"And where exactly are you headed to? Surely not to pick a fight with whoever hit your brother... right?"
I felt my face heat up from the accurate accusation and shook my head slowly.
"N-No-"
"Your first words to me are lies?" He clicked his tongue...
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"When my name gets called I need you to excuse yourself to the restroom, alright?" Ezra whispered to me once the lady on stage began singing in a different language. I looked at him confusedly, "Why? I want to see your initiation."
"Because my initiation includes me doing things I don't want you to see. I don't want you to be frightened by me and I don't want you to see me like that. I'm saying please," he said, looking at me with pleading eyes and I felt my stomach churn from nerves again.
"Okay," I said meekly as my phone began buzzing. I looked down at it and seen Willow was calling me, but maybe it was an accident. It hung up just as the woman's song stopped and a man I had never seen before walked up to the stage, microphone in hand.
"I need the family of Ezra Eitan Fortgang De Luca to come to the stage," the man announced and Ezra squeezed my hand, nodding to the restroom exit. I nodded just as my phone began to buzz once more.
I got up and walked to the back of the room where the door led to the hallway. I walked into the hallway and rested my back against the wall as I answered the phone. She was breathing heavily into the phone, moaning in the back. My eyes widened in realization and I quickly cut the call.
"Oh, no," I groaned, taking my mask off and putting my face into my hands with an embarrassed laugh. I dialed Benny's number and before it could ring, I got an incoming call from Willow again. I sighed, answering it and secretly praying that whatever she was doing with my brother was finished.
"Oh, God, Stefan, that feels so good," Willow moaned and I gasped, dropping my phone and shattering the screen.
"Well, that's a shame. That was a good phone, too," I heard that eerily familiar husky voice say from down the hall. I stopped in my tracks, not wanting to lift my head and face him.
No. Not now. Not after I'm finally okay. Not after I finally put together the pieces that he broke. Not after I finally found someone who makes me happy and loves me as much as I love him. Not after I can finally sleep without the nightmares of him. Not after I can finally shower without crying. Not after I can finally fall for someone else without feeling guilty. Not after I'm finally happy.
"No," I whispered to myself as my breath caught in my throat.
"No? I thought it was a good phone," he chuckled menacingly and I felt my freshly manicured fingernails dig into my palms so hard that I was drawing blood. My heart was palpitating in my chest so hard that I was sure it was going to jump from my ribcage and skin.
I looked up and my eyes met him, letting me know that this wasn't a nightmare. It was real and he was here.
Matteo Salvatore is standing in front of me with a sickly sweet smile expanding across his face.
He began walking towards me and I stumbled backward, trying to get away from him, "N-No! Don't come any closer to me! You stay right wh-where you are!"
He stopped in his tracks and put his hands up in surrender, mocking me.
"If you didn't come here for me then why are you here?" He asked and I fought back the angry tears threatening to spill from my eyes when I saw my phone vibrating on the floor. He chuckled and grabbed it before I could. He answered the phone on speaker, "Hello, Willow. Nice to talk to you again."
"What the fuck?" I heard Stefan whisper in the background before I heard him snatch the phone from Willow's hands, "Where is my sister? What did you do to her?!"
"Nothing... yet," he smirked at me and I felt my heart drop. I did the only sane thing I could think to do, I ran back into the ballroom where I watched the man on the stage scream at Ezra, "You have to do it! This is your initiation, De Luca!"
Ezra's fists were balled up and he had angry tears in his eyes as he wiped his fist in the air that I quickly came to realize was holding a knife. I gasped, my hands covering my mouth as the man in front of Ezra fell to his knees, holding his sliced throat with blood squirting all over the floor.
Ezra looked back towards the door and his eyes widened. Everyone in the building began clapping and Ezra ran off of the stage towards me, "Samantha-"
"She just saw how disgusting of a man you are. Why do you think I protected her from everything?" Matteo chuckled from behind me as the ball turned on the music and people began dancing again before the crowning of the Capo Crimine.
Ezra's face scrunched up into a disgusted look, "Step away from her, Salvatore."
"And why would I step away from what's rightfully mine?" Matteo said and I turned around, looking up at him, "I am not yours nor will I ever be yours again. I never want to see your face again. I never want to breathe the same air as you again. I never want to be associated with the Matteo Salvatore name again."
His face hardened at my words as he gripped my wrist and yanked me into the hallway. I yelped in surprise and pain at his force before he fell to the floor after Ezra's fist came across his face.
"I said step away from her, you fucking asshole!" Ezra snarled and Matteo laughed as he lied on the ground, rolling around to stand to his feet, "I'm the asshole?"
He continued laughing, "I'm the asshole but yet here you are with another man's girl-"
"I am not your property and I am not yours," I mustered up confidently and he looked at me with a serious look before walking over to me, "Then why are you still living in my house? Why are you still driving my cars? Why are you still talking to the people who you didn't know existed before me?"
"Because they're no longer yours!" I screamed, my chest heaving up and down as Matteo's face turned angrier, but I didn't stop, "You signed the house over to Gino after you lied and left me! You put your brother's name on the titles of all of your vehicles, including your jet! Those people? They put me back together after you left. I am not your girl. I will never be your girl again."
"You'll be mine again when I'm crowned Capo Crimine tonight. Just you watch. I'll have power and influence oozing from my fingertips," he smirked as he stepped closer, and then Ezra stepped in between us, "You either walk away or you limp away. Your choice, Salvatore."
The two men were at each other's noses. Each the same height, each the same buffed, each the same powerful.
Matteo stepped so close to Ezra that their noses were almost touching before Matteo did the worst thing he could've done to a man who is already pissed.
