by Jolie Damman
But anyway, I was exhausted and needed to sleep. I closed the door behind me and walked into the hall. I turned right and almost gasped when I noticed none other than Paolo standing close to me.
Was he overhearing us this whole time?
But this time, I was going to confront him. I grew tired of him spying on me.
“Paolo, I don’t know what is going on in your head right now, but I want you to stop spying on me.”
“But I wasn’t.”
His expression remained neutral, unchanged. He was lying. I knew that so well I could almost punch him right now.
“Don’t lie to me. This isn’t the first time I caught you following me.”
“I swear I wasn’t doing anything of the sort. I was going to talk to my brother.”
I studied his face, trying to find out if he was lying or not. But that was easier said than done. He was good at hiding his emotions. I wished I had his emotional control.
I shook my head and said, “Then, go. He needs you.”
I began to walk past him, but then he gripped my arm. His eyes found mine. “You love him, don’t you?”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “No, I don’t. What made you think I do?”
He smirked. “I can read you and him. It’s love. The bastard has fallen in love with the woman he is keeping captive. Well, better for him. He is going to marry you, after all”
I shook my arm free. “You are hallucinating.”
But upon hearing my words, his smirk only widened. I walked past him with determination in my steps, and closed the door of my bedroom.
Jesus, what a creep. But a very cunning one at that.
He knew almost everything about me. I was… indeed in love with Basilio.
Maybe I was vulnerable and that’s what made me fall so easily in love with him, but those things didn’t matter. Paolo was right. I liked Basilio a lot now.
Maybe I was going crazy. It would make sense if I were. I shouldn’t fall in love with anyone in here, and yet, I was. Or rather, I fell in love with him and now didn’t feel admitting that to myself just yet.
It was all such a mess in my mind.
Slowly, I tucked myself under a blanket and fell asleep. The last thing I needed right now was to think.
Chapter 12
Burning The Lies
Basilio
Ineeded to make her go out of my bedroom. I couldn’t let her see the stuff on the table. Paolo was with me now, and tension was high between us. He figured I knew he was sabotaging me, and maybe now he understood what he was doing was getting out of hand.
“I’m going to help you now, for real,” he said.
“Right. After all you’ve done, you are going to help me.”
“Hey, haven’t I been doing that already?”
“Paolo, don’t make me remember your silly mind about all the times you worked against me here.”
His expression remained neutral. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Alright, if you want to help me with this, then figure out a plan to take down the Lettiere family.”
He smirked. “Now you're talking my language.”
Why he didn’t show up here before, I had no idea. He must have thought I was going to come begging for his help. Well, that was something I would never do.
He surprised me once again. He wasn’t only a sly bastard, he was intelligent as well. Dangerously smart. I made a mental note never to underestimate him. He was helping me now with this plan, but he was still trying to make father think he was better than me.
Father valued experience and age. I was older than him, and if anything, dad would put him back in his place.
✽ ✽ ✽
Gloria
Despite that weird encounter with Basilio in his bedroom, we grew closer together. We swam together in his swimming pool a couple of times, and he continued to take me out to see the city. He said he couldn’t allow me to come and go just yet - I was his captive, after all - but I learned that wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
I cherished more and more my time with him, especially because he allowed Gino to come here anytime I wanted. I knew he wasn’t okay with letting my brother come here, but he didn’t let his hate get the better of him on those occasions.
He told me he wanted to talk to me, and he was serious when he mentioned that. So serious I knew he wasn’t going to make me waste my time. Something was going on in his mind he wanted to tell me, and I was curious about it.
It was the middle of the night, and the mansion was silent, as usual. Duilio was sleeping at this time of the night with his mom, who herself was a silent person and didn’t even talk much to anyone. I got a feeling she was here only to keep her brother in check, and maybe it was working. I didn’t see him get mad again ever since that infamous night where he pinned me against the wall.
I walked to one of the many living rooms in the mansion. They even had a large color TV on it. Those things were so expensive.
Basilio was sitting on a chair in front of the fireplace. The weather had changed since that day it was warm enough to get into the swimming pool. It was chilly now, and I had to wear some extra layers not to feel too cold.
In front of him was the fireplace, the sound of the fire as it burned the wood so familiar and comforting for me. We had many fireplaces like that one in my old house in Sicily.
By his chair was a very small table, and on it, I could see a glass and a bottle with wine in it. It looked and felt expensive. I imagined a man like him only drank the best wines available in the world.
I approached him slowly. He wore a white button-up shirt, and a pair of jeans. It was his normal day-to-day attire when he didn’t have to go out. And he didn’t go anywhere during the whole day. He spent most of his day inside his bedroom, most likely planning on how to advance his plans to establish his family in the city.
He turned his head the moment his ears picked up my footsteps. It happened when I hadn’t even crossed the open doorway. Other than the sound of fire burning the firewood, the mansion was so silent one could think there wasn’t anyone living in it.
He gestured with his hand. “Sit down here.”
There was a chair next to his. It looked comfortable. I had never sat down on it before.
Slowly, I made my way to him. I sat down on the chair, and he offered me a glass with wine. I took it and sipped the red liquid. It tasted well, just as I thought it would. Basilio knew his wine, and he wasn’t ashamed to show me he got the best only.
Beside me was another small table, on which I placed my glass of wine. I was going to drink more of it, but not right now. I had more important things to do, and I couldn’t get drunk when something as important as this moment with him was about to transpire.
Tension was high. I had never been with him before. I was out with him many times, but those occasions were very different from this one. I was always near other people, and in case something happened, I knew I could rely on them to stop him.
But right here, inside this place, alone and with no one to help me, I could only rely on myself in case things turned south all of a sudden.
“I’m sorry, Gloria.”
“What… do you mean?”
“I’m sorry I’m keeping you locked up in here. Feels like my relationship with Editta all over again.”
That reminded me that I should talk to her. I wanted to know what happened between her and him, and hear her side of the story...
“I don’t know what you mean, Basilio.”
“I don’t want to make you feel miserable in here.”
“But… I don’t. It’s not so bad anymore.”
“It’s… not so bad anymore,” he slowly repeated my words.
I didn’t know where this was taking us to. He was being so odd right now.
“I just want you to know that I am not a bad guy, Gloria.”
“Maybe you are, but is that such a bad thing?”
We had grown more intimate, so us ta
lking like this wasn’t odd. What was weird was him not acting like his resolute self at this moment. Did something happen in his life I wasn’t aware of?
“I don’t want to hurt you like I did that night, and it feels that I didn’t properly say I am sorry for that.”
I looked for his hand and held it in mine. My heart was beating so fast. This moment was so different from the others we had before. He was pouring his heart out to me, and it was happening because he wanted me to know what he was feeling.
“Basilio, it’s alright. I don’t feel… so bad about that anymore.”
I still felt terrible about it all, but I hated him much less now. I was only being kind to him because he looked so hurt right now. He was showing me who he was behind his mask, and he was a human being like everyone else.
He had his problems, after all.
“Gloria, I want you to know… that I like you.”
His eyes were trembling. If I had an ounce of doubt he wasn’t being genuine right now, that was now gone. I knew he was telling me only the truth. In turn, I needed to tell him what I felt about him. I couldn’t lie to myself, or to him.
I held his hand more tightly. “I like you too, Basilio.”
And that was the time I wasn’t lying to anyone. I wasn’t lying to myself or to him. I told him only the truth, and it made his eyes water. I never saw him so vulnerable before, and it made me shed a tear.
Here we were, a man who hated me, and a woman who hated him, telling each other our true feelings. All this time fighting our emotions was a waste. I should have realized a long time ago I was going to end up convincing myself he was the right man for me.
A lot of time had passed since he was a brute to me. It was almost a distant memory to me now. I still remembered it, but seeing Basilio like this made me realize what is really important in life.
I caressed his hand, and he caressed mine. We were sitting on different chairs, but they were close, touching one another. I didn’t know where this was heading to, but I was liking this. This was good.
But there was something that was preventing this from developing further. His alcohol addiction. He was drinking more and more of his wine, and I needed to do something about that.
I couldn’t let him keep drugging himself. It wasn’t right. He would kill himself one day because of this.
It was with that thought in mind that I got up and took his bottle and glass, which still had wine in. His hand looked for it, and I gave him a dangerous glare. That calmed him down, and I explained, “This thing right here is destroying you. You need to stop drinking.”
Coming here and realizing he bought me everything I could ever wish for made me realize what was truly important in life. I liked buying things, but I knew it was an addiction. Having come here healed that addiction of mine almost completely, and now it was not a problem anymore.
My spending addiction was nothing compared to his problem, but it was something that helped connect me with him.
He was going to tell me something, maybe tell me that I was wrong, but changed his mind. His lips did part, but what he said impressed me, “Thanks, Gloria. Fuck the alcohol.”
I was relieved. I almost thought he was going to tell me that I was wrong, that I had no right to tell him what he could or couldn’t do. That would be so him, and I wouldn’t have blamed him.
I put the glass and his bottle in an empty bookshelf, where he wasn’t going to find them. By no means that meant he wasn’t going to drink ever again, but it was better than nothing. Maybe later I could work on his addiction and cure him.
But that would be something for another time. Right now, I had something much more important to deal with.
I sat back down on the chair and thought about what this moment meant to him. For him to have come here, to ask me to come here too… it meant that something big was happening in his life. Maybe he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders.
I… pitied him. I shouldn’t and couldn’t pity a Calabrese, but the fact was that I was doing so, and I could see that he cared about me. My initial assessment of his persona was such a wrong one, now that I was thinking about it.
He was a brute, but something in him was telling me he didn’t want to be one.
He covered his face with his hands and said, “I’m really sorry my father killed your dad, Gloria. I should have done something to impede him.”
I patted his shoulder. “I don’t blame you for that.”
He sighed. “Maybe not, but I’ve got so much happening right now, and Paolo… You need to stay away from him.”
“I know. I try to stay away from him, but he is like… following and spying on me all the time.”
He stood up quickly and said, “I’m going to talk with him. What a fucking lunatic.”
I grabbed his hand and made him sit down. “It’s fine. It’s not like he can harm me.”
“You don’t know him. He is a savage.”
“Maybe he is, but I don’t care. I am worried about you. What is going on with you?”
He gave me a tired look. “I can’t tell you, and I shouldn’t. My father is relying on me.”
He was right. There was nothing I could say right now to convince him.
“Then, ask for more help. Can’t your father send more Calabrese over here?”
“And to let him know that I’m fucking things up here? Never. He would rather make Paolo the leader of the Calabrese family in America before sending more men here. He is fighting a war in Italy, and you know that. He can’t endanger his position over there.”
“Maybe you are right, but what is happening here is killing you. Slowly, but it’s killing you.”
I tried to be as sincere as possible right now. He needed that. He needed someone to tell him what was happening right now.
“I’m not going to do that. I’m going to fix my problems on my own.”
And with that said, he walked and left me. I didn’t even know what to say to him, and I wouldn’t have the chance anyway. He was pissed off, and whenever he felt that way, it was better to let his mind solve his problems.
Well, I got my things and headed to my bedroom. It was nice talking to him, but it didn’t lead to anything. I learned more about him, and that was a crucial thing.
✽ ✽ ✽
Basilio
I knew she meant well, but I wasn’t going to ask for help from my old man. I was going to make Paolo help me, and he wasn’t going to get what he was gunning for. He was smart, but I had the experience.
I got inside my bedroom and began to think. Gloria was so nice to me back there, and I was an ass to her once more. I walked out without telling her I was thankful for her words. She didn’t know what was going on - and she shouldn’t - but she still tried to help me.
I needed to make it up for her even more, and I was feeling that tonight could be the right moment to do it with her. I wouldn’t force anything on her, but all signs pointed to one particular thing.
I was just hoping she was going to like it.
Chapter 13
Revealing The Truth
Gloria
Iwas lying in my bed when someone knocked on the door. It had to be Basilio or Paolo. I was hoping it was the first, but I wouldn't be surprised if Paolo was spying on me with Basilio and wanted to use that against him somehow.
Either way, this time, if it were him, I was going to tell him to fuck off.
I opened the door with force and when I thought about shouting how much I hated him, I found Basilio standing right in front of me. He looked different. His eyes were resolute about something I could only begin to guess what it was.
I opened my mouth to ask him if he had changed his mind when he enveloped me in a bear hug. It happened so fast I didn’t see his arms and the rest of his body coming to me. I was more than impressed. I was shocked. What made him just come here and do the only thing I was hoping he would do?
I couldn’t deny my feelings anymore. I was in love with him, and this was what I ne
eded all along.
His lips found mine, and they were so tender and hungry from the very beginning. I kissed him, and he kissed me back. His tongue found mine, and I perceived how dominating it was. He wasn’t even giving me time to breathe.
I walked backward, and I saw him kicking the door close. His lips didn’t let go of mine for one second. He kept on kissing me again and again, and I was wondering if he and I would become something else for each other once this was over.
But I had very little time to think right now. He made me walk backward as he continued not only to kiss me, but also to explore my body with his hands. I thought he couldn’t be controlled, and right now, that was when such a thing was so evident I could almost palm it.