5 #2
Underneath the tissue paper there’s the softest sweater and pants I ever felt.
I look at Elio, and he looks a little smug.
I take the box into my bathroom and wash my face, brush my hair and then I put on the sweater and pants.
The size is just right, and the material feels like clouds kissing my skin.
It’s burgundy with a little rib in the fabric.
The sweater looks a bit oversized, but it fits just right and hangs off my shoulder.
I put my hair in a simple braid and in the back of my closet I find white sneakers to complete the look.
When I step into the living room Elio is still standing in the place I left him.
“How do I look?”
“Comfy, I guess. Looks like the boss has a great eye for your size.”
I roll my eyes at him.
“Ready to go, Miss?”
“I just need to grab my phone and keys.”
I grab them from the dining room table and motion Elio to leave the apartment.
I take another glance around the apartment and shut off the lights.
Just as I’m about to close the door a red-light flickers in my eyes.
Probably just kids playing with lasers across the street.
It happens all the time. I lock the door and follow Elio out to the car.
He holds open the back door and I slide in .
Within half an hour we’re back on Ocean Avenue and Elio drives the car into the underground garage.
This time Alessia isn’t waiting for me in the elevator. I take the elevator to the third floor and Elio leaves me on the first floor. Guess I don’t need him as a buffer then? When the elevator doors slide open laughter reaches my ears.
I peek around and see Alessia with a young man and woman sitting on the couch.
They’re all in comfy outfits, chatting and laughing.
I scratch my throat. Alessia quickly stands up and holds out her hand.
No sign of the fierce businesswoman I saw earlier today.
It’s like she’s two different people. What the fuck is going on?
The man and woman stand as well and walk up to me together with Alessia.
“Harper! This are my brother, Lorenzo, and my sister Bella.”
Lorenzo gives me a wink and a nod and Bella pulls me in for a hug. Over her shoulder I look at Alessia with stunned surprise. She just smiles at me. When Bella lets me go, I say, “I thought we would be alone tonight.” More a statement than a question.
“Yes, you are…” Bella answers, “We were just on our way out!”
Alessia quickly hugs her brother and sister and they both step into the elevator.
I look at Alessia, my face cold.
“Talk. Now.”
“I kno w you came here for answers, and you will get them, but I need wine for this conversation. So, if you don’t mind.”
I walk after her to the kitchen where she pours us both a glass of red wine. Alessia takes a sip and lets out a sigh. I just stare at my glass and back at her.
“You want to know the truth? You want to know about me and my life?”
“Yes.”
“Even if that means you won’t ever be truly safe again?”
I hesitate but answer, “Yes.”
“Okay, then let’s have a seat.”
I walk over to one of the chairs by the couch and choose to sit in one of those instead of the couch. I don’t want to be too close to her. This is not a date. Alessia takes a seat on the floor, knees pulled up and the glass of wine swirling in her hand on her lap.
“Okay as you know I lived in Italy with my father and mother. My mother became sick when I was only two years old and died when I was almost three. My father was heartbroken, his beautiful Maria was taken away from him too early. He became a shell of the man he once was. As the head of the family, he had a duty to carry on the legacy of the DiSanti family and pass this onto his children. Me especially, in this case. To have a better chance of building our legacy my father decided to make more frequent trips to Los Angeles. Here he could expand his empire and make allies with other families to do so.”
“What empire?” I interrupt.
“Hold on, I’ll get to that. This is hard enough for me so please don’t interrupt me.”
“When I was five my father met my stepmother and a year later, they got married. My stepmother was the definition of an evil stepmother. She hated me, she hated that my father taught me everything about the business. Especially after Lorenzo was born. In her eyes, he was the eldest son and therefore the rightful heir to my father’s legacy.
She started abusing me, at first verbally and when I was older, she started with physical abuse.
She would lock me up in my room when my father was out of town, and I wouldn’t get food for days.
My father wasn’t home often so he had no idea what was going on at home.
When I reached the age of twelve my stepmother thought I was suitable enough to entertain her male friends, because I was ‘my father’s heir’ after all.
When I was barely eighteen, I became pregnant thanks to one of her little parties. ”
Emotion pricks my eyes as I see Alessia’s tears are quietly gliding down her cheeks. The hurt is written all over her face, even sixteen years later.
“Go on…” I croak.
“At ten weeks pregnant I got an abortion in secret. Nobody knew back then. Nobody but my grandparents, they helped me through it all. I started resenting my father because he didn’t see what his wife did to me and when I wanted to talk to him, he never had the time. Business always came first.
“And the guy who made you pregnant? Where is he now?”
“I don ’t know… I’ve been searching for him since I was eighteen, but I never found him.
I know he’s still alive though, that much I do know.
Every year he sends me a gift, as a sick and twisted reminder of that day sixteen years ago.
Now with my father’s death he has free range to try to get close to me again. ”
“Is that who died yesterday? Did your father die?”
“Yes, which makes my life even more complicated. Come on, I need to show you something.” Alessia stands and holds out her hand to me.
I don’t take her hand, but I stand and follow her through the hallway.
Artwork lines the walls and she guides me to a door at the right end of the hallway.
Out of her pocket she takes a key and opens the door.
“Are you taking me to your dungeon?”
Alessia chuckles. “Yeah, something like that.”
The door opens and soft lighting fills the room. This room is painted all black. Monitors hang on one wall and on the wall to the left a giant painting of a naked woman holding a gun hangs on the wall. In the center of the room stands a big glass desk and a few chairs.
“Welcome to my office.”
“So, it’s safe to say you’re not a nurse then?”
“I am, but it’s something I do because I want to, for experience and to get out of this house every once in a while.”
I walk around the room and take a seat in the chair by the desk, probably her chair. She takes a seat across from me.
“My fa ther started the DiSanti business. It started small, with trading goods and shipping them overseas. My father recruited a lot of Italian men and when his following was big enough, he ventured outside of Italy to Los Angeles. Even though I had a lot of issues with the old bastard I knew that it all would be mine one day. That day is now.”
“But you still haven’t told me what you do.” My impatience is growing.
Alessia sighs and puts her head in her hands and mumbles something.
“What did you say?”
“I’m a mafia princess.”
Alessia
The room is quiet. I tilt my head up ever so slightly and look over my desk to Harper. Even as baffled as she is right now, she still looks gorgeous in my chair. Her eyes dart from side to side as if she’s trying to put together the puzzle in that pretty head.
“Y-Y-You’re a what?”
“I’m a mafia princess, or well actually I’m going to take over my father’s place in a few days so then I’ll be the Queen of the DiSanti family. Technically speaking.”
“So… You’ll be the head of an Italian mob family?”
“Yes.”
She stays quiet again.
“Why a re you telling me all of this?”
“Because you wanted the truth. And I want you. If there’s ever the possibility for you to fall in love with me, I need to be honest with you.”
I look at her beautiful face, the face that’s already carved into my memory, a permanent place for her and her alone.
“Sometimes you need to sacrifice everything you know, everything you have for a possibility… For someone. Just to have the slightest chance to stand in their light.”
I feel the weight of my words hang between them, the tension crackling in the air. I study Harper’s expression, the wide-eyed shock slowly giving way to something much more dangerous: anger. Harper’s jaw clenches, and for a moment, I think I might see fire in her eyes.
“You’re telling me this now?” Harper’s voice is low, almost trembling with fury, but there was something else beneath it. Pain, maybe. “After one fucking day? You really think this is something I can just… accept?”
I take a step closer, my heart hammering, but Harper steps back, eyes flashing with betrayal. She isn’t just angry; she’s hurt. And hurt is something I haven’t prepared for.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” I murmur, reaching out, but Harper holds up a hand to stop me. The movement is sharp, like a warning.
“You’re… the mafia princess? You’re going to run an empire of crime, Alessia? How do I even begin to trust you after all of this?”
I swallow hard. “I wanted to protect you. I didn’t think you’d…”
“You d idn’t think I’d what?” Harper snaps.
“What? Freak out? Leave you? This is crazy, Alessia. This isn’t some romantic fantasy.
You can’t just drop a bomb like this and expect me to just roll with it.
I’m not going to fall in love with you because you’re part of the mafia, and if you think for one second that—”
“Harper…”
“No,” Harper interrupts me, her voice growing louder.
“No! You can’t just walk into my life, tell me you want me, and expect me to accept this.
You’re the head of a criminal organization.
You are the danger. You are everything that I’ve spent my whole life running from, and now you want me to fall for you? ”
I freeze, the words cutting through me like a blade. The truth hits me like a freight train. Harper doesn’t just fear what I represent, she fears losing herself.
“Harper, please,” I whisper, “I just wanted to be honest. For us. For you.”
But Harper isn’t listening anymore. She turns on her heel, her hands balled into fists at her sides, and storms out of the room, leaving me standing there in a cloud of regret, the air thick with things left unsaid.
My heart twisted as I watch Harper walk away, the words still echoing in my head. I haven’t just lost Harper’s trust. I’ve lost a part of myself I have never known was so fragile.
“Maybe it’s true,” I whisper to myself, standing still in the silence of the room. “Maybe I am the danger.”