Unraveling Him | A mafia Story

Chapter 58 - It's been long overdue

"War is a slippery slope;
What would you do?
becomes,
What will you do?
becomes,
My god, what have you done?"

**********************

Emma's POV

"Ma'am, are you okay?" One of the guards inquired in concern as I approached the mansion's main gate.

My eyes glanced down at the blood splattered over my shirt, and I nodded, "Not my blood." It was rarely ever my blood.

Relief washed over his face, and he took a respectful step backward, pressing his finger to his earpiece to announce my presence. As I made my way toward the mansion, my steps slowed down, getting heavier as they carried the weight of the tumultuous storms brewing within me.

Yet, amid my internal struggle, a looming darkness persisted, intensified by Isaac's fucked up words, those that kept echoing in my head over and over again. His presence flipped my world upside down. The few sentences we shared, left me grappling with the motive behind his unsettling disclosure.

What did he mean?

The vast land unfolded before me and despite the shadows that now danced in my thoughts, I couldn't muster the hatred this place might deserve.

I could never hate it here. It's my home.

It's my only home.

The only place I felt a sense of belonging to.

In every nook and cranny, Roman and I had left traces of our shared memories, intertwining our tainted past with our now-corrupted present.

As the memories threatened to resurface, I consciously shook them off and crossed the threshold into the mansion, only to come halting to a sudden stop. The man who consumed all of my sanity was right there, inside, in our home, no, in my home.

He doesn't have a place in my home anymore.

My gaze fixated on Roman, as he paced around, anxiousness and worry radiated from him as he engaged in a heated conversation with Nikolas, one that my brother responded to with a couple of glares and a roll of his eyes.

My sudden appearance caught their attention. Roman's head whipped to the entrance and his eyes widened. Before I could take my next breath, he was in my face, his arms wrapping around me tightly, pulling me to his warm beautiful embrace and I froze.

"Emma, what happened?" He asked, breathless as he edged backward. He cupped my face between his hands, his eyes caressing me with such tenderness, it...it left me speechless, "We went to the precinct, and they said Isaac took you," Lines etched between his eyebrows as he looked all over me, trying to search for any sign of harm, "What happened? Are you okay?"

My hand went up, resting over his and I pried it off me, "What are you doing here?" I said, my cold tone a total contradiction to everything he makes me feel. I took a step backward, building necessary distance between us and I shook my head, "I don't want you here."

My instant rejection and the hostility radiating off me in waves intensified the lost look in his eyes, the softness in them tearing at the seemingly indestructible barrier around my chest, ripping at this stupid thing they call a heart, this stupid muscle thought it could do more than just pump blood and look at where we are now...

"Emma, can't you see it," He said, taking a step forward, diminishing every distance I built, obliterating the carefully built walls, "She is doing all of this on purpose," I know she is, she got me arrested for god's sake, but still, it doesn't mean she faked those pictures too. They were real. He would do it. He did it.