I sat down slowly on one of the brightly coloured couches, the foreign lady handed me a plate with a generous slice of lemon cake and placed a teacup full of tea on the coffee table for me.
"Gracias," I smiled.
She waved her hand dismissively and sat down on a stool opposite me.
"Is it marriage?" She asked, hope filling her green eyes.
"It's more complicated than that," I offered a small smile but her face fell.
"It's always trouble with this family," she sighed and took a sip of her own tea. "Que el problema?"
"I.. I don't know how to say this," I sighed, putting down the plate with cake.
"Don't worry honey, whatever you say is nothing shocking to me and it is none of your fault, women always get tied up in Ricciardo business, curse of la familia," she gestured her slim hands around the house and turned to face me.
"Daniel attacked me in my own home, with a gun, he wanted to kill me-"
"With la pistola?" She asked, angrily.
"Ci," I continued, "my boyfriend luckily saved me, and i took Daniel to court, he's behind bars now, I'm sorry,"
The old lady shook her head in disappointment, "no, it is not your fault, I always knew he would grow up just like his padré,"
A few seconds of silence consulted her.
"His friends, Daniel's friends, they've captured my boyfriend and step farther, they threatened me, that if I don't get your son out of prison in 3 days, they will kill both of them," I told her, looking her straight in the eyes and not hesitating to tell her everything.
Her eyes widened with every word I spoke.
"And what day is it?"
"Today is the second day,"
She sighed. "Did a man call you?"
I nodded, confused at how she knew.
"Was his name la payback?" She questioned again.
I nodded once more.
"Jesucristo ayúdame," she muttered.
Translation: Jesus Christ help me
I looked down, saddened by the situation and continued to sip my tea.
"He is my husband, who I haven't seen in 5 years," she weakly told me, tears filling her eyes.
I reached over to her hand and squeezed it, feeling extremely sorry for her. "He hasn't seen my face for 5 years, and now that he is here, he doesn't even want to visit me," a tear ran down her cheek but she quickly wiped it away, sniffing and looking into my eyes. "I am sorry, but if you think I can convince the man to let your friends go, I can't, he doesn't listen to me, this is the way the mafia works," she whispered fiercely to me.
I stood up.
"Why do you stay here? When there is a world far better, where you can meet someone new and run away from your past?" I questioned her.
"You can't run away from the mafia," she acknowledged.
"Would you be sad if your husband died?" I felt awkward saying that, you'd think the response from anyone would automatically be of course yes, but she was different and no ordinary woman.
"Lord forgive me for saying this, but I would be just as pleased as sad,"
I nodded and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm so sorry," I told her, walking out of the house.
"No my darling, I'm so sorry,"
I got into Aiden's car and drove back to where I woke up.
-
I rang the bell to Aiden's apartment and looked at the clock in the hallway - 11am. One hell of a morning.
And as if things couldn't get more hectic, the person who opened the door was none other than Chase himself.
"Julia," he opened the door wider, allowing me to pass next to him.
I couldn't bring myself to say anything instead I looked around the dining area. The table was filled with papers, 3 laptops and test tubes. Zaria and Aiden were hunched over their laptops and so focused they didn't even realise I had stepped in.
I turned to face Chase, who was a lot closer to me than I thought which startled me.
I took a few steps back.
"Julia I'm here to help," he said calmly, "as much as I hate Justin, I'm doing this for you,"
"Um- thank you Chase," i quickly spoke.
"I never meant for what happened, to happen," he continued.
"Chase sorry, this is a really bad time."
I put my hand on Aiden's shoulder to get his attention.
"You went to meet the mother of a guy who tried to kill you in that?" He peered at my outfit selection.
Zaria finally looked up at me from her screen and raised her eyebrows.
"Its a look," she mocked.
I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge, before closing it realising that Aiden had nothing. White man's antics.
"How are you guys doing?" I asked.
"Chase will do it today, evening," Aiden informed.
I raised my eyebrows in shock.
"Today?" I repeated.
"If it was tomorrow it would be more obvious, the dead line and a guy advertising himself as a private chef on the same day? I don't think that's how the mafia rolls," Zaria mumbled.
I grabbed Aiden's phone and tapped in the domino's number.
"True," i agreed before ordering pizzas.
