Callie
“I hate him for himself, but despise him for the memories he revives.” —Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“So, was any of it real?” I could hear my voice trembling as I stared at Antonio. I was pissed off at myself for caring about his answer and annoyed that I’d fallen for his lies in the first place. It shouldn’t matter what he said in response to that question, because I knew I couldn’t believe it, and yet I still wanted to hear that some part of this had been real.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, little lamb,” he said, stepping toward me, his brown eyes hard as he stared at me.
“So, none of it was real, then.” I stepped back and away from him.
He took a deep breath, then ran his fingers through his silky locks. Hair that I’d just been playing with hours before. It was weird how things could change in an instant. Twelve hours ago, my life had been nothing short of a miracle. I’d been flying high, happy, feeling comforted and cocooned in the warmth of his arms, and now I felt cold, distant, and bereft of all emotion.
“I don’t want you to think that this was personal, Callie.”
“But how could it not be personal, Antonio?” I cut him off. “You lied to me. You lured me into your web of deceit just so you could hurt me.”
“It wasn’t to hurt you. It was…”
“It was to hurt me because you knew that by hurting me, you’d hurt my father.”
He nodded. “That is true.” He let out a deep sigh. “What can I say? Sometimes, the thirst for revenge makes you—”
“Oh, shut up,” I said. “I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say. I would like to just gather my things and then leave.”
He nodded slowly. “Fine. I’ll escort you back to my bedroom and…”
“I don’t want to go back to your bedroom. Just get my stuff and bring it to me. I’ll meet you downstairs or something.”
“Callie,” he said softly, his hand reaching up to touch the side of my face.
I could see that he was thinking, processing what to say next.
“What? Trying to think of a way to try to get me to stay?” I said, rolling my eyes. “Some sweet words to get me to drop to my knees and suck your cock? It’s not going to happen, jackass.”
His lips trembled slightly, and he shook his head. “This was never about you sucking my cock, Callie.”
“That was just a pleasant side benefit?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shook his head. “Nothing I say will make you believe in me again, will it?”
“Nope,” I said. “Please go.”
“Okay.” He nodded and then left the room.
I sat down on the queen-size bed and looked around me. The room was stark and depressing. The candles flickering made me think of impending doom, but that was a joke because everything had crashed and burned around me already.
I heard footsteps coming back toward the door, and I folded my arms across my chest. If that was Antonio again, I was going to punch him. I needed to get out some of my anger, and while I wasn’t someone that believed in violence, I wanted to hit something or someone. Mainly him.
There was a knock on the door, but I ignored it. Another knock came, and I walked over to the door in an attempt to lock it, but before I could, it opened.
“Hello?” It was a lady’s voice.
I blinked. It was the older lady that’d been there earlier.
“I’m Luisa. Antonio asked me to escort you downstairs.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding, not knowing what to say to her. Wondering what she thought about everything that was going on.
“You’re very young,” she said as we walked along the dark corridor.
“I’m twenty-two,” I said. “Not that young.”
“Young compared to someone like me,” she said, though she wasn’t smiling. “You remind me of my daughter.”
“Oh?” I wasn’t sure why she was making small talk. It wasn’t like I wanted to talk to her, and I certainly didn’t want to talk about her kid.
“Yes, Elisabetta is her name. She is headstrong and feisty, just like you.” She didn’t look like she thought it was a good thing.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“She’s away at school.” Luisa nodded. “I thought it best for her to be away from this mad house.”
I stared at her in surprise. Her words weren’t what I expected.
“So you think this is a mad house?”
She turned toward me, her blue eyes keen as she studied my face. “It is a house that I’m used to,” she said. “I’ve known Roberto a very long time. He’s not…” She paused. “The nicest of men. But then I suppose I’m not the nicest of women.”
“You’ve worked for him for a long time then, I’m assuming?”
“I can’t remember a day when I haven’t worked for him,” she said, nodding. “Antonio is quite like his father. That is why they butt heads so much.”
“Well, okay, whatever,” I said, not wanting to hear about Antonio. “Did you also know that my father was having an affair with his mother?” I asked her.
She pressed her lips together. “It’s not my place to talk about the Marchesi family business.”
I wanted to tell her she’d just been talking about them, but I didn’t want to make her mad at me. She didn’t seem like the sort of lady you wanted to cross. And if I was being honest with myself, she couldn’t be that nice if she was a housekeeper for a Mafia don. She must have seen so much cruelty, danger, tears, and blood. I bit down on my lower lip. I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’m surprised they’re letting me go,” I said honestly.
A part of me had thought that Antonio was going to keep me locked up in a room, but then that would defeat the purpose. He wanted my dad to be hurt, to be… I paused as I thought about everything that had gone down. What had been Antonio’s end game? He was using me to get to my father, but at the end of the day, it was me he was hurting. And yeah, my dad would be hurt because I was hurting, but he wouldn’t feel the same pain that a death would’ve caused.
I gasped suddenly as Luisa grabbed my arm. “Watch where you’re going,” she said sharply.
I blinked and realized I was at the top of the stairs. I hadn’t even realized. If I’d taken a step forward, I would’ve gone tumbling. Perhaps I would’ve died.
“Thank you,” I said, offering her a small smile. “I was distracted.”
“You have to keep your wits about you in situations like this,” she said. “You can’t act like a little naive girl. The world doesn’t work that way.”
I blinked at her. “Everyone in the world’s not in the Mafia, you know.”
“That is true,” she said. “But everyone in the world has their own agenda. And trust me when I say what you are doing in your life and what you are thinking and feeling is not at the top of anyone else’s list. Not even your father’s.”
I blinked at her. “So, you know my dad?”
“I don’t know him.” She shook her head. “I saw him once. Yes.” She nodded and looked away.
“When did you see my dad?”
“That day,” she said. “When he picked Antonio’s mother up.”
“Oh,” I said.
She nodded. “Yes. Anyway, I think you most probably don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t want to talk about it, and I don’t want to think about it. I want nothing to do with Antonio, with Don Roberto, with anyone in the Marchesi family. I just want to move on with my life.”
She nodded sorrowfully. “I hope that will be possible.”
“Yeah, me too.”
And then I was pretty sure she whispered under her breath, “For all our sakes.” I wondered what she meant by that, but I knew she wouldn’t tell me.
I was about to ask her why she still worked for this crazy family when Jimmy walked into the room holding a pair of keys in his hand.
“Hey, Callie,” he said, his eyes twinkling as he glanced at me.
“Yes?” I snapped at him, blushing at the memory of how he’d seen me earlier that day.
“Antonio asked me to drive you back to your dorm.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
“So you want to grab a coffee or anything before we go or…”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Do you have my stuff?”
His eyes widened at my tone, and he nodded. “Antonio’s just gathering it from his room. I’m sorry that everything—”
“You’re not sorry about anything,” I interrupted him. “So don’t even bother trying to give me your platitudes. They mean nothing to me.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Luisa, you can leave.”
“Yes, Jimmy,” she said. She looked at me for a couple of seconds. I thought she was going to give me a hug or say something nice, but then she turned on her heel and exited the room.
“She’s a hard one to crack,” Jimmy said as he walked over to me. I didn’t respond to him. “I’m sorry that it went down this way,” he said. “You look like a nice girl.”
“Are you really sorry?” I asked. “Or are you happy that Antonio got his revenge in some way? I’m sure you knew the plan, right?”
He stared at me for a couple of seconds and shrugged. I watched as he pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and opened it slowly. He offered it to me, and I shook my head and wrinkled my nose.
“Cigarettes kill.”
“So do a lot of things,” he said as he pulled a cigarette out, put it in his mouth, and then pulled a lighter out of the box and lit it. He inhaled and then let out a long puff of smoke.
“Calms the nerves, you know?”
“Okay.” I shrugged, looking away from him.
I heard footsteps coming down the staircase, and I looked up. My heart flooded as Antonio walked into the room holding my belongings. I could see my phone in his hand.
“Hey,” he said. “Here’s your stuff.”
“Thank you.”
I grabbed it from him. Our fingers brushed for a couple of seconds, and I gasped and stood back. It had felt like an electric shock. I hated the fact that my body still reacted to this man.
“For what it’s worth, I didn’t want it to go down like this, Callie.”
“I know you didn’t,” I said, mocking him. “You wanted it to be so much worse. Are you upset that I’m not crying? Not bawling my eyes out? Are you upset that—”
“Callie,” he said, grabbing my hands. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what, Mr. Marchesi?”
“Don’t act this way.”
“How would you like me to act, Antonio?” I blinked at him. “What would you like me to say? Oh, I understand that you’re upset that my dad was having an affair with your mom, and I understand why you wanted to use me and take my virginity just to get revenge. Thanks.”
He pressed his lips together. “You’re acting like a kid, Callie.”
“I’m not a kid. I’m twenty-two years old.”
“When I say you’re a kid, I don’t mean you’re a kid, but you’re brave, you’re naive, you’re gullible. You believe in fairy tales and unicorns.”
“I don’t believe in unicorns.”
“Okay, so you don’t believe in unicorns, but you believe in happily ever afters. You believe in true love, and that is not how life works. And maybe I’ve helped you in some way.”
“What?” I started laughing. “How have you helped me?”
“Because maybe you’ll stop to trust your gut next time, your instinct. Maybe you’ll thank me for this.” He shook his head. “Maybe you won’t get involved with a bad boy again.”
All I could do was stare at him. Antonio Marchesi was well and truly an asshole.