Mafia Betrayal

Chapter Fifty One

Charlotte

Luca's reaction caught me completely off guard, and I wasn't even sure how to respond. He left me standing in the middle of the square, stalking off to the car on his own, and I wasn't ready to go after him.

Why the hell would he lie to me about something like that? He knew absolutely everything about me, and to lie to me about his father felt like a slap in the face. I knew it was a sensitive subject for him, and it was probably hard to talk about, but that was all he had to say. If he had just told me that there was nothing good about their relationship and left it at that, we could have avoided this entire mess. Instead, he lied, and I'd planned the world's worst surprise.

I'd never seen him quite like this before, and I didn't know how to help. Apparently, I had severely underestimated Luca's feelings about his father. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea it was bad enough to warrant a reaction like this. I had seen him angry before. I thought I'd seen him as angry as he could get. This was different though, it wasn't so much anger as it was pain.

I figured he needed a few minutes to cool off, and I wasn't all that excited about the conversation that would ensue when we met back up. Instead of heading back, I made my way down to the water's edge. It was crowded tonight and there were all kinds of people exploring the town. There was live music, and the sky was peppered with stars. I loved how clear it was here—it felt like you could see every star in the sky. It was a beautiful night, and it was a shame we couldn't enjoy it together.

Both Carmen and my mom told me that his father was a terrible man, but Luca didn't share any of the details. My heart broke for him. I couldn't imagine what he was going through, and I hated that he felt like he had to lie to me about it. All I wanted was to support him like he supported me, but maybe I just needed to give him time to come to me on his own. The last thing I wanted to do was dredge up old wounds, so I just had to trust that he would talk to me about it if he wanted to.

Having wasted enough time walking along the shore, I turned back and headed to find Luca.

Before I knew what was happening, something hit me in the head. I fell to the ground, grabbing at the wound, already dripping blood. What the hell was going on? I felt a hand on my shoulder, rolling me onto my side, and two blurry faces appeared above me. I opened my mouth to speak as they dragged me across the cement and then everything went black.

Luca

I sat on the hood of the car with my arms folded over my chest, feeling like an absolute fool. I had no one to blame for this but myself. Charlotte was only trying to help, and it wasn't her fault that I hadn't told her the truth about my father. It was hard for me to talk about, but that didn't mean I had to lie. I took the easy way out, and now I was paying for it.

Charlotte didn't follow me to the car, and she was probably walking around the festival right now feeling terrible. I needed to find her and apologize and find a way to fix this. If there was anyone in the world I could open up to about my father, it was Charlotte, and it wouldn't excuse my behavior, but maybe she'd understand where I was coming from a little more.

When I got back to the square, it was even busier than before. A show or concert must have let out and now swarms of people were walking through vendors and dancing at the festival. It was going to be a battle to find her. I started my search, walking up and down each of the rows, and when I came up empty, I decided to call her.

Her phone rang twice and then went to voicemail.

Char, I'm sorry. I'm an asshole. Please call me back.

I kept on walking, but the longer it went on, the more worried I became. Why wasn't she calling me back? Was she really that pissed off? It wasn't like her to just disappear, and if her phone died, she would have just come back to the car.