The Mafia's Flower (ON HOLD)

Chapter Thirteen

Bags.

Heavy, weighty bags.

Those were what greeted my bright glorious morning as they paraded themselves as thin dark circles underneath my eyes. They were so heavy, I could barely keep my eyes open. I'd stayed up all night, tossing and turning in my sleep from nightmares I couldn't even remember once I woke up around 2 in the morning. I just knew I didn't want to go back to sleep and face them. But I knew they had something to do with my father. Something bad, I just hoped he wasn't in trouble. I'd never had a bad dream about him before, but last night's was disturbing. I jarred awake with my forehead damp from sweat and my heart rate skyrocketed. And the worst part was I couldn't even remember what the dream was about. I forced myself to stay awake and stared out my window till the first sign of sunrise.

"Good morning, beautiful." The familiar yet silvery voice beckoned to me from across the hall as I made my way down the huge stairs.

I looked up to find the tall, handsome man, who was dressed in a casual blue shirt with its sleeves folded up by the sides and his long legs hidden behind the dark long trousers he wore. He held a notepad in his arm as he looked down at me through his rectangular shaped Cartier glasses, a smile warming up to his lips in the process that I almost gawked in awe. How did he always manage to look flawlessly stunning, even without trying? And then realisation fell upon me when I realised who it was that greeted me by this time of the day.

"Michael?" I blinked, doubting my eyes. "What are you doing here?" I tried to remember the time of the day again.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I live here." He stated, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"I know..." I rolled my eyes. "It's just, you're mostly at work by this time. I was only wondering—" Seeing him around now was weird but it didn't mean I wasn't glad.

"Yeah, I know. I decided to work from home today. Almost like a mini day-off." He leaned on the rail, his grey obsidian eyes staring right at me. "You're not happy I'm around?"

"What?" I blinked. "No, no. Of course not. Quite the opposite actually." I cleared my throat and looked away, as I felt the blood rise to my cheeks again.

I heard Michael chuckle before he began making his way into his study. He stopped midway before speaking again. "What time does Abel get here?" His tone sounded a bit deeper. I'd almost forgotten about Abe coming over. Was I that tired?

"I don't know. He said he'd be late today."

"Oh. I see." And with that, he disappeared behind the glass doors of his study. I frowned.

I wanted to go in there and be with him, but I knew he would be working and I didn't want to bother him. But a part of me was still glad that he was much closer than usual, at least, physically. The thought of Michael just being upstairs and not far away in the city was calming and made me jittery on the inside. I didn't even know when I was no longer feeling sleepy.

I made my way downstairs and met Matt preparing some kind of soup in the kitchen. "Whatchu making?" I asked, pulling out a high stool from under the counter and jumping on it.

"Oh! Fiona. Good morning." Matt smiled at me, the little wrinkled lines beside his eyes showing for a split second.

"Good morning, Matt." I smiled back, admiring his short blonde hair. I sometimes wished I had blonde hair instead of the deep brown hair I inherited from my dad. But whenever I remembered that it was probably the only similarity I would ever share with Michael, the wish dissipated into thin air. "Where's everyone?" I asked, noticing how quiet everywhere seemed. Although, this was how it was on a daily.