Fatalé (18+)

Chapter thirty nine

Ilaria

It's been a week since I've spoken to Santos, and it's also been a week since I've seen Nico.

I've had enough of just sitting around, waiting to hear from Nico as that's what he said would happen. I don't know where he is, the last thing I remember him saying was that he's leaving for Italy for the auction that's going to take place on Friday, which is three days away. Since then, Nico has gone incognito.

I could visit his condo, which is what I've been debating on for the past week. But when I headed over there today, I was disappointed to not find him there. It seemed like he hasn't even been in his own home for a couple of days, and I curse under my breath at him as I walk up my flight of stairs to my apartment, for leaving without saying a word. Nico has his concerns, that if he saw me again after last week, I'd insist and get on that plane with him and fly to Italy to get Santos, but I also had my own concerns. Though Santos is his son, and he has every right to take him back, I felt apprehensive about it all because it felt that Nico was being too irrational. That's a fact Nico doesn't want to talk about or even accept because all he thinks he is doing is protecting me from something that's already corrupted me.

As I climb the last stair, I halt in my steps when I turn my head and face an unexpected visitor. A visitor I've been studying immensely in the last week.

My heart races, not out of anger but out of apprehension because the tension between the stare was so intense. Though I've been studying and watching him more than I ever have on any other person in this last week, an encounter so soon wasn't something I was expecting or something I was even prepared for. I envisioned a gun in my hand, pulling that trigger so the bullet lodges straight between his eyes, not this. What is he doing here? My stomach turns as I face him now, knowing exactly what he's capable of and what he's been hiding from me for the last eight years, and it only made my anger and rage rush back to me all at once.

"Hey..." Alfonso greets. He stands in front of my door to my condo with his hand in his pockets. He takes one hand out and runs it through his hair. A sincere smile spreads across his lips as he begins to study me, making every nerve in my body freeze. My feet wouldn't move, I was consumed with shock to have him here at my condo in New York, when I remembered Alfonso and Ricardo both agreed that none of them would visit me like this. It was too dangerous.

"What... what are you doing here, Alfonso?" I ask, cautiously wandering my eyes around as I turn my head to look for anyone lurking behind me. My instinct thought someone would be behind me, ready to attack but perhaps I'm thinking far too ahead of myself when I see nobody there. Alfonso watches me from that small distance, and when I was satisfied that there wasn't anyone else here other than Alfonso, I trust my instinct and move. My feet finally move as I walk towards him, to my door.

"It's been three long months Ilaria, three. You've stopped contact with us, you want to tell me what's going on?" He asks. I clench my jaw and glare up at him, hoping he'd somehow just drop dead but he doesn't. I couldn't decipher that he's be capable of lying to me like this, after promising me a lifetime of safety and security. I push past him and reach my door, and I felt him so close to me. "Ilaria?"

"Alfonso, go back to Seattle. I don't want you here." I mutter, "Go, before I kill you."

Alfonso chuckles behind me and my jaw clenches. He really thought I wouldn't go ahead and kill him, as if it hasn't been on my mind for the last couple of months. He reaches for my shoulder and turns me around. I move back, as far as possible from him because I didn't trust him. Alfonso didn't need to be told this, he can see it for himself. When I'm pressed against the door, Alfonso admires me with a smile on his lips. He reaches closer to me and he uses his fingers to lift my chin up just so I can look at him.