Chapter 14 Constantine
Constantine
I didn’t tell Aurelia.
She got up when her alarm went off and readied herself for work like every morning. I didn’t think it was the right time to tell her that my obnoxious ex had tried to kiss me on the stairs, so I decided to tell her later.
I dropped her off at the entrance to the village, and shortly after I pulled away, a text from my mom popped up on the screen. Come to the restaurant. I want to talk to you.
“Fuck.” I already knew what this was about. I almost decided to ignore it and head home anyway. But if it was about the shit with Isabella last night, this was not how I wanted Aurelia to find out about it.
So I turned around and headed back.
I walked along the side of the building before I unlocked the glass door and stepped inside.
Aurelia was at the counter in her black T-shirt with her hair in a high ponytail. Her eyes went wide with surprise like she didn’t expect me, but once the surprise faded, she looked happy to see me, like she hadn’t just seen me a couple minutes ago. “Hey, what brings you here?”
I came to the counter and gave her a kiss as if eight hours had passed since I’d dropped her off. “Mom wants to talk to me.”
“Con, is that you?” she shouted from her office down the hallway in the rear.
“Yeah!” I shouted back. “Be there in a second.”
Aurelia’s eyes studied my face with trepidation. “Everything okay?” Now she knew me well enough to know when something was off. She picked up on my energy, my body language.
“Yeah. But there’s something I’ve got to tell you—”
“Con.” My mom came from the back, walking with an angry strut like she had heard about last night. “Lucia called me at dawn this morning to tell me you brought Issy to tears at Daiquiri last night.”
So she was the victim in all this?
“I understand that things have been difficult between you two, but yelling at a woman like that is never okay—”
“Ma, listen to me.” I held up my hand to silence her before she verbally eviscerated me.
“You two need to find a way to coexist with each other if you’re going to be living here—”
“Ma.”
Both of her hands went to her hips, and her eyes were savage.
“Look, I wanted to tell Aurelia this last night, but it wasn’t the right time. So, I guess I’ll tell you both.” I looked at Aurelia. “I’m sorry you have to find out like this.”
Her eyes quickly flicked to my mother and back to me, and I could see the signs of stress all over her face.
“Issy tried to kiss me.” I looked at my mother instead of Aurelia, not wanting to face her disappointment.
“I tried to leave Daiquiri with the guys, and she followed me. I tried to get her to leave me the fuck alone, but she wouldn’t stop.
She grabbed me twice, and I stepped away.
And then she tried to kiss me, and that’s when I snapped.
Don’t expect an apology, because I’m not sorry about it.
I spoke to Isabella earlier in the day since she disrespected Aurelia, and I thought we’d finally worked it out, but she was fucking wasted and belligerent. ”
Within the snap of a finger, my mother’s rage disappeared. “What do you mean, she disrespected Aurelia?”
Aurelia didn’t say anything, but she looked at me and shook her head.
Nope, I was not covering for that cunt. “When she came into the restaurant the other day, Aurelia extended an olive branch, and Isabella continued to be hostile and called Aurelia a bitch. So I went to her apartment and told her she can’t come into my house and insult my family.
I’m not sorry for anything I’ve said or done.
” I used to hang assholes from the Pantheon, and now I was in the midst of some secondary school drama.
My mother continued to look at me without the sassy rage she’d worn a moment ago. Her arms crossed over her chest, and she released a heavy sigh. “Well, she left out that part . . .”
“I’m sure Isabella left it out when she told her mother. I can give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t remember, but I’m pretty fucking sure she does.” Made me out to be the asshole when she was trying to sabotage my life.
“I’m sorry, Con,” my mother said. “I should have known better.”
“It’s okay, Ma.”
“I was glad you two didn’t work it out nine years ago, and now I’m even more grateful nine years later. I see her true colors now, and she was never good enough for you. I’ll give her and her mother a piece of my mind.”
“I don’t want you to do that, Ma. I just want peace.”
“That’s too fucking bad. She crossed a boundary, drunk or not, when she was very aware of the fact that you’ve settled down, with a child on the way.
She disrespected you, and she walked in here and disrespected Aurelia—and that shit isn’t gonna fly in my house.
” She turned around and walked back down the hallway to her office, probably to finish up whatever she needed to do before she drove straight to Lucia’s house.
When we were alone again, I looked at Aurelia, afraid to see her hurt and disappointment.
But she seemed to feel neither. In fact, I could see only sympathy.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yesterday. But it was late, and you were already asleep on the couch . . .”
“I’m not upset, Constantine.”
“You aren’t?” I asked as I felt a rush of relief through my body, afraid I’d fucked up the one relationship that mattered the most.
“Of course not.” She stepped closer to me, her hand moving to my arm, her fingertips slipping slightly underneath the sleeve. “Why would I be angry?”
“Well, if some asshole tried to kiss you, I’d punch him down a flight of stairs.”
She smiled slightly. “Lucky for Isabella that I’m not the violent type.”
“Let me explain what happened. I was already at Daiquiri—”
“I don’t need you to explain anything, Constantine,” she said calmly.
“I just want you to understand I wasn’t with her—”
“Constantine.” She gave my arm a gentle squeeze to snap me out of my anxiety. “I trust you more than anyone. I don’t need an explanation. I don’t need details. Frankly, I don’t think the situation needs further attention.”
I believed that Isabella was trying to sabotage everything, and after Aurelia’s last relationship ended with lies and deceit and infidelity, I was afraid that this would be a trigger for her. That it would make her anxious and paranoid and chase her off, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“To be honest, I just feel bad for her.”
“Are you serious?” I asked in both shock and awe. “She’s disrespected you twice now. The first in here, and the second time when she tried to kiss me.”
“But she doesn’t owe me anything. I’m a stranger to her.”
“You’re the woman I love, Aurelia. You’re the mother of my child. You’ve had my last name since the moment I met you, even if you aren’t my wife yet.”
“That’s sweet of you to say,” she said quietly, her eyes shifting away, probably in guilt because she’d declined my marriage proposal. “But she’s lost in her grief, and people do unusual things when they’re depressed.”
“Grief? It’s been nine years.”
“I don’t expect you to understand this, but having a child means something different to a woman than it does to a man, okay?
She’s probably always pictured the two of you finding your way back to each other and having all the things she’s always wanted.
So to know that I’m having your child means that dream is never going to come to pass.
It’s grief, Constantine. It’s grief for a life she desperately wants .
. . but will never have. I’m not excusing her behavior, because she should apologize for all the shit she’s done, but I understand it. ”
I never expected her to be calm and logical about this. It made me realize I was the more emotional one of the two of us. My fuse was shorter and my temper was grander. I cared for others, but I didn’t have the empathy that she possessed.
“If I lost you . . .” She shook her head.
“I would never get over it. Even if I were married with kids, I would hate knowing someone else was having your child instead of me. It’s one of those wounds that doesn’t heal in time.
If I didn’t love it here so much, I’d say we should move just to give her space to move on, but this place is home now. ”
“I’m not moving to make someone else comfortable. This is where I want to raise our child. It’s a great place to grow up.”
“I don’t want it to be this way. I want everyone to get along. I want peace.”
“I do too.”
“So, let’s hope she comes around and apologizes. And if she does, let’s give her a clean slate.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I’m not doing a damn thing—”
“Constantine.”
I released a sigh.
“Forgive and forget. That’s how you move on.”
“I know she’s trying to sabotage our relationship.”
“Well, I’m sure she’s done now. I’m not worried about someone coming between us.
You make me feel like the center of your universe every day.
You make me feel secure. I fell asleep on the couch last night because I’m never worried about what you’re doing or who you’re doing it with.
Maybe that’s why I’m not upset about any of it. ”
Knowing I did my job and did it well took away a layer of rage.
“So let’s not worry about her anymore. I’m sure she’s embarrassed about the whole thing now.”
“She should be.” This made me realize that Aurelia wouldn’t care about my predicament with Tommaso and the lunch date I’d had with his daughter Gina.
She wasn’t the jealous type. Wasn’t insecure.
Trusted me even though her last relationship had been a dumpster fire of lies and deceit.
I wanted to put it off for another day, but since today was already shitty, I decided I’d like to start off tomorrow on a different foot.
“Since we’re on this subject, there’s something else I’ve got to tell you. ”
“All right,” she said calmly, the beautiful angles of her face on display with her hair up in a tight ponytail like that. There was no fear in her eyes, like she wasn’t afraid of what I might say.
“It’s a really long fucking story, but I made a deal with Tommaso years ago . . . and I had to fulfill my end of the bargain recently.”
“Okay. What does that mean?”
“Basically, he said he would only help me save my brother from Darius if I agreed to consider marrying his eldest daughter Gina.”
Her reaction wasn’t the same as it’d been with Isabella. Now, she stiffened, focused her hard eyes on my face. “I don’t understand.”
“When I went to Palermo to visit and inform him of my retirement, he asked me to join Cosa Nostra and asked me to keep my end of the deal. Because he wants me to run Cosa Nostra when he’s killed or lives long enough to step aside, and I’d be the perfect partner for his daughter.”
Her eyebrow arched, and she looked as irritated by this as I felt.
“Yes, I know it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. I felt the same way.”
“Where is this going, Constantine?”
“He asked me to have dinner with Gina—”
“And did you?”
“No. I told him I was in a committed relationship. Then I told him we’re having a baby.
Told him we’re getting married. But since I’m not engaged, that wasn’t good enough.
He continued to push and I pushed back, but then he made me feel like shit because he risked his life to help me . . . and I lied to him.”
“How did you lie?”
I lowered my voice so my mother wouldn’t overhear. “I’d told him I didn’t know why Darius wanted Edric dead, but I knew exactly why. So Tommaso and his men could all have been killed that night. He probably wouldn’t have helped me if he’d known the truth. So, he had me by the balls.”
Aurelia continued to stare at me, her arms tight over her chest.
“No matter how many times I told him I’ve settled down, he said he wanted me to meet her. So the last time I went up there to tell him that we’re going to open a restaurant here and I wouldn’t be returning to Cosa Nostra, he asked me to have lunch with her.”
“And did you?” Her tone was different, on the edge of hysteria.
I knew I was fucked, but I told the truth. “Yes.”
“What?”
“It was an hour long on the terrace at headquarters. I could tell she was bewildered by the whole thing too—”
“You went?” She shifted her weight, looking a lot like my mother when she was this mad.
“It was literally just a lunch. Basically a business meeting. I only did it to get Tommaso off my back and keep my word—”
“You went on a date with another woman, Constantine.”
“It was not a date. It was awkward as fuck.”
She stepped away from me and moved to the counter on the other side of the kitchen, arms still crossed, putting distance between us.
I’d never seen her react this way before. “Sweetheart, Isabella telling me she loves me and kissing me is a hell of a lot worse.”
“When did this happen?”
“Yesterday.”
She raised her voice like she didn’t care if my mother heard all of this. “How would you feel if I went on a date with some guy because my old boss made me promise to do so? That even if it meant nothing to me, I still went?”
I wouldn’t like it one fucking bit, but I didn’t dare say that.
“That to keep my word, I had to consider marrying him . . .”
“I didn’t actually consider it. I just did it to pay my debt, and it’s done now. I’ll never see her again. She doesn’t have my number, and I don’t have hers. I’m telling you, it was just an awkward and weird lunch.”
“Did you tell her about me?”
“Well . . . no.”
Her eyes were furious.
“Because if she told Tommaso, he might make me see her again or some nonsense. I just wanted to get it over with so it would be done.”
“So this woman thinks she was on a date with you and you’re fully available?”
“I’m not sure what she thought it was, honestly. He sprung it on her just like he did with me.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Oh, a younger woman.”
I almost rolled my eyes. “Too young. I’ve never been into that. And even if I were, it wouldn’t matter, because I’m in love with you. Sweetheart, you’re letting this get to you when it shouldn’t.”
“How would you feel if this were reversed?” she pressed, knowing what my answer would be even if I didn’t give it. “Constantine?”
I sighed as I dragged my hands down my face. “Look, I didn’t have a choice.”
“So there was a gun pointed at your head the entire time?”
“Aurelia—”
“Answer my question.”
I sighed.
“Answer. It.”
“No. I wouldn’t like it.”
That seemed to settle the argument, because she turned her back to me, putting on a pair of gloves like she was ready to get to work.
The silence was somehow louder than her shouts.
She grabbed the washed tomatoes from the sink and tossed them into a steel bowl before she brought them to the counter.
I stood there and waited for her to say more. To at least look at me.
But she ignored me.
“Sweetheart—”
“Go, Constantine. I don’t want to hear you or fucking look at you right now.”