Chapter 14

I’d pulled Grace Millers out of her well constructed plan of fucking my Capo but now I have no fucking idea where I am supposed to leave her. I have my hand around her, yet always a thin air away from making contact. She is smart enough to keep walking with me, but I have crossed the whole party already, and I haven’t come across anywhere I can stop to leave her. Nowhere is safe.

I keep walking a little longer, my body a little bent the entire time to keep my hand hovering carefully around her low waist. In a few minutes, we have left the party behind, and I’m walking on the pavement that leads to the white marble stairs of the mansion.

“Stop,” she says and halts her steps right on top of the last stair, giving me only a milliseconds warning. I pull my hand up and away and hop two steps down. She notices and rolls her eyes.

“Wow,” she scoffs, making my blood boil, “that is really not necessary, you’re not going to touch anything you haven’t seen.”

She doesn’t catch herself after saying it like it was a mistake, no. She looks straight into my eyes, bold and demanding of an answer, even. I raise an eyebrow at her audacity but decide against indulging her.

“Keep walking,” I command, and leave her to follow me into the empty mansion. The expanse of the hall takes me a minute of walking in long steps till I reach the wide flight of stairs that leads to the room father left to me. The room I haven’t been in since his passing.

She doesn’t knock before entering the room after me, but she closes the heavy mahogany door, so that’s good.

“Why did you not tell Sophie?” I ask when curiosity has the best of me and the silence begins to close the room on the two of us. My back facing her as I stand against the window that overlooks the beach. I don’t expect her to give me an answer that will solve it all for me, I know she can’t, yet I do, to give her a chance, one last time. So she can prove herself guilty.

She stays quiet for a few seconds. The quiet of the room reminding me of where I am and why I am here, my father’s empty seat next to me glaring at me, demanding me to–”I wasn’t sure.” She speaks and I almost laugh at her response.

I make a low sound of acknowledgement, “Or maybe you were scared.”

She scoffs again, it catches my attention just as sharply as the last time. It is such an oddity, nobody dares to scoff before me. “Scared of you?”

Her words make me smile, I love how I have her right where I need her. I turn to face her before speaking again, the smile dies mid-spin. “Sacred that Sophie won’t believe you.”

She attempts a smile, but I watch it die as she tries to keep up with my unmoving gaze. “Sophie knows I don’t lie,” she says softly. I would believe her too if I didn’t know better. If I couldn’t see through her skin so clear.

I walk around the table to stand in front of it, the back of my thighs leaning on the edge of its wooden top. She is closer here, I like it better. I can watch her better. “But you do lie.” I speak calmly to match her fake tone.

“Excuse me?” She steps forward, her facade breaking already.

“You lied to Carl about salsa.” Her eyes go wider at that, she doesn’t even ask me what I mean. Somehow she knows that I know her enough to know that she knows salsa.

She tilts her chin up to show me that I haven’t broken her yet. “Why did you drag me here, Mr. Moretti?”

Her choice of words get me, I force the smile teasing my lips to come out only as a smirk. “Come on, Grace Millers, why so formal?” I say, lowering my head closer to her tilted face. “Did you forget my friendship proposal?”

“Did you forget I never accepted?” She bites back like she had it right at the tip of her tongue ready for me.

“I think you mistook my politeness for my begging. I don’t ask.” I narrow my eyes in warning and her mouth opens, a tremble of her breath touches my face in a rush.

“Why did you bring me here?” She repeats her question, stepping back.

I put my hand in my jacket and bring out the new iPhone. “Here,” I say, extending my hand, “your new phone.”

She looks at it, then she looks up at me, she looks even more disgusted than before. “New phone?” I only raise my eyebrows in response.

“I don’t remember needing a new phone.”

“Well, now you do. You cannot be trusted to use your external phone here, there are business secrets all around, and you’re the only outsider.” She knows she doesn’t have many options, she looks at me with more distaste than she does the phone, but she takes it off my hand at last. Her fingers gripping the device far away from where mine are. Ironically distant for someone who was taunting me for not wanting to touch her minutes ago.

“Do not smile, I am only accepting this for a while.” I didn’t know I was smiling but I have started to care less. I like that I have her flustered.

“You don’t have to say thank you.” I say before beelining past her to the door. “Come, we have dinner to catch.” I hold the door open and wait for her to move.

“I don’t want to-”

“You can always come back later.” I cut her off, making her brows crumple in frustration.

“That is not what I meant.” She manages through clenched teeth as she walks past me, I keep my head down not to let her see my smile that has completely taken over my face.

As I close the door after us, the reality of what I have just done dawns over me. I have walked out of my father's room, the one that haunted me with the weight of it's responsibility, the one I couldn't dream of nudging open with my hands. I have accepted it as my own.