Siciliano | [𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚 '365 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲']

𝐗𝐈𝐕.

That dreadful night, Laura stayed in the original room she had slept when she first arrived leaving Massimo to cool off his high. He took a swim once he learned she was impossible, clothes and all. The men looked on worriedly, witnessing this strange behavior with their own eyes. She went to bed angry with him. Betrayed. She knew it was all too good to be true.

She didn't expect to open her eyes and see Massimo sitting in a chair directly across from her. He was only in a pair of pajama pants, plucking at his bottom lip anxiously before his eyes looked at her motion into sitting position.

"Why the fuck are you here? Don't you have work or something?" She averted her gaze not wanting to look in his direction. It was just as he had feared. She was pissed.

Massimo dropped his hand into his lap, not sure of what to say, but perhaps he needed to keep it short and sweet. Not with the intentions of hurting her further, but with good reason.

"I shouldn't have taken you with me last night. I put you in danger and that was my fault. Finaldo warned me, and I didn't listen." Massimo stood up and swept his hand over his hair, cupping the back of his neck as he slowly walked around the outside of the bed. "Pack enough for a week. Or however long you might need. I'm sending you to Poland to stay with your parents for a little while."

Laura looked at him stunned. This would have been exactly what she needed if last night had gone a lot smoother, but they had things that needed to be sorted out. He couldn't just send her away in hopes she would forgive and forget.

"You coward. So that's how you solve problems? By sending them on vacation?" Laura threw off the sheets, then hung her legs over the edge about to storm after him, but she stayed in place, trying to think.

"I need you to take some time off and to think… think carefully if this is what you want." Massimo stopped and looked back. Laura looked at him from over her shoulder. He had become that monster it seemed. "I hurt you and that is not who I am. I can never take that back. You can cancel the flight back here whenever you want." Massimo turned his head and began to walk towards the door, but then stopped again.

She continued to watch him crane his head back a ways then straighten it back up again and he finally looked at her one more time with a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

"I love you."

Her tensioned brow relaxed and she continued to hold their gaze in what felt like infinity. He wanted it to be felt. To be known before she left that he was doing this in hopes she did return, but he would leave the choice up to her. There was a lot to think about after he left the room, and it left her wondering why he had to choose to say those important words now?

She didn't see him after that. Massimo left without so much as a goodbye, but she had a phone to call him if she ever wanted to hear his voice. A part of her wanted him to suffer a little more.

Something odd occurred however on the way to the airport that evening. Vito had driven with her in the passenger seat when he received a phone call and the silence was profound. He ended the call and had the driver pull over without saying a word to Laura, but she saw him running to the other vehicle that followed behind them. It spun in the dirt and flew the opposite direction making her wonder what happened. Something must have happened. To Massimo.

"Follow them." The guy looked in the rear view mirror, but understood nothing she said. Laura knit her brow and tried to call Vito. He didn't pick up. Massimo neither. She didn't have Finaldo's number. She was forced to sit there moving further away from her King not knowing if he was alright. Then again, it could have been something with Sara and his children. Hopefully not she thought, but it was none of her business whatever it was.