Twisted Revenge by A.ZChaudhry

Chapter 23

ALESSIO

I laid in bed, my arms behind my head as I stared at the ceiling. There was this damp thickness in the air, very heavy, humid and dense. Although there were only two people in the room, and the room was vast as hell, but it still seemed as if....as if I was suffocating. As if hands were clawing around my neck, slowly tightening it enough to not let me breathe but also to not let me die.

Fucking brutal.

I glanced at Avelina's lying form on the sofa to see her breathing not so even, easily giving it away that she was awake. I stared back at the ceiling when something stirred within me. I couldn't explain, couldn't give a title to it, nor could I visually represent it if I wanted to. Taking in a deep breath and letting it calm myself down, I found myself grabbing my cigarette. I lit it and the slight sudden shift in Avelina's body upon the sound told me she was awake.

I wrapped my lips around the cigarette and took a massive inhale, the smoke filling my lungs, blocking all air passages when I let the smoke out. I took another whiff when I called out to her as I kept one arm behind my head and my eyes trained to the roof, "Next time you snoop around somebody's office, it's foolish practice to check more than two things at once. Ideally, keep your focus on one, check it thoroughly and then place it back at where it is to make sure that you aren't caught. Going haywire crazy on the whole office at once, for a newbie, will obviously cause you to get caught. The enemies wouldn't spare any inch of your fucking skin ifthey were the subject of your snooping around."

She remained silent for a few when her small voice came out, full of nothing but lies and deceit, "I didn't snoop around your office."

Inhaling another smoke, I watched the heaviness of the smoke leave my mouth when I responded, "Learn to lie, it comes in handy."

She didn't say anything then when she spoke after a few minutes, "I'm sorry."

I smashed the empty cigarette bud in the ashtray and turned my back to her to go to sleep.

FIVE MONTHS LATER

ALESSIO

The mafia was running smoothly, my father was getting weaker day by day, my sister had had her baby and Liliana was mad as hell for the new addition as the attention got divided. She often had her mood sour as fuck and would only get better when her father would get her ice cream and spend an hour with her, roaming aimlessly on the streets. One hour turned to two and then to three and once, I had accompanied her on the ride outside. One look at that little one and I knew why she preferred this over staying at home.

The roads calmed her down. The passing of cars, the wheezing of air currents that couldn't be heard, the sunset, the slow darkening of the sky....it calmed her down. And we all did everything to make sure she was okay.

My mother was close to serving my head off for not allowing them to come to my place to meet my new wife and I was sure I'll lose it someday. Avelina was.....okay, I guess? I avoided her at all costs, she was still sleeping on the sofa, we didn't talk much, and I still couldn't get over insulting her. It surely had lessened but not stopped.

Cassio had left the country for two months to go on vacations as I had allowed. He had a boyfriend and first, I wasn't allowing him to leave because of mafia business. But when he shrugged his shoulders and started unzipping his pants, motioning for me to do the same was when I kicked him out of this country for two months. Annoying.

Since Cassio wasn't around yet, I slowly forgot about whatever he had said about being nice and lovey dovey shit with Avelina and so? Things had gotten bad again. I would usually insult her and not care about it much. She would sometimes retaliate back and either I would verbally make her shutup or if she crossed some lines? Force had to be used.