The Mafia's Queen

|Ch 31| The Mafia's Queen

Star-crossed 

Although dinner with Anthony was amazing Stephanie felt out of place sitting in this grand and very luxurious restaurant. It was not somewhere she was comfortable being at, and Anthony could tell.

 But she wouldn't tell him anything... 

She didn't want to hurt his feelings for going out of his way to bring her to this beautiful restaurant just for her. Stephanie had never felt more guilty in her entire life for faking her enjoyment thought dinner, pretending to be in love with him and what he was telling her. 

She wishes she could forget Estephano just for two hours so she can genuinely enjoy her time with Anthony. But he was always in the back of her mind. 

Forgetting him was inevitable...

Anthony tried to help make Stephanie comfortable and she was grateful for him even if it only worsen things. 

Anthony broke the silence between them with small chatter but Stephanie was not into it and would hum and nod. Her eyes focused out into the distance and he could see the pain inside them everytime they made contact with him. 

It broke his heart to see her this way and it crushed him completely when he realized he could not end her pain. 

That was how the majority of dinner was spent that night. 

It was just Anthony talking Stephanie's ears off while she thought of Estephano and how she had messed up her chances with him because of the fear she had that her father would disown her.

Just the thought of him marrying another very soon caused her stomach to rumble in uneasiness and it made eating her pasta impossible. 

Her worst fear once was losing her father but now that was nothing compared to the thought of Estephano marrying another that was not her. 

She so badly wanted to turn the clock to restart that fateful day and do things differently. 

Maybe then she would be happy in Estephano's arms and she wouldn't be sitting here feeling guilty for wasting  Anthony's time and love. It was not fair to anyone. 

Fate was one cruel bastard for playing them all like this, for playing her like this.

Twirling her fork around the noddles as she listened to Anthony tell her of the time he had stopped a bank robbery while he was on his day off she couldn't make herself listen to him like she had done the other times earlier, she was bored and really tired of this date already.

She just wanted to sleep and forget everything wrong in her life.  

'I'm not ready to move on...' She thinks sadly as she smiles somberly at Anthony only to stiffen again when she feels eyes bore into her back like she had felt many times throughout dinner but this time it was near impossible to ignore it. 

Fear coursed through her being just thinking about the man from the park. The man that killed her mother. The same man who promised he would hurt her eventually. 

She almost turned around to see if it really was the man on the hunt for her but she did not want to find out. Curiosity always killed the cat and she was not ready to die just yet. She wanted to tell Estephano she was sorry for everything she did, for giving up on them. But most importantly she wanted to make sure he knew she loved him before she ever took her last breath. 

To ignore the eerie feeling of eyes on her Stephanie looked at Anthony hoping his story would keep her mind off things and It worked. 

Maybe it was the fear of that the man realized she knew he was here that made her chattery but whatever the case was Stephanie soon found herself slowly opening up to Anthony and when she was going to add her own comment their waiter had shown up with the cheek.