Inceptive

by M. D. Melai

  “All our lives, the only thing our father has ever said about Adela’s death was that the Dapprimas had stolen our money, you, and Adela. That you and Adela had been brainwashed into hating us, and that Benito had her killed for the money. We thought you were the enemy. Little did we know that the enemy had been with us, beside us, this entire time.”

  “We’re so sorry,” Faith finally spoke up. “We didn’t know.”

  Their story left me in shock. I was horrified and more curious than ever. How was it that even two years after all of this started happening to me, there were still secrets coming out? How many more secrets were there?

  “What did he say to make you come after me?” I asked.

  “It’s all in the past as far as we’re concerned,” Faith said, but didn’t elaborate. “What did your family tell you about us?”

  “Nothing actually, until recently. I just thought your family was inhumane and after me for a document—not money,” I half laughed. “But I’m curious to know exactly what document he’s after?”

  Nikolas smiled at me for the first time since he had sat down. “Our father never specified the document, but based on the information, we can only guess that it was your birth certificate.

  “And for the record, there is only one person after you now. Faith and I want to help you, and we know it will take some time for you to trust us, but we hoped that coming to you today and talking to you would be the start of a relationship between all three of us. You are our family after all.”

  I could tell they meant every word they said. It was going to take time to trust them, and even if I didn’t fully, I needed them to help me. I needed to make sure no one else I loved would be hurt or killed in the process of taking Viktor Heinrich out one way or another.

  “Thank you for coming today, and…” I trailed off as I felt a familiar pull. I glanced up and found his intense gray eyes staring back at me.

  Emilio was glaring at me through the front window of the restaurant. I had seen him mad before, but this time, it was different. His face was stone cold, and his gray eyes were darker than I had ever seen them.

  “We should go,” Lorenzo said, pushing his chair back. “We’re both in deep shit right now.”

  I’d say we were deeper than that.

  My eyes were still locked on Emilio’s as he jerked his head towards the front door and mouthed “now” about the time Lorenzo grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my seat.

  I tore my eyes away from him to look back at Faith and Nikolas. “I… I will call you soon,” I stuttered. “Thank you for coming and letting me know everything. We’ll meet again, promise.”

  That was if Emilio didn’t kill me in the next few minutes.

  I didn’t even hear if they responded or not. Lorenzo had me by the arm and pulled me towards the front doors.

  “We’re so dead,” he muttered.

  “Yes, we are,” I said as soon as the doors flew open and we stepped outside.

  “You?” he said sternly, pointing towards Lorenzo. “You get her home right now, and then you head straight home! You’re on suspension until further notice! You’re lucky you’re one of the best men I have or I swear you would be dead right now!”

  “And you?” he said, turning toward me with hurt in his eyes. “I will be home in a little bit, and it would be wise of you to still be there when I arrive.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he turned on his heel and headed down the street without looking back.

  ***

  The entire car ride home I apologized profusely to Lorenzo. What a mess I had gotten him and myself in to. I just prayed that Emilio was upset that I had been with Nikolas and Faith, and that he hadn’t found out about yesterday as well.

  When Lorenzo finally dropped me off, he told me he would see me soon and to not worry about him—he could handle himself against Emilio. Then he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek before I headed up to the house.

  I made the decision right then that as soon as Emilio came home I’d explain to him that they wanted to help us. He would understand that, right?

  The house was quiet as I waited for Emilio to arrive home. A million thoughts kept running through my mind as I sat on the couch and thought about what I would say to him. The only thing that I could do was apologize, and hope he would listen to me.

  When it was getting close to dinner time, I got up and headed into the kitchen. Since I hadn’t had lunch, I thought I would try and ease the situation even more by cooking Emilio his favorite dinner.

  Busying myself with making sure everything was perfect helped pass the time. All I thought about was how he would love this, and how I would make him understand. I knew I had screwed up this time, and I knew I was the only one who could fix it.

  Dinner had been setting on the stove ready to eat for an hour, and I had been peeking out the window just as long, when Emilio’s car finally pulled through the gate and up into the driveway. He didn’t park in his normal spot tonight—instead, he parked directly in front of the house. I watched him as he got out of the car. He ran his hands through his hair and down the back of his head, before resting them on the back of his neck for a minute. He just stood there for what seemed like forever before he started to pace back and forth. He was fighting with himself. This wasn’t good.

  I slowly dropped the curtain, careful not to catch his attention, and headed towards the living room. I had been sitting for a few minutes when the locks turned over and he made his way into the house.

  “I’m so…,” I started to say as I stood up from the couch. I was cut off by him walking into the living room, clearly full of rage.

  “What were you thinking?” he asked, clearly trying not to yell at me.

  “They…I…we…,” I couldn’t put my thoughts into words as he moved closer to me. “Don’t be mad at Lorenzo,” I finally managed to say. “It wasn’t his fault. I talked him into it.”

  “Which part would that be?” Emilio said as his voice rose and then lowered again. He was fighting the urge to completely lose it on me. “The part where you talked him into lunch with Nikolas and Faith, OR yesterday, when you not only put your life in danger, but those of your friends and my men?”

  My eyes widened as he said the words.

  I was so dead.

  “You could have been killed! Lorenzo, Paolo, and the others could have been killed! What the hell were you thinking? Did you really need to meet that low life piece of shit so bad that you had to… they shot at them! Shot at you!”

  “I’m sor…sorry,” I said, choking my words out. “I just wanted to meet him, to see what he was like.” My voice started to rise with every word. “I wanted to meet the monster who took Adela, Roman, and my father away from me! I needed to know what was so damn important that he would keep coming after me and my family!”

  “So you thought it was a good idea to go see him when you know life is precious and it can be taken at any moment? With one bullet you can be here and then gone! What would you have done if Lorenzo or Paolo or any of the other men there would have been killed? You’re very lucky Vinny only got a bullet graze! That would have been on you, you know that, right?

  “And I know you! You would carry the guilt around with you, just like you carry around the guilt of Massimo’s death, and it wasn’t even your fault. They wanted Massimo dead—nothing you, I, or anyone else could say or do would have changed that.”

  I looked at him shocked.

  “Don’t look at me like that. You have covered it up well over the last couple months, but I still see it! I see it all the time. That same look in your eyes hasn’t left you since the day he died.”

  “Well, none of you have been doing anything about the Heinrichs, so I thought I would!” I spat out at him, changing the subject.

  He threw his hands up in the air before he spoke. “And what makes you think we haven’t been doing anything about it? Because he isn’t dead yet? Is that what you think we do? Go around killing people all the time?”

&
nbsp; Yes, that’s exactly what I think.

  “You don’t know anything about what we do or who we are! We have a handle on the situation with Viktor, and I can tell you right now it doesn’t include you getting killed!”

  “That’s the problem Emilio—he isn’t going to kill me. He is going to have every single person around me killed until I give him what he wants. Didn’t Lorenzo tell you that? My mother could be next, my brothers, nieces or nephews, Violet… you. Did you know he called you out personally? All Heinrich wants is the money.”

  “We know what he wants—Benito always has. We have some of the best people in the country trying to figure out how to handle this without having to put you or anyone else in danger. We’re going to help you, and we’re going to put Heinrich away for a long time. You just need to trust me and your brothers.”

  “Faith and Nikolas want to help,” I said forcefully. “I think we should let them.”

  “Nikolas put his hands on you! Hurt you! They’ve helped kidnap you, and after one lunch with them you think they are trustworthy enough to handle your life in their hands?” he asked pointedly.

  “I didn’t say that—”

  Emilio cut me off again as his voice softened and he looked into my eyes. It was a look that I had seen before. He was about to do something that neither of us would like—what was he about to do?

  “You have my permission to use Lorenzo and Paolo from now on—whenever you need them. I promise I will continue to work alongside your family on the situation with Heinrich, and I will help you out whenever Benito sees fit, but I can’t live in the house with you anymore.”

  My heart started breaking as I watched the tears form in the corners of his eyes. I felt sick to my stomach as the same feelings I had from almost five years ago came flooding back to me. I couldn’t move or say anything as I stood there in shock. He was saying goodbye to me…again. Didn’t he know how much this hurt me last time? Why was he doing this to me again?

  He continued. “I won’t sit around and worry about you. If you aren’t home when I get here, I panic—wondering if everything is okay. I check your GPS a million times a day. You’re stubborn, hard-headed, and you’re going to do what you want to do whenever you want to do it without thinking of the consequences.” He placed his hand on my cheek. “But, I can’t sit in this house every day and have you lie to me or try and deceive me. I gave you the space I thought you needed, and you ran with it. You ran with the trust I had given. It’s like you threw it all back up in my face. I know Lorenzo and Paolo have trained you well, and I have no doubt in their ability to protect you if needed.”

  Déjà vu all over again, just different words.

  He kissed me on the cheek and turned to head upstairs.

  “Where are you going to go?” I asked as I followed him.

  “To my apartment.”

  “Your apartment?” I ask confused.

  “Yes, the one I used to live in before you came here. I did have a life before you came back into it,” he said harshly. He was trying to distance himself. He had said his peace, and now he was going to push me away.

  I had never thought about what his life was like before I came here.

  What was his life like before me? And what life was he heading back to now?

  I stood there in the doorway frozen and watched him as he grabbed two duffle bags from his closet and threw them on his bed. He wasted no time pulling his clothes from his closets and dresser drawers.

  I automatically moved out of his way when he headed towards the door. He looked so determined. I was afraid he would accidently knock me over trying to get away from me.

  Emilio headed quickly down the stairs without even taking one look back at me. It took me a minute to gain control over my body. I ended up catching up with him as he threw his bags into the hatch of his SUV.

  “I’m sorry. I should have told you. Please… please don’t do this,” I pleaded as I threw my arms around him.

  The tears I had been trying so hard to hold back came spilling down my cheeks. It was the first time since my father had died that a teardrop of any sort had graced my eyes.

  Emilio wouldn’t meet my eyes as I clung to the front of his shirt.

  “Ti amo più della vito stessa,” he whispered against my forehead before he kissed it and then pulled my clutched hands from his shirt. “But I can’t do this anymore, Lily.”

  “Please…,” I cried as he started to climb into his car. “Please don’t do this to me again.”

  He hesitated for just a moment. I prayed he would turn and look at me, but he didn’t. He climbed the rest of the way in and shut the door. He didn’t waste a second as he turned the car on, hit the gas, and left me standing there with my arms wrapped tightly around my stomach as I fought to hold myself together.

  What had I just done? He’s left me—again.

  I couldn’t hold myself up anymore, and I started to float down onto the steps as I watched Emilio pull out of our gates and onto the main road.

  I buried my face in my hands and cried uncontrollably. I had no one else to blame in this moment but myself. Here I was blaming him for leaving me, when it was me who drove him away this time. I deserved for him to walk away from me. I knew the moment I had made the decision to go see Heinrich that there would be consequences. I just never expected this.

  As I heard a car approaching, I dried my eyes and tried to compose myself, thinking it was Emilio coming back. Maybe, in the five minutes that he had been gone, he had changed his mind. The person who pulled up out front was not the person I was expecting.

  “Lily! What’s wrong?” Lucas asked as he sat down beside me and took me in his arms.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him.

  “Dinner, remember?” he said. “What happened?”

  “He moved out,” I said as I sobbed into his shoulder, clutching his shirt tightly.

  Lucas was the last person that I should have been seeking comfort from, but I couldn’t help it—I was heartbroken, and he was here.

  “I’m so sorry,” was all he said as he held me tighter, and I cried harder into his chest. By the way his body tensed, I could tell that he was hurt that I was upset about this.

  “I’m here for you, Lil. Always,” was all he could say.

  I was sorry too, but for more than one reason.

  Chapter 13

  “Emilio came to see me yesterday,” was the first thing Benito said as I took my seat across from him. His phone call had woken me up this morning. He wanted to meet for coffee, and no excuse would work to get out of it—it was nonnegotiable.

  “Nice to see you too,” I said sarcastically.

  It was too early for this. I had had a rough night and morning. My eyes were puffy and bloodshot from crying on and off all night, and I hadn’t sleep. Last night was disastrous, and I still couldn’t believe the events that had transpired.

  As soon as Lucas found me and got me back into the house, he called Elle. She immediately came over to help console me. I had composed myself enough while Lucas stayed with me, but as soon as he left, everything came rushing back.

  I was glad when Lucas was gone. If I would have seen him this broken up over another girl leaving him, then I wouldn’t be able to take it either. It instantly hurt me that I had done that to him. While I know he understood, I could tell that it hurt him deeply.

  “Well, I figured it was better to just get right to the point,” Benito said as he snapped me back to the present.

  “I don’t know how you want me to respond to that. We’re not on good terms at the moment.” I tried to hide the pain in my voice. By the look on Benito’s face, I wasn’t doing a very good job.

  “He had some interesting things to say,” he said with a hint of concern in his voice.

  “I bet.”

  “You’re not going to ask me what he said?” Benito asked pointedly.

  “Nope, but I’m sure you’re going to enlighten me either way,” I bit back sarcastically.
I was hurt and mad, and I couldn’t help but take it out on anyone I came in contact with.

  “Let’s start with the fact that you almost got killed…again,” Benito said harshly. “I would ask you what the hell you were thinking, but I know exactly what you were thinking. It was a stupid and idiotic idea, Liliana! You could have been killed, along with your accomplices. Who, by the way, should have known better than to help you, but apparently you guilt tripped them into doing it. You’re so damn stubborn, persuasive, and hard-headed!” He paused for a moment and took a long deep breath before he began again. “I’m not going to reprimand you for what you did. I think Emilio probably did enough of it for the both of us. But you can’t do anything like that again, do you understand? You need to let me handle the Heinrichs, okay?”

  I had tried to prepare myself for the entire drive into the city, because I knew Benito would tell me how bad I had screwed up. But no matter how much I tried to prepare myself, I realized it was probably worthless, especially when our conversation began to focus on Emilio.

  “Okay,” I finally said, not willing to argue. “So why exactly am I here?”

  “Emilio expressed his concern that maybe it was time for you to know exactly how this family operates. He seems to think that you think we’re all monsters and that all we do is kill people. Do you know what he is talking about?”

  “Yes,” I said, thinking back to that moment. I wished I could just go back and erase the past couple of days. “I more or less told him that I didn’t understand who we were and why Viktor Heinrich wasn’t swimming with the fish at the bottom of the Hudson.” I tilted my head as I looked questionably at Benito.

  “Oh, I see,” Benito said, nodding his head. “Maybe I should have made myself clearer in our previous conversations.”

  “That would have been nice,” I sighed. “I just don’t understand why Heinrich isn’t already six feet in the ground by now. He’s a monster and has threatened to hurt us enough for us to retaliate. If this was happening to the Corleone family, then he and everyone associated with Heinrich would be dead by now.”