ARIEL
"You're scared of me." His face twists in disbelief. My heart stings.
"I- I have to go Griffin. I can't be here." I shake my head. "Please let me go." I sniffle.
"You can walk out of here, whenever you want. But let me explain." His own frown deepens.
"What is there to explain?" I ask. "Everyone lied to me! Everyone made a bloody fool out of me and I didn't do anything but blindly believe them." I cry. "You- I trusted you and I thought I knew you. But I don't. I don't even know me! My parents lied to me my entire life. You have no idea what that feels like." I sob.
Hi expression is pained.
"I did not lie. I kept it from you and I understand that that was wrong and fucked up but I was going to tell you. I wanted to tell you." he stresses.
"Why didn't you tell me Zio Marco came to you? Asked you stop seeing me?" I ask him. His expression turns malicious.
"That was before we ever started anything. We'd only kissed, it was the day after Alana's party at our house. I didn't think anything of it. He doesn't mean shit." He grits.
"Do I mean something?" I question. His face softens.
"You do. You know you do, micetta." He says softly, cautiously walking closer.
"What is the Mafia? What do you do? What does it mean to be an Underboss?" I ask.
"The Mafia is an organization. We are Italy. We run the country and our influence runs deeper far out of Europe. We deal in weapons, luxury goods, art. Anything and everything one can trade. We have generations of enemies. And generations of allies." he starts off.
"The Moretti's have been in power for more than a Century and my father is the Don right now." He explains. "My brother Ares is the Don in training. Being an Underboss means I am the second most powerful player in the Mafia. I have power over anything and everything." He admits.
"You kill people." No matter how hard I tried, that was the only thing I could focus on.
"I do. I am not a moral man, tempesta. Nothing I do is moral and I am far from being perfect. My heritage requires me to be ruthless and swift in my work. I won't pretend or sugarcoat this. I always have a gun on me. And it takes a millisecond of incompetence to piss me off enough to blow someones kneecaps." I flinch at that.
Ew.
"If you asked me, I wouldn't have lied. And I understand that you have no reason to believe me but I was going to tell you today." he finishes.
"I don't know what to do." I whisper. His eyes soften further.
"I understand. You need your space. Just know, you are the only person in my life I talk to this way. The only one I would lay myself bare infront of like this, just so I can have a sliver of a chance to keep you."
My heart stings.
"I don't know who I am." I whisper. "I wasn't even born where they told me I was born." I laugh bitterly. He looks at me, his expression sympathetic. My eyes blur with fresh tears. "I am so stupid" I cry.
"Don't cry, baby." He sounds defeated. I wipe away the tears. His fists are clenched to his sides, as if holding back.
"How? I feel so alone. I feel like a child. Every single family member I know thinks of me as an impressionable, naive person and I feel ashamed just being around them." I cry harder.
He isn't my biggest issue. He didn't keep something from me for years. Yes he withheld a part of his life but he isn't my father. He isn't even my boyfriend right now.
Yet at this moment, he is the only person I can think of, who I feel safe with.
I look at him, his eyes trace my tears as they fall. His warmth, his security. Everything he has to give is so comforting. So what if he's in a Mafia? He's never tried to hurt me. He's never even raised his voice, even when he doesn't agree with me.
Bottom line is, I like him now. And he's the only, truly pure relationship I have right now. And I am just so tired of running from myself, my feelings. I never let myself indulge. And I deserve it now, more than ever.
I take a small step towards him, he looks at me with so much hope in his eyes, my heart cracks. And so does any resistance I retained, and I run into his arms, tightly hugging his middle.
He wraps his strong arms around me, engulfing me in his safe warmth.
"I don't want you to lie to me." I mumble against his muscles.
"I won't. Never again, I promise." He presses a kiss to my hair.
I sniffle against him.
"I was scared you would just say something like 'Yeah I don't care what you think' and leave." I tell him. He pulls me back to look at my face.
"Why would you think that?" He asks.
"Zio kept saying you didn't want to be with me. You were just looking for 'a good time' " I cringe.
"He wouldn't be alive if he wasn't related to you." His dark eyes make me shiver.
"Stop that. I, I'm gonna need some time to process before we can joke about that." I shudder.
"Okay." he squeezes me. "But I wasn't joking."
Oh dear.
