pathway of the fields that led towards Althea’s house had come in just in time before leaving Gragnano because he just wanted to make sure that her family was doing alright but he had just gotten out of the car that was parked right outside the boundaries of the field and walked down the pathway when he stopped a few steps away from her house.

A singular street light, was settled right in the middle of the field, that illuminated the brick cemented house, that had a single large window running on the very front, right above the wooden door of the house. The window alone was shared between the two rooms upstairs and the living area of the house down the stairs.

Salva sighed, realizing that his bedroom alone was larger than the entire house and Althea had lived and survived through a life that he could never even imagine living.

Seeing the size of the house and how Althea was such a radiant and vibrant person, only increased her respect in his heart. He had come there to leave some money for her family to live on, until Althea would come back but who was he kidding.

His money would mean nothing for a family that was surviving on strength and their strength was Althea, somebody that he had taken away from them. And that strength could never be replaced in in terms of financial or monetary logs.

What Althea had was priceless and no amount of money in the world could suffice for her stoicism and her capability to be such a wistful person.

He smiled to his own self, as he stood a few steps away from the door of the house, finally realizing what it was about Althea, that was attracting him so much towards her.

He was lost in his thoughts, as he felt something hit him in his back. Startled, he turned around only to watch as a young girl, in a sleeveless sun dress, a petite figure and chestnut hair cut in layers up till her shoulder, that glowed even in the dark. The girl stumbled a bit and Salva tried to focus his eyes on the waving figure in the dark. The only light that was helping him in this matter was the one that belonged to the moon and the slight rays that flecked off and spread it’s gentle rays, was that of the singular pole light.

Salva felt startled, as the girl stumbled, finally lost balance and fell into the fields over on the side of the pavement.

His eyes widened, as he panicked and immediately took his phone out of his pocket, turning the flashlight on.

He searched through the field for a while and finally his flashlight found a girl laying unconscious on the very side.

He jumped down from the pavement and bent on his knees, flashing the light over the face of the girl, that was covered with her own hair. He immediately pushed the hair aside and sighed in relief, right away recognizing the girl to be Althea’s sister Irene.

Irene groaned slightly, as the light from the flash that Salva was blasting right over her face agitated her.

Understanding her fractiousness, he moved the phone out of her face and sighed, wondering what she was doing sleepwalking perhaps in the middle of the night.

Something hard hit his feet and he turned his light towards it only to find an empty bottle of beer, rolling against his feet.

“Huh?”

Salva c****d, understanding that the girl wasn’t sleep walking and was presumably only drunk walking.

He cleared his throat and got up on his feet, deciding to leave Irene lying in the fields. He remembered how much of a nuisance she was to Althea and from what he had heard, she was selfish and because of her poor Althea had to work in her uncle’s restaurant and even did not listen to Althea when she asked her to not to get married to some rich dude. And because of her Althea had to take more loan for her wedding from her uncle, burdening her and further pushing her away from her dreams.

And even at that moment, he judged Irene for being selfish and careless. With Althea being missing, she still partied, got drunk and hung around, without ever caring about her sister.

Salva was about to leave and turn around when he heard a slight groan coming out of Irene’s mouth, that made him halt his feet.

He tried to take a step further away but couldn’t. Something within him stopped him. he sighed, as the thought of Althea crossed his mind and he only wondered how Althea would never approve of him doing so. She would do everything in her power to keep her sister safe and no matter how much in his perspective Irene deserved to be left there in the field, it still wasn’t safe for her and a man, who respected Althea, he had to oblige to what was the right thing to do.

Sighing in agitation, he bent down and picked the girl up in his arms, carrying her bridal style through the pavement and finally entered inside the house.

He simply kicked it gently and it flew open, making him question the safety under which three women had lived for years in that house.

The women in his family, were kept under extra security due to primarily the reason being that they had many enemies who could try and hurt their women but that reason was just a ruse, used by the men of the family, who were actually possessive towards their women and didn’t want anybody looking at their wives, daughters and sisters. They had no shame in admitting that they were misogynist, because when it came to women, they were ready to fight wars to protect the ones that mattered.

Salva sighed, walking up towards the small sofa arrangements that he noticed at one corner of the room and placed Irene down on the double seater that he noticed.

As he securely placed her down on the sofa, he remained bent on his knees, as the pole light falling inside through the side window of the house, illuminated Irene’s face and for the first time, he finally noticed her features.

Her eyes closed, could still be described as round and big. Her nose straight and peaky, resting over her cheeky bones that contoured right above her sharp jawline. Someone who had seen Althea, could immediately recognized Salva, even if they had not seen Irene before and didn’t know if she was Althea’s sister, unlike Salva who was provided with Irene’s pictures by his private detective who had done some digging up on Althea and her family.

He looked keenly at Irene, slightly mesmerized by her beauty. Irene had the same facial features as Althea except Althea had a broader figure, with her shoulders and hips being more prominent and a much more attractive fact about her, whereas, Irene’s body was more petite and cylindrical. The two sisters looked so much alike but at the same time, Salva wondered how were the two so opposite of each other.

Althea was someone who worked towards the betterment, health and wellbeing of the ones that she loved. She had a considerably affectionate and benevolent personality, whilst Irene was selfish. Someone, who never cared about others and always put herself first.

Heavy footsteps on the cemented staircase, reverberated in the silent house, attaining Salva’s attention.

Monique made her way down from the bedroom, once she realized that Irene had not come to the bed, since she was sleeping on Monique’s bed with her, trying her best to compensate for her sister’s absence and not let her mother feel sorrowful.

Monique checked the time and it was eleven in the evening, which was quite late for Irene, who always made her way back home by six. Getting up, she hopped downstairs and turned on the lights checking for her daughter and found her lying on the sofa, presumably drunk.

Monique smiled softly, as she gently patted her daughter’s head and slightly scrunched her nose, sensing the strong stench of alcohol that she reeked of.

“Gosh! Irene, hold on to your drinking, will you?”

She joked, gently lifting her daughter off from the couch and supported her arm over her shoulder, as she took her inside her bedroom.

“Gosh! You should not drink that much during a weekday at least. You have office in the morning and Mayor Vincenzo would not be happy seeing you drunk in the very morning.”

Monique took her daughter up to their bedroom and once they made their way up, Monique also turned off the lights of the living room and once she was inside the bedroom, she closed the door behind.

Listening to the door behind shut closed, Salva sighed in relief, getting up from behind the kitchen counter, where he had hidden when he sensed Monique coming down the stairs.

He immediately moved out of the house, gently closing the door behind him and walked back towards his car.

He shook his head, as he found himself wondering too much about Irene but only assumed that the concern came to him because she was Althea’s sister and he was concerned about the latter woman.

But one thing really disturbed him and made him get lose in wonder. Monique was talking with Irene about the Mayor not being happy seeing her drunk and Irene having a job. The last he had them investigated, he remembered that Irene had just graduated and planned on moving permanently to Rome, where she was going to marry some rich guy.

He picked his phone out of his pocket, as he got inside his car and dropped a text to his investigator.

Salvador Francesco: I need you to reinvestigate Althea’s sister. Where is she working these days and what is going on with her family and friends? I need to know everything.

As Salva punched that text and his car finally rolled to make its way towards Sicily.

The message he sent, was received on a phone that buzzed slightly, turning it’s light on, to notify that a message was just received on the phone but the owner of the phone was busy working on his laptop, sitting in a bar in Gragnano, where he had just met with Althea’s sister Irene, only an hour ago.

He tried to approach the beauty, being quite the dashing man himself, who was attracting quite a lot of attention. His freshly tanned and glistening skin, was quite an evidence that the guy had just been on a vacation or perhaps maybe still vacationing and when he approached Irene, who was on to her fifth bottle of beer, she did nothing but simply looked at the guy head to toe and scoffed.

“Listen buddy! Either you’re on vacation or just been on one and in both situations, I can tell you are in need of a local taste. So, I would advice you to go for a beer or food that would be more local. Not a lady. Maybe, any lady but not me.”

She immediately turned him down, making the guy scoff, who decided to back out and simply observed from a distance and heard Irene talking to Seb and Lur, who were Althea’s friends but for the past few days that the guy had been trailing the girl, he observed that Irene was spending most of her time with Althea’s friends and telling them about how she just like everyone else also think that Althea was at the secret chef hunter’s society but the girl had unusual morning visits to Jacob, the town’s commissioner’s office, which was right across her own office, The Mayor’s office, where she was working as a manager in the public planning and implementing department.

He wrote down the entire information in his email and sent hit, packing up his laptop and getting out of the bar. The email that he had piled and sent, was received on the other end by Nicholas, who read everything and felt satisfied that Irene was living back in town and close to Althea’s mother, with whom Althea was quite attached and he didn’t have to feel remorseful for the poor old woman, for being left alone after Althea was there with him.

He typed an email to his detective back to help the family in financial situation but did not hit send.

He held back his finger right before he was about to press enter. He sighed, deleting the mail entirely, as the realization struck him that Althea was someone who never depended on anybody’s help. She was an extremely self sufficient and independent girl, an attribute of her personality that definitely attracted Nicholas. He shut his laptop close and decided to think of a way in which he would be able to help Althea and her family, but without egregiously forcing money on them. The women of that family were highly independent and giving them money in the name of help or charity would only hurt their self esteem, which was something that Nicholas didn’t eye on to do.

An idea struck his mind, and he opened back his laptop and sent an exclusively email to his detective, asking him to work on it right away and make that happen.

Happy that he was going to be of help to Althea’s family, Nicholas made his way towards his bedroom and found Althea already walking from the opposite side of the corridor.

Her expressions were gloomy but the moment her eyes landed on Nicholas a soft smile appeared on her face, which made her rush to Nicholas and she immediately leaped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

Nicholas sensed that something was off about the girl. So he whispered in her ears, as he hugged her back and pulled her inside his bedroom.

“Is everything alright?”

Althea continued hugging him, as she nodded against his chest.

“Just missed you.”

“Really?”

Nichoals chimed, pulling her face up towards him and she smiled and nodded once again.

“Then let’s see, how much you really missed me.”

With that he clasped her lips with his and gently laid her down on the bed, kissing her longingly.

He slid his hands underneath her shirt and gently squeezed on to her bosoms at first and then slid the shirt off her body, leaving her panting as he broke their kiss and finally took her shirt off and threw it on the ground.

“Wow! It looks more like you missed me.” She giggled, as Nicholas took his own shirt off and leaned down, attaching Althea’s lips once again and pressed his body close and tight against hers.

There was just a very simple urge inside his body that forced him to stay not just afloat but merged with Althea and as he made love to her many several times throughout the entire night, he finally laid and next to her, holding her tightly in his arms.

He rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes, feeling completely and totally at peace.

His smile rested on his lips even after he slept because somewhere even in his subconscious, he knew that he was holding Althea and that everything was going to be just fine and perfectly alright because now he had someone to hold on to, someone who was never going to go away from him.

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I guess you guys are going to have a new couple to ship to? Or maybe not? :P

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3