Episode 25.3

When he locked himself in his room his head was a whirlwind. Almost four years ago they arrived in Italy because a friend of his brother: Sergei, said that he was making good money in a multinational company, that he was getting a good job, a house, and that there was a small Russian community in Milan. His family had always been poor, his brother had lost his job and Sergei cajoled him: being a chemical engineer and having worked in an important laboratory, he was very valuable to that country, he told him that and then, upon arriving in Italy, they discovered that everything it had been a trap.

They were a dangerous network of human trafficking and shit, they wanted her to prostitute her, to force her to be with men in a luxury hotel. Dating, high-level executives asking for young, healthy, pretty girls, that's what they'd told him. She didn't believe it at any time, prostitution was never going out with handsome or high-level executives as they wanted her to believe.

At that time she was very skinny and her appearance was not as healthy as they wanted because she had just recovered from pneumonia and she was so skinny that she was pitiful. She kept them locked up, isolated in a filthy place, along with other foreigners: young people from remote countries.

Day after day people showed up to see them, Italians and Russians to buy them. Her brother then told her "I'm sorry Irina" and for the first time in her life she noticed that Nicolai was on the verge of tears, that living that ordeal and seeing the misery around her and understanding what awaited them was too much. for him. He had always been a rebellious boy and had a rowdy gang that trained to fight and had been a two-time wrestling champion. However, this time he had no chance to do something and it made him desperate, he could see it in his eyes: the anger, the hatred and the desperation.

But Nicolai was above all a very intelligent man, he was a rare mixture of intellect and action, he watched as these foreigners were sold to mafia ruffians, sold as valuable merchandise and paid good money for them. That gave him hope...

"Irina, you have to pretend that you're still sick, to get out of here I'll devise a plan" he had told her and then a man appeared who demanded to see the girls.

Someone found out that his brother was a scientific engineer as well as a computer scientist and that piqued his interest. "Can you hack a site and spy on it?" asked the interpreter and they took him aside for questioning. Actually, they were more interested in him than in her that he was nothing more than a bundle of bones and blond hair. In addition, he had a relapse and days later he stayed in bed. In those moments she thought it would be better if she died, those bastards would give her brother a job (nothing legal of course) and she shouldn't suffer the ordeal of prostitution.

She thought that she would die, she was burning with fever day after day and nobody paid attention to her, Nicolai only appeared sometimes, but she wasn't sure if it was him or a hallucination because she was burning with fever. She was weak, sick and she thought that she would die, she felt very close to death.

But someone helped her brother and she also saved her life. Very dark eyes looked at her with intensity, she looked horrible, more dead than alive.

The stranger said something in her language and smiled, it wasn't a nice smile, she thought it was the end.

That was the last thing she remembered of her captivity, because when she woke up she was in a very luxurious hospital room. Her brother looked at her anxiously. "Are you okay?" she asked.

No, he felt horrible, his whole body ached and he couldn't breathe, his lungs, even breathing hurt and he couldn't move. She had an oxygen mask on and had tubes in her arm.

Only days later she found out that they had been released, that the police had arrived to file a complaint and that they had all gone to prison and the rest had been released. It seemed like a dream, but what would happen to them? Would they return to Russia? She wondered herself then distraught. In Russia, only misery awaited them, but at least they could live in peace.

—First you must get well Irina, recover, the police want to help us... — her brother had told her then.

The police helped them, gave them protection, his brother got a good job and then... he had become almost rich, he earned a lot of money in a laboratory and... He had his small computer business that gave him an appreciable source of income , and something else. Something she never talked to him about. Now he was full of friends, and they weren't from the lab.

They had a good life, Nicolai had a lot of money, why the hell get into illegal business? The police had helped him, they were safe and now... Now suddenly she was telling him that they should return to their country.

Her parents had died, her brothers had moved to another city, nothing tied them to Russia now and yet...

She tossed and turned restlessly in bed, thinking about that Italian, thinking about that secluded life they led.

Well, you were determined to talk to her brother and she would ask him for an explanation.

It was not necessary for her to call him, her brother appeared an hour later in her room.

Alone they spoke in Russian, the language of that country was only used to mock or talk to Italians.

She was furious and she sat up on the bed and looked at her brother eager to ask him for an explanation, but something in his look made her change her mind. Nicolai's dark eyes were dark circles and his close-cropped blond hair was turning gray and he was only twenty-seven, but he looked older. Despite the money, the comfortable life they led, he had aged prematurely.

She stared at him and then asked what was going on.

"Nicolai, would you ask me to leave work early to introduce myself to your Italian friend?" You who always tell me not to trust them. Listen, I had a really hard time finding that position and my boss... well he's not very happy with these sudden escapades.

Nicolai wasn't looking at her, he seemed distracted as if he hadn't heard her.

—Calm down, I have to talk to you, let me explain. Everything has a reason—he seemed tired.

"Okay, I hear you..." she crossed her arms annoyed. "What about that Nicolai man?" What business do you have with him and why did you say... he knows about the trap that Sergei set for us four years ago.

Her brother made a weary face and sat in the rocking chair and turned on the television. He watched a lot of television when he wasn't working and when she had asked him why he did it, he replied: "so as not to think about anything. I love being able to sometimes leave my mind blank. She wondered if the same thing was happening to him now, she was sure it was, that something was bothering him and he didn't want to talk about it, however, suddenly she said without taking her eyes off the movie she was watching:

—Irina, we owe a lot to Massimo. Be nice to him because if something happens to me... listen well to what I'm telling you, if something happens to me, you won't be helpless. He will help you, he will take care of you.

Those words sent chills down his spine.

"If something happens to you?" And why should something happen to you, what are you talking about, Nicolai? Because you do not tell me the truth? Please stop beating around the bush, tell me what's going on.

"Life is fleeting and in this country there are very few to trust." You don't have any friends or either... You're alone Irina and I'm afraid that was my fault. You're very shy, you always were, but I... I always made you believe that he would take care of you, that he would always be there, but things have changed.

—But you have an important job, you have money, what are you afraid of? What have you gotten yourself into brother? Tell me please. Are those men you meet with, did they involve you in an illegal business?

She didn't tell him, she had the feeling that maybe she was having a hard time doing it.

—Irina, I can't tell you, I just want to talk to you, so that you understand that Massimo promised to take care of you if necessary, if I have to leave the country.

—Leave the country alone? I thought you would take me with you. Nicolai, you're crazy, the police saved us, and then they helped us get a job.

He stared at her.

"It wasn't like that," she confessed. "It wasn't the police, I lied to you, it was Massimo, he's one of the bosses of the southern mafia. You don't know anything about these things, I know, but understand that I was desperate, you would have died Irina, those bastards didn't care about anything, they didn't call a doctor or... I said they should get an antibiotic and they laughed, they said They didn't want sick girls anyway, so why do anything for you? They were heartless dogs, we were nothing more than human merchandise for sale. But knowing that he was a chemical engineer and knew a lot about substances... I think that

He saved us because Massimo appeared. They needed infiltrators. "Infiltrators?"

—It doesn't matter that, what I mean is that my studies saved us then, they got me a job, but I'm nothing more than a pawn. I've been paid well, yes, but I'm not free to go unless I play their game. It's what I do... He saved you that day, he thought you were a girl and he didn't... he is not a pimp or interested in girls like other perverted mobsters.

—They sell people, they bring poor foreigners with false promises, Sergei betrayed us and I don't forget that.

"It doesn't matter now, he got what he deserved, you know...

Yes, I knew, Sergei had been found murdered along with his girlfriend in front of the cathedral months before. That unfortunate man had enriched himself with the trafficking of immigrants, he was much richer than his brother, he had everything and one fine day he was shot in a crime labeled "mafioso." The kind of crime that would never be solved, a reckoning between criminals, jealousy, rivalry, old debts. Justice had been served.

—Listen to me, Irina, you must marry that Italian, you must.

"Marry that guy?" He didn't talk about weddings, he just said that he'll take care of me or something.

Nicolai went for his vodka bottle, he seemed to need it, lately he drank too much.

—He's an Italian from the south Irina, you don't know them, but they have certain traditions, they live like in the last century: Catholics, conservatives, jealous of their family and honor and he... Massimo isn't the capo yet, he will be when his bachelor uncle dies and becomes heir not only to his mafia lineage but to his entire fortune. And to inherit he needs a wife, a family, after he gets married his uncle will appoint him as his successor. But not a word to anyone about this, sister, you already know.