32. Constantine
CHAPTER 32
Constantine
I ’m finding it incredibly difficult to sit in front of a man who Carina has a great fondness and affection for. The irrational green eyed beast in me wants to tear him apart like ribbons. Reach inside his chest, hold his bloody heart in my hands, and crush it beneath my feet.
Yet I refrain.
Because this man has bestowed upon my love his own affections and tenderness of which she was wrongly deprived of from her own family.
So, as much as I would love to be the only man in this world, the only person in this world Carina cares for I won’t be killing him today. Or in the near future.
Giuseppe lives to see another day.
But you wouldn’t think so given how stiffly he sits in the chair before me. You would think he’s sitting on a bed of nails rather than the deep plush and lush crushed onyx velvet chair.
“You can relax, Giuseppe,” I tell him easily but he remains tense. “You weren’t brought here to be led to slaughter.”
He remains unwavering in his stance. I suppose I can’t fault the old man. I am known to not be merciful. “I was told I could see Carina. That’s why I am here. It’s the only reason why I am here.” Fierce. Protective. Loyal.
I hate to admit it but I admire the man.
Not only does he have the gull to stand up to me, he does it without fear.
And I am supposed to believe he is just a butler?
“You must know Carina is in the best of hands here,” I tell him and his eye twitches. My late father always told me it’s in the eyes. They are the window to the soul. They will tell you everything before the person can speak. And right now Giuseppe is screaming that he doesn’t believe me. Not that I expect him to.
“The state of Carina remains questionable until I see her for myself. Then, and only then will I know if she’s being properly cared for,” he states primly.
I should be offended. He’s done questioned my character. Compared me to the likes of her papa and brother.
I should have his tongue for disrespecting me in my own home.
I raise a cool brow. “And yet she was abused in her own home for years. Neglected by the hands of her brother and father. Suffering not only physical wounds but mentally as well.” I loathe recounting the horrendous acts Carina experienced. If their deaths weren’t already on the horizon I would be ambushing them as we speak.
Giuseppe swallows hard, wincing slightly. “I never condoned what Luca and Savio have done,” he responds despondently. His eyes drift away from mine for the first time since he’s entered this office. They’re downcast, but one can’t miss they are full of regret and sorrow.
“Despite what you want to believe I am not the enemy.” His eyes sharpen on mine. “I never have been. Not when I have been in love with Carina for ten years.”
His mouth slacks open in shock before he quickly closes it. With disbelief he questions, “Ten years? You have been harboring feelings for Carina for ten years?” I nod my head in response. He then sputters in an outrage like a protective father. “She was only sixteen when you decided she was for you? Do you realize how mad that sounds? Just how immoral are you, Constantine?”
I flash him a wolfish grin. “Immoral enough to do whatever it means necessary to keep her by my side.”
“You’re psychotic.” I’ve ruffled the old man’s feathers. Cracking the pristine courteous butler facade. Because it is a facade. To a point.
“Perhaps,” I agree easily, but then lower my tone to sound threatening, “but I am a man who will stop at nothing to keep her. No one can take her from me. Not even you.”
“Me?” He asks incredulously. “You believe I have the power to take her from you?”
I laugh, he remains unamused. “No. No, I don’t believe you have the power. I don’t believe anyone has the power except for Carina herself. And even then I would hunt her down to the ends of the earth and carry her back kicking and screaming.”
“Then why are you telling me this? Why assure me of her happiness if it doesn’t matter?”
“I’m assuring you of my love and devotion to her,” I correct him.
“More like obsession,” he corrects me with revulsion.
“Either way,” I begin as I clasp my hands over the desk, a desk I’ve done fucked my soon to be wife over a handful of times, and level him with a stare as I deliver the bomb of truth, “her father should know that my feelings for his daughter are true. And despite how immoral I am, I will never allow another living soul to speak ill of her or touch her again and live.”
The silence is deafening.
Before my very own eyes I watch as Giuseppe’s world comes crashing down on him. The unnatural stiffness in his posture. The perspiration dotting his hairline. An off putting distant stare that says everything his mouth can’t.
While he sits in the aftermath of the explosion I continue. “You see I have always thought of Carina as an astonishing copy of her late mother.” The mention of Viola gains a reaction. And the pain of saying her name overcomes him greatly. “But her eyes didn’t quite match. Viola was gifted brown eyes the color of honey. And Savio, well Savio has the same shade as his precious son Luca. And the ambitious and also foolish late son Elio had his mother’s. But Carina,” I pause for effect and it lands its mark. Giuseppe didn’t fear me before, he fears me now. “Carina doesn’t have her father’s eyes nor her mother’s. She has yours.”
His eyes shimmer in the same way Carina’s do when they are filled with tears. Emerald pools with the tiniest flecks of gold. He turns his head, offering me his side profile. His jaw flexes as he chokes on emotions.
He clears his throat but it sounds rough as he resignedly asks, “How did you come to know of this?”
I could lie. Tell him I had him investigated by the relentless and coolly efficient Rico. I could say I obtained a hair follicle from one of his combs thanks to my undercover soldier in Gino. I could rattle his cages more. Shackle his mind.
Surprisingly I choose not to.
Instead I give him the truth. “I know Viola didn’t commit suicide.” The mention of her false suicide has his focus back on me. And along with the end of his charade as the butler there’s a fire of anger in the depth of his eyes. “She was killed. By her youngest son. My question is why didn’t he kill you? Surely, he killed her because he knew of the affair. Betrayal in The Fiore Famiglia means death. And yet you escaped it.”
His eyes harden as he spits with venom, “You think I escaped death? My love, my life, my everything,” he chokes on the word, a tear slipping, “died and I couldn’t save her!” Forgoing his handkerchief he roughly wipes the tears staining his cheeks. “I was so close. Viola was determined to leave Savio and save her daughter from him. She knew if Carina stayed under his wing and New York City there would be no hope in saving her soul. But as determined as Viola was, her fear and paranoia won. It paralyzed her.”
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Viola felt trapped within her own home. A prisoner to her ruthless husband. We all knew of the man he was when he stepped foot in New York City. Viola finally saw who her husband really was. Gone was the man who showered her with gifts and affection. New York City showed his true face. A man of cruelty. One of greed. A man who valued fear more than love. Including his own wife and children.
Viola saw his true face too late. Giuseppe had known it all along.
“How did the affair come to be?”
A wistful smile plays on his lips as he reminisces. “I had always cared for Viola. Thought she was too beautiful to be with Savio. In heart and soul and appearance. Viola was, to put it quite simply, breathtaking.” Of that I have no doubt. Carina after all is her copy. “When Savio decided to make the move here to try and reclaim the throne, thoughts of his wife became an afterthought. She spent her days being a socialite and her nights lonely. Luca had already begun to want to follow in his papa’s footsteps. Savio was a god to him. And very much still is. Viola saw that. Saw she was losing her son. And her lonely nights grew tiresome. She asked me to accompany her one night. To take pity on her and join her for a late night drink. Little did she know I had been wishing for that night for years.”
Ah, the poor handsome butler longing after the beautiful unattainable wife.
His love for her was doomed from the beginning. A tragedy written amongst the stars.
“One drink had become two and two turned to three. I take it you don’t need me to discuss the intimate details of what transpired next.”
“No, I do not,” I agree. “How long was the affair?”
“It was very short lived. After Viola fell pregnant she put an end to our affair. Afraid Savio would come to know the truth.”
“And yet he stayed unaware for sixteen years.”
His face falls. “Because of me.”
I raise a brow. “Do tell.”
“Savio and Luca had taken Elio for his rebirth. He was to be initiated in The Fiore Famiglia and act under Luca’s rule.”
“Thirteen is too young to kill a man.”
“How old were you when you first stained your hands?”
“My hands were stained far before I killed. I was born in this life. Molded to become The Don of The Donati Famiglia. Killing didn’t stain my hands, Giuseppe. Being born did.”
He grunts in disapproval. “This is not the life I wanted for her. She deserves more. And so did Viola.”
“Viola deserved more than the man she married but make no mistake, Carina deserves to be by my side. In this life and in the next.” Much to his chagrin he stays quiet upon the matter. Thinning his lips displeased. Unfortunately for him it’s not something I will lose sleep over. “How did Savio come to know of the affair?”
“I had Viola and Carina’s bags packed. She saw what Luca had become, she knew what was becoming of Elio and she knew she had to save Carina. That night would be the only night to do it. I had everything planned. How to bypass security. How to slip in the car and sneak them in. I was going to save them. I was going to free her.” His eyes shine with renewed tears. “But their night was unexpectedly short. And by the time they arrived home they had caught me with Viola in hand as we were headed to Carina’s room with luggage in the other.” Utter despair and agony fall over him.
And I can only imagine how I would be if I were to lose Carina and fail her within the same breath. It would not only be devastating but I would be haunted for the rest of my existence.
“Why didn’t he kill you?”
“My punishment was worse than death. I was to watch Elio kill my dear Viola. I was to help stage the body as a suicide alongside Luca. And I was to live the rest of my days under the same roof as my daughter and watch her be mistreated and abused because of my mistake.”
A bitter taste fills my mouth. An inferno of rage blisters under the surface. And while I have always been a man of patience and control I am finding myself grasping at straws to not lose composure.
There’s even a great part of me that wants to spill blood of the man who sits before me. He failed in protecting Carina. For that I should have his life.
But knowing the matter of the situation Giuseppe was faced against the impossible. He could never save Carina and live. He would’ve died trying. And the cruelty inflicted upon Carina would have only worsened.
There wasn’t anything Giuseppe could have done.
He truly did suffer a fate worse than death.
“She deserves to know the truth.”
Terror overtakes his face. “No,” he says in a horrified whisper. He then shakes his head as he becomes desperate. “She can’t know.” His voice becomes stronger. “This secret will die with me, Constantine.”
“I’m afraid the decision has already been made.” Carina will know the truth. And I would prefer it if it comes from her own father.
Tears shimmer in his eyes as he draws his lower lip in between his teeth. Head down he whispers heartbroken, “She is going to hate me.”
And while I have sympathy for the man for losing the woman he loved most in this world and watching his daughter suffer at the hands of a monster I have no sympathy for him confessing.
I rise from the chair and cross the room to where he sits. When I clasp my hand firmly on his shoulder he looks up at me pleadingly. “The truth, Giuseppe.”
“Have you no mercy?”
My hand clamps down on his shoulder, applying enough pressure to remind him whom is speaking to. He winces. “Mercy was not offered to Carina. And it will not be offered to you. The truth, Giuseppe or I will make the fear you have for Savio be child’s play.”