Falling Angel | a Mafia Story

Chapter XXV

"In this world full of people, there's one killing me,

And if we only die once, I wanna die with you"

Even after a couple of days had passed, the memory of that night still sent electric shivers through my body, my skin remembering the ghosts of his fingers trailing my skin, my lips almost able to feel his hungry kiss.

My body was aching for more of his touch, as soon as Antonio had dropped me off at my flat on Sunday. We had decided it would be best if I went back to my own life for now, focus on my new post as chief resident of oncology before making any decisions regarding whatever it was Antonio and I had.

But one thing became very apparent the first night I slept alone in my bed. I was not only missing his body, no, I felt terribly lonely without his presence next to me... I was missing his laugh, that over the last days had surfaced more and more, I was missing his words, that had always managed to make my heart flutter in the best way possible... In short, I was missing him.

I was slowly but surely falling for a man that had been taught his entire life that to love means to show weakness and that there was no place for weakness in the life that he lived.

But as soon as the week started my scattered mind didn't even get the chance to think about the matter any further, completely preoccupied by the busy routine of my new life. The hectic and exhausting atmosphere of the hospital ward felt familiar, and I was relieved to find myself immersed back into it as if I had never left.

By the end of the week the life that I had lived under Antonio's roof seemed far away and almost like a hazy dream, so I felt a little nervous to go back to it. Antonio and I had planned to spend the weekend together and as I rummaged through my chest of drawers to pack a small bag of necessities, I found myself trembling with jittery excitement.

Antonio was meant to pick me up later that afternoon and I was running around my flat like a lunatic trying to get ready without really knowing what I was getting ready for.

I almost jumped out of my skin as I heard a knock on the door, checking the time to find that he was early, but with a bright smile I ripped the door open, my body aching to be near him again.

But the smile froze on my face as I was greeted by a barrel of a gun aimed at my chest.

Shit!

Behind it I hovered an unfamiliar face, but the amber eyes that were sneering from within it were unmistakably those of a Caressio, and my stomach twisted as the man stepped closer, ushering me backwards until he closed the door behind him, without once taking his cold eyes off of me.

"Scusi, bella, I don't mean to intrude" the stranger mused with feigned politeness dripping from his voice, his eyes travelling over my trembling body with knitted brows, "but I simply had to see for myself who is responsible for my dear son's uncharacteristic behaviour."

"Who are you?" I croaked, because even though deep in my bones I already knew the answer to the question, I desperately clung onto a feeble hope to be mistaken.

The man chuckled; deep wrinkles drawn over his weathered face that had seen one too many Italian summers. "I forgot to introduce myself," he pondered with a humoured expression as he saw the terror on my face, "how very rude of me."

He stepped even closer, making me back away further until we stood in my living room, the light from the large windows now fully illuminating his face and I could not deny the painful familiarity of his facial features.

"Don Caressio," he explained with a casual tone to his voice, as if we had bumped into each other on the street and were having a small chat. "And you must be the long-lost daughter of Silvano D'Angelo?"