Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
KATERINA
I ’m not sure what’s more disturbing. Having a stalker or being disappointed because you don’t know who it is anymore?
When I thought it was Danny, the notes and the flowers never felt particularly threatening. I could write them off as some kind of misguided infatuation. I was never truly terrified before because I couldn’t reconcile that a man as caring in his work at the hospital would ever be a real threat to me. Now Marcus has confirmed that this latest stunt wasn’t Danny, suddenly I’m looking at every note and text in a far more unsettling light.
For the first time since this started, I’m genuinely worried.
I woke up this morning to a barrage of threatening messages. I’d only managed to read the first few before Stefano took it from me. With every swipe of the screen, his expression darkened, only adding to the growing unease settling in my bones.
Fear is like a poison. It infiltrates your system. It’s insidious, slowly interfering with everything until it incapacitates its victim.
Never in my life have I allowed anyone or anything to control me, but when I think about leaving the house, there’s this feeling of anxiousness that gives me pause—and I hate it. It’s like an ill-fitting bra. I can ignore the discomfort, but it makes life uncomfortable.
As the morning continues, it’s like witnessing every bubble I’ve constructed in my life burst. Suitcases and boxes arrive, delivered by Stefano’s men. It’s not like he’s arranged for everything to be delivered to me, but it’s hard to escape the very literal representation of my life being decompartmentalised for me. There’s a constant stream of people in and out of the house. If they’re not delivering my things, they’re reinforcing Stefano’s security.
Things start to feel like too much when I go to open the front door and there’s now a security detail stationed by the front gate. Stefano’s turning his, up till now, very private sanctuary into a fortress. For me.
I can’t deny the way that realisation washes over me, soothing me like a balm. I turn back into the house and go in search of him. It feels slightly intrusive to have all these people in his house with us. Before now, we’ve existed in an almost private bubble, and it feels odd to share the time we have together with the people who work for him. But as he said last night, he’s the Bianchi consigliere, and it’s not like I haven’t known this my whole damn life.
However, if one more of his crew asks me if there’s anything they can do for me, like they haven’t known me my whole damn life, I’m going to stab them with something sharp. They’re treating me like some sort of delicate flower and not the doctor who pulls bullets out of them when they do something stupid.
I’m about to open the door to Stefano’s office when the front door bursts open and a familiar voice booms through the foyer. “Katerina Elena Mancini. You come out here this instant and explain why I’m only finding out today that my only daughter is in danger.”
Shit.
A sheepish-looking Stefano steps out of his office and I don’t waste any time jabbing my nail into his shoulder, punctuating each word with a sharp jab. “You fucking told him over the phone.”
“No… He went to your house and found Marcus packing up your things,” he says with a grimace. This is less than ideal, and Dad is going to be livid at being kept in the dark.
“Oh, that’s just fucking great,” I whisper shout. “Well, under the circumstances, I’m holding you to our deal. I tell him about the stalker, but you’re on your own when it comes to us.”
His face lights up the moment I utter the word ‘us’ which makes it really hard to maintain my angry face. I reach up on the tips of my toes and steal a kiss before taking his hand without thinking and pulling him to the front door. As we round the corner to greet my father in the entryway, I fully comprehend my mistake. I drop Stefano’s hand, but it’s too late. He catches the motion and his expression flits from one of shock as he meets my gaze, to one of pure fury when it moves to Stefano.
It takes three strides for my world to implode.
“Mother. Fucker.” My father shouts with the first step forward. He draws back his fist with the second, and after the third, he punches his best friend so hard his knuckles crack, and Stefano’s nose breaks.
There’s a part of me that wants to jump in and put a stop to it. However, they’re both grown-ass men and they’re big enough to fight their own battles. I step backwards, giving them room to hash it out. There’s a slightly comical moment when several of Stefano’s men run in to deal with the threat against their boss, but when they realise the threat is my father, you can see the struggle as they try to figure out if they should intervene. When they look to me for guidance, all I can do is shrug because what can you do? Although technically Stefano outranks my father, not one of the men here is going to try and tell a capo they don’t have every right to punch the man that’s fucking his daughter.
It's almost comical when you think about it.
My father lurches at Stefano, who is cradling his nose, and knocks him to the floor. Dad wastes no time straddling Stefano’s chest, gripping him by the front of his shirt, and hoisting him off the floor. Stefano doesn’t struggle, seemingly accepting of whatever wrath my father wants to unleash on him.
“How could you? I trusted you!” he screams into Stefano’s unflinching face. “She’s my fucking daughter. You watched me raise her.”
My father glares down at him, disgust etched in the lines on his face. The weight of his disappointment in his best friend shatters something inside me. “I love him, Dad.”
Two sets of eyes snap to mine, one filled with joy, the other shock, but both are filled with love.
I turn to the audience we gathered for this live-action soap opera and raise an eyebrow before waving them off. “I’m sure you’ve all got jobs to be getting on with,” I say, channelling my inner mafia wife. There’s a brief pause where they look to Stefano, who simply dips his head once, dismissing them. My father’s grip tightens before shoving Stefano back to the ground and hauling himself off of him.
My heart sinks when my father refuses to meet either of our eyes and walks towards the living room muttering, “I need a fucking drink for this conversation.”
I hold out a hand to Stefano, who takes it and flashes me a roguish smile. It’s difficult to pull off ‘dishevelled yet sexy’ with blood dripping out of your nose, but he somehow manages it.
“You love me,” he whispers.
“That’s not how I wanted to say that for the first time,” I reply, glaring at him.
“I don’t care how or why you said it, micetta. Just that you said it.” He tries to kiss me, forgetting his nose is broken and letting out a grunt of pain when it bumps against mine.
“You go and talk to my father. I’ll be back in a minute with supplies to set your nose,” I order, patting him on the shoulder and feeling like I’m sending a lamb for the slaughter.
It’s been over an hour of explaining exactly when I started getting notes, why I thought it wasn’t serious, and how it escalated. The whole time my father has given me the same look. One that’s starting to pierce my resolve. I’ve never seen that look on his face, not directed towards me at least. It’s disappointment.
“How could you keep this from me?” It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I explain that I assumed it was someone else, he’s taking my silence as a betrayal.
“I made a mistake.” I hardly recognise the sound of my own voice. I feel so small and the longer I meet his eyes, the more I know he’s right. Not just that I should have told him, but that I should have taken it more seriously from the start. My hubris has put me, and those I love, at risk.
I finish placing the last butterfly strip over the cut on the bridge of Stefano’s nose and pack away my kit.
“Come here, Katerina,” my father says, pushing himself out of the armchair and holding out his arm to me. I walk over to him on autopilot, letting out a contented sigh when he squeezes me tightly against him. Before I even know what’s happened, tears are flowing and I’m sobbing into my father’s chest.
I can’t remember the last time he held me like this. It must have been when I was a child. It’s been so long since I’ve fallen apart in front of anyone, it takes me by surprise and draws out every feeling I’ve been bottling up for so long.
He doesn’t say anything, simply strokes my hair and holds me firmly until I’m cried out. Holding my head in his hands, he pulls my focus back to him and runs his thumbs across my cheeks, drying my eyes.
“No one’s denying that you’re more than capable of looking out for yourself. But my darling, when it comes to your safety, your family has the right to protect you. It’s not a sign of weakness to rely on those who love you,” he says firmly but laced with more care and consideration than I deserve from him right now.
“I swear I didn’t know how serious it was,” I try to explain, but my excuses sound weak even to me.
“That’s not an excuse. You’re an intelligent woman, and you know better than to underestimate the threat of a situation like this. Or are you so jaded by my world that you underestimate the dangers in yours?”
His words are harsh, but the more I consider them, the more I appreciate the full scale of my mistake. By comparison to what Aurora went through, what Enzo endured, the death any family member faces on a daily basis my problem seemed so insignificant.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
I should feel like a failure, but when my father pulls me to hug me again, it’s like a weight has been lifted. I’m safe in his arms and he’s still here for me. Even if he does want to kill his best friend right now.
“I’m sorry too, Dante. I should have come to you the minute Nico told me.” Stefano’s tone is grave as he holds my father’s stony glare.
“I don’t even know where to start with you,” my father spits out. “How could you touch my daughter?”
I pull back from my father’s embrace and now it’s my turn to voice my disapproval. “I accept that I’ve handled this whole thing badly, but don’t for one minute think I’ll stand here and let you reduce the feelings I have for Stefano to something cheap and tawdry. We’ve avoided each other for years, trying to deny our feelings for each other. Because of our love and loyalty to you.”
I don’t intend for my words to wound my father, but I can see the force they land with when he recoils under the weight of them.
“It’s true, Dante.”
“Is it supposed to reassure me that you’ve wanted her for years? How many years? Exactly how old was she when you stopped thinking of her as your best friend’s little girl and started thinking of her as a piece of ass?” My father’s outburst is vicious, slicing into me like a dagger to the heart. It’s cruel and filled with unbridled rage and while I know deep down he’s coming from a place of shock, it’s too much.
“Get out,” I say, pushing my father away from me. “Until you can speak to him with the same respect you show me, I will not have you here.” It takes every ounce of energy I have in my body to hold myself strong when inside, I’m about to crumble into pieces.
“You’re kicking me out of his house?”
“She’s kicking you out of her house,” Stefano says, moving to stand behind me and squeezing my arm in support.
“I love you, Dad, and we didn’t plan this, but I can’t and wouldn’t want to un-ring this bell. I won’t spend another decade pretending I’m not in love with him to protect your feelings.” Truths tumble out of me like rapids over rocks. “I will never be able to apologise enough for disappointing you. But don’t you dare stand there and question the intentions of a man who’s closer to you than a brother ever could be.”
My father takes a step back, flicking his gaze between me and his oldest friend.
“I love her, Dante. And I won’t give her up, not even for you.”
It’s impossible not to see the conflict in my father’s eyes. I don’t know what I expect to happen, but it’s not him turning and walking away. When he reaches the door, he places and hand against the frame and pauses, looking back.
“I love you, Katerina. You could never disappoint me, but I’m going to need some time.” I’m nodding when he focusses his stony gaze on Stefano. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.”