by Jolie Damman
Well, Paolo was just as bad as him, and so I wasn’t going to pretend I cared about his supposed worry for me. I walked to the outside of the mansion and felt relieved he didn’t follow me. He could be such an asshole sometimes.
My eyes found Duilio, who was playing in the garden once again, and I headed his way. At least there was someone here I could call a friend of mine. He was such a good boy.
✽ ✽ ✽
Gloria
I waited outside the window of my bedroom, from which I could see the street that led to the mansion. I was waiting for Gino. He said he was going to come here today. He called me, and we had a wonderful conversation.
It had been so long, and I had so much to tell him. I wondered what took him so long to come to America. Now that he was coming, I could begin to feel safer.
Minutes passed, and a car eventually appeared. It drove to the double metal gate, and two guards stopped him and walked to him. He rolled down the window of the car, and talked to them.
I imagined they were only making sure he was who he was. Basilio already told me he could come here and spend some time with me. He said that it was alright, but I wondered if he really felt that way.
Well, no point worrying about Basilio’s thoughts right now. I had something much more important to care about.
The guards walked back to stand behind the double gate, which was now open, and Gino drove in. He pulled over in front of the mansion, and I headed out. I wanted to be the first person he was going to see after talking to the guards.
But when I got to him, opening the front double door, I worried. Basilio was already in front of his car, just waiting for him to get out.
Tension grew, and I remembered that time Basilio beat him up because of Editta. And my eyes found someone else inside the car. She was sitting beside my brother. It was Editta, and she looked less than pleased to know that Basilio was with them.
Gino got out of the car, and Basilio walked over to him. I thought something terrible was going to happen, but they just eyed each other. I glanced at Editta, who turned her face sideways and was pretending she didn’t see Basilio.
She was never going to forgive him for what he did to her, and maybe I should listen to her side of the story one day. Basilio insisted he didn’t do anything bad to her, but something terrible must have happened. Maybe he got drunk and scared her as he did to me.
Basilio spoke, “Nice to see you here.”
“Let’s skip the pleasantries. I came here for the information you have for me.”
Basilio nodded and handed him some papers. “It’s all there.”
And with that said, he turned and walked away, but not without taking a good look at me. I thought I saw something in his eyes, but he was gone before I could figure out what it was.
Editta was now looking at us. With Basilio gone, she didn’t have to feel scared of him.
I knew how relieved she was feeling. For a moment, I wished I was living her life and could get out of here without having to come back.
Gino opened a wide smile upon seeing me. I rushed over to him and hugged him tightly. He hugged me back just as hungrily, and for a couple of seconds, I could almost forget all the bad things that happened since that terrible night where my dad and uncle were killed.
He brushed the hair off my face. “Hey, how has it been here?”
I looked down. “Not good.”
Worry filled his eyes. “Did something bad happen? Because I’m going to kill that son of a bitch right now if it did.”
I thought about telling him what happened that night, but doing so felt wrong. It wasn’t just that I felt horrible for pissing myself in front of Basilio, but also that, since then, he was being nice to me, and he also said Gino could talk to me here for as long as I wanted.
I shook my head and looked into his eyes. “Nothing. Don’t worry about me.”
His eyes studied me for a second, and then, they cleared up. “Alright. Don’t hesitate to tell me if he hurts you somehow. I’m going to kill him if he ever lays a finger on you.”
“Gino, don’t say something like that here. One of his guards might listen.”
Gino glanced around. Guards patrolled the vicinity, though they weren’t close enough to hear us.
He nodded, and I asked, “What took you so long to come?”
“Oh, I had some things to deal with back in Italy. I needed to find a new home for mom and aunt. It took me a while to negotiate a place with Barnaba. He was dead set on making them live with him.”
“And you managed to change his mind?”
“Not really. His brother did.”
“Ah, that makes sense. He wouldn’t have done something like that only because you wanted him to.”
He nodded and I whispered, “I have something important to hand to you.”
“What is it?”
I fished from one of my pockets some notes that contained the information I found. I looked furtively around, worried that someone was going to figure out what was going on.
“I got into Basilio’s room one night, and found this information. I can’t make sense of it. I hope you can.”
He analyzed the papers for a couple of seconds, and then said, “Alright. I will see if they can help me.”
He approached his head to mine and whispered, “We are going to have our revenge, that I swear. Thanks for this.”
I nodded and we continued to talk about other things. We had a wonderful conversation before he got back inside his car and drove out. I thought he was going to stay here longer, but he said he had something very important to do in the city and that he would come back here soon.
I kissed his cheek before he drove away, and hoped that he was right. I hoped he was going to find the information he needed to bring down the Calabrese, and that he wasn’t going to take long to come here again.
Chapter 11
Poking The Truth
Basilio
Ihated that idiot, and I hated Editta too. I still couldn’t believe she dumped me for someone like him. That pissed me off so much I couldn’t help but grab a bottle of beer and empty it. I was in my bedroom, and I couldn’t study the information in front of me anymore.
Just knowing Gino was here in New York too pissed me off. I wanted him dead. I should have killed him when I got the chance.
Well, that wasn’t going to happen anymore. I liked Gloria far too much, and things were developing well between us. I took her out, took her shopping and to do some other things, and she was nice to me every time we did something together.
Right now, my biggest problem was figuring out how to take down the Lettiere family. They were in New York much before dad thought about sending me here, and they had so much influence in the city.
They were our rivals, and I needed to be smart about my plans. I needed to devise a plan - a good one - to take them down.
It would help things if Paolo was more focused on the job at hand then sabotaging me. He was still gunning to make dad believe he should be his heir, even though he was younger than me.
I punched the table with the side of my fist. “Fuck, this is impossible!”
The truth was that, without more Calabrese here, I was never going to be able to hurt the Lettiere. I was going to have to talk to dad and tell him what was going on with him, and also remind him that Paolo was hurting his plans more than he was helping me.
When was he ever going to learn I was the boss here?
✽ ✽ ✽
Gloria
I woke up and felt an uncontrollable need to pee. The biggest problem was that my bedroom didn’t have a bathroom, and I needed to walk all the way past Basilio’s room to get to the only one our floor had.
Kind of a strange design that one was. Mansions like this one tended to include a bathroom for each bedroom. Not this one, though. Maybe it was an American thing.
I got out of my bedroom and walked to the bathroom without worrying about anything in particular. Things weren’t going well
for me here, but at least Basilio was nicer. He wasn’t a good man, but he was better now.
I was walking past the door to his room when I heard the noise of glass shattering into pieces. I almost jumped and gasped. My heart raced. Something bad was happening, and going by what took place that night he made me piss myself, it could be nothing good.
He was drinking again. I was addicted to buying things, and he had an alcohol problem he couldn’t quite control. But… what was it that I was feeling right now? Pity for him? For a man that beat up my brother because he was terrible to Editta?
No, I couldn’t and wouldn’t feel something like that for him. He was rich, and he was keeping me captive here. Even though he was taking me out from time to time now, buying me things and being nicer to me, I wasn’t going to approach him and try to deal with an issue that wasn’t mine.
I went to the bathroom and peed. If there was one night I didn’t feel like doing so, it was this one. I didn’t want to be reminded of Basilio’s existence. He was nice now, but he was still an enemy of mine.
I got out of the bathroom and was walking in front of his bedroom once again when I heard… only silence coming from inside there. What was going on now? He appeared to be so pissed off not more than a couple of seconds ago.
My curiosity was piqued, but I was still not knocking on his door, or was I? Should I approach him for the first time since I got here? All the times we went out, it was him who made the invitation.
I was conflicted. I couldn’t deny I was cultivating some… feelings for him, as much as I hated to admit that right now. I was so stupid. Just because he was being nicer now, it didn’t mean he was a man for me.
Far from something like that, actually. Basilio was an asshole, and he didn’t deserve anyone worrying about him, much less me.
But still… Jesus, when was I ever going to learn?
✽ ✽ ✽
Basilio
I was anything but my normal self right now. I wasn’t only mad, I was scared. I was frightened that I was going to fuck things up for dad and that he was going to make Paolo the leader of these operations. That was the last thing I wanted.
I thought I heard someone knocking on the door. It was probably Paolo anyway, and I knew why he would come here in the middle of a night like this one. He wanted to savor his victory. He knew that, thanks to his constant sabotage, I wasn’t winning the war against the Lettiere.
I heard the knocks again, but still decided not to open the door. Paolo could go fuck himself for all I cared. Plus, I didn’t close the door with the key and he could just come right in if he wished so much to see me defeated like this.
And the door did begin to swing open. Very, very slowly, almost as if Paolo was thinking he shouldn’t be doing that but was coming in here anyway because he couldn’t control himself. I swore that, if he was smiling right now, I was going to punch his face until he begged for mercy.
But then, my eyes caught sight of a beautiful strand of black hair, and my heart stopped for a second. I sat straight up on the chair, thinking that this couldn’t be happening, right?
She hated me. It couldn’t be her.
But it was her. Gloria. She opened the door and looked confused. What was she doing here? Why was she coming to me in the middle of a night like this?
She wasn’t smirking or smiling for seeing me in such a condition. I looked so messy right now, I imagined. Drunk and defeated. I couldn’t look any worse, but she still opened the door all the way and stepped into the room.
“Basilio… you look like a mess right now.”
She chuckled. Gloria chuckled, and she appeared so angelic right now. I could almost touch her if I didn’t hate myself so much right now. I still remembered every single detail of that night, when I was at my worst to her...
I chuckled too, because what else could I do right now? I knew we were growing closer to each other, but I never thought she would decide to come to me during a night like this one. She always avoided me whenever she could before, after all.
Well, something big changed, and I knew I was soon going to learn what that was.
She approached me slowly, holding her hands together in front of her. Gloria felt just as uncomfortable right now. That much was clear to me. I had one question lingering in my mind right now, though. Did she intend to do something more than checking up on me?
She pulled a chair and sat down next to me. I looked into her eyes, trying to figure her out. There was something deep and important going on in her mind right now, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
And that made me mad and frightened. I shouldn’t look weak in front of her, and so I straightened up my back once again.
Her hand looked for mine. She grabbed it, caressing my skin.
That action alone spoke more than anything she could have told me with words. She… cared about me. She saw me desperate like this, and realized I needed her help.
I was stunned and surprised. I didn’t think she would ever care about me.
“Gloria…” Was all I could say, clearing my throat an instant after.
I felt nervous. She was making me feel that way. We were speaking so loud right now, using only our body to do so. Her eyes looked so worried, concerned about my well being. I wanted to speak, to tell her what was happening, but I just couldn’t.
But shit, she couldn’t see all these papers on my desk. Without warning, I got up and hid them from her. I got pretty mad because she saw them that night, and now I didn’t want to make her think I was going to become the same beast again.
She cleared her throat, and the atmosphere we were in died down. Every time we got close, something bad happened, it seemed.
“Gloria, what do you think you are doing here right now?”
She got up and looked shy. “Sorry, I was only checking up on you. I heard the sound of glass shattering.”
My eyes flickered over to the bottle I hurled against the wall. I felt ashamed of that. She didn’t have anything to do with what was going on here. However, her words made me question what her true motivations were.
“You weren’t trying to spy on my things, were you?”
Her eyes shot wide, but she still averted her gaze. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Right, off you go, then. I’ve got more important things to do right now.”
She nodded and walked away. Phew, that was close. I thought she was going to steal more information from me. I needed to be careful with her. I had a short temper, and I didn’t want to lose my mind in front of her again.
I closed the door with my key and resumed my studies. She didn’t make me feel better about them, but now I had some renewed motivations to devise a good strategy. Gloria coming here actually helped me. She made me take away my mind from all the bullshit I was thinking about, and now I could at least begin to understand how to bring down the Lettiere.
I kind of felt thankful for her, though I wouldn’t ever tell her such a thing. It was just all so messy.
But anyway, I needed to focus on the job at hand, and I was going to impress my old man, even if I didn’t like him at all. I just needed to make sure he would choose me to run the family, and then I would be able to put Paolo back in his place.
✽ ✽ ✽
Gloria
I knew I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have gotten inside his room without him letting me in. I thought I was being smart and that he needed someone to help me. He appeared to be in pain, and my heart kind of melted for him.
It was such a weird combination of feelings. On one hand, I still loathed him. On the other, I could see he was struggling with something, and was being nice to me.
He could have done the same he did to me on that terrible night. He could have pinned me against the wall with the weight of his body and made me piss myself again. But he didn’t. He contained himself.
The information he had on his table was important. He hid it all from me once he realized what was going on, or what could have happened, had I
paid attention to those papers. I didn’t even care about them. I was… more worried about him.
I knew I shouldn’t be feeling something like that for him. Logic dictated he didn’t deserve my worry, but that wasn’t something I could simply not feel. I wished I had better emotional control. I knew it wasn’t going to happen, and so I simply sighed and prayed I was going to get better at dealing with him.
He was trying to get to know me, and if he were to become my husband for sure - there was still Gino’s plan and we could end up destroying the Calabrese family, in which case I wouldn’t have to marry him - then I would like to know more about him.
