Chapter 114: Please Don't Leave
Chapter 114: Please Don't Leave
Domenico
Raphael Jaxson is currently in our living room, no less than four meters away from the one person I hoped he would never get to meet.
Camilla was first thought on my mind at the sight of our father but the one that surprised me is he got to know about her in the first place. My brother is the obvious right answer but no matter how smart and calculative I consider myself to be, I am drawing up no conclusion considering Adriano himself never wanted Camilla to be known.
"It is nice to meet you too." Our girl politely responded, although there was an obvious question in her eyes as she glanced first at Adriano, then Gregorio and then me.
She tries to step to stand at our side but narrows her eyes in confusion when both Gregorio and I gently stop her.
"I didn't know you were coming." Adriano was the first to speak, tension clear in his voice as he spoke.
Raphael only frowned as he gestured for his men to move off to the side slightly.
"You people didn't think I would miss my boy's thirty-five birthday, did you?" He rhetorically asked, tilting his head to the side a little to get a better look at Camilla.
The smugness radiating off him made me murderous and I know I was not the only person who shared that exact same feeling.
"You guys birthday is today?" Camila asked in surprise, turning to face me and pushing past until she stood by our side.
Unfortunately, the damage has very much already been done. Raphael knows and Adriano spoke to him about her. I can see some of the hardness from Adriano's expression softened when he met Camilla's gaze but what he didn't realize was that the man in front of us noticed it.
"It is tomorrow." I simply replied and she turned her head to me.
"You need to leave." Adriano said but he was only met with a mere shrug from Raphael.
"I will stay for dinner," he said, not allowing any room for argument.
"We have so many important things to discuss, though it seems as though you do as well."
Yes, he knows everything but how?
"Not here," I chipped in, raising my chin ever so slightly and forcing myself to appear relaxed as one grey eyebrow life on the man's face.
I can't feel how barley contained Adriano's anger.
"What is with the cold welcoming?" He said, seeming to grow annoyed by our frozen positions, still at the bottom of the stairs.
"You have nothing to say? It is not like your little pet doesn't know everything already, so I don't understand this awkward silence."
I think I feel a piece of me break from his words, physically feeling Camilla stiffen from beside me at his words, we all do.
"She is not our pet, nor is Camilla a kept woman." Adriano said, shaking slightly from the anger we all share.
But the only difference is that when Gregorio and I met before turning down Camilla, our hatred is partially our brother as well. Yet, another mistake we made in the last few minutes was our silence.
I watched as his face went from one of confusion to one of pure and utter amusement. He laughed out loud, swearing in our dialect as he seemed to find this comical to him. Camilla looked like she didn't understand what he said but the three of us most certainly did.
Gosh, she didn't know what Raphael said, his voice creating a slight echo in the otherwise silent house. It wasn't supposed to happen like this.
"This trip is going to be even better than I thought." He smiled, looking at Camilla the entire time in a way I couldn't figure out.
Is he intrigued by her?
"Send my bags to the largest guest room on the third floor and then you are dismissed." He said to his men with his bags, although I practically know that none of them were filled with clothes.
"Yes, Don." They all bowed their heads before moving back into the elevator.
I knew that those two words alone were the bomb that just caused everything to explode. Camilla physically flinched at the name, her head snapping to Adriano, to Gregorio and then to me. I could tell she knew where the name Don came from and right now I can see betrayal and confusion on her features.
I tried to brush the side of her arm but she pulled away. She really pulled away?
"Camilla, it really was a pleasure meeting you. Although I am sure you won't, you are more than welcome to join us for dinner tonight at eight. I have already hired someone myself to make dinner here and I assure you won't be disappointed."
Silence rang through the space but with a nod from her, Raphael grinned from ear to ear. The next second, he walked into the house as if he owns the place, brushing right past us and walking down the hall where our library, gym and entertainment room is.
With him gone, I could tell Camilla was slowly breaking apart, us doing the same because of it. I could see the gears spinning in her head right now but what was worse was that she wouldn't even look at us. She was pushing us away.
With a shaky inhale through her nose, she didn't say a word as she walked over to the elevator, pressing a button and waiting until the doors opened a couple of seconds later. We all watched with pained eyes as she walked onto the platform but then she held her hand out.
She held the door open and stepped to the side, a silent indication for us to join her. Swallowing hard, we did. Raphael seems to have somehow gotten past our codes to gain access, so all Camilla had to do was press the button that would take us to the parking garage.
In previous times of being in the elevator with us, she was happily distracted by at least one of us, a conscious effort we made because of her claustrophobia. This time, even if we tried, she wouldn't let us give her small touches or talk about things that embarrassed her but it proved as effective in distracting us.
I watched as she bit the inside of her cheek, shifted her weight between feet and began to pick at her thumbnails unconsciously. I wanted to reach for her, hug her and tell her she didn't have to be afraid and that we would do anything we could to fix this, anything.
I felt as though we were all holding our breath as no one said a thing even as the bell dinged and the doors opened to the chilled garage now in front of us. We met her lead, but we barely got out of the elevator before she spun to face us, taking a few steps back to create some clear difference between our bodies.
"You are in the fucking Mafia?"
Everything around us stopped as those words fell from her mouth. Her voice was so low it was nearly a whisper but it rang painfully loud in my head. I knew this conversation would come eventually. I knew it the second I realized I would never let her go but she didn't deserve to be caught off guard and told like this.
"Give us a chance to explain." Gregorio's words bordered as a plea.
"Come back inside, we will answer whatever it is you want to know and we can talk."
What he was really trying to say is don't leave us. Her head dropped slightly, shaking it as she tried to make sense of all this.
"I want to go." She said, still not looking at any of us in the eyes.
It broke my heart, we couldn't let her do that but we would never be able to forcefully keep her here either.
"Talk to us," Adriano said, not bothering to hide the desperation in his voice.
"Please…don't leave. We can…"
"No!"
Her single word cut through the air, her head finally looking up, not to me but Gregorio.
Her eyes glittered with unspoilt tears but she refused to let a single one fall.
"I am going down and you have no right to keep me here."
She is scared of us, the realization hit me so hard that my right foot took a step back, hating myself for being the cause of all this. She has been through enough and she never should have to feel scared or sad ever again.
"Stay," Gregorio's voice broke but in that moment, I knew we lost and nothing apart from sheer force could keep her here.
"Give me the keys to any car here." She said to Gregorio, not even responding to his plea.
"Camilla, I.."
"You owe me no debt from the club." Her hands shook as she spoke, but something on her features had hardened.
"I won the bet about Adriano and you said that you would do any one thing I asked of you at any time."
Gregorio looked like he had been physically slapped by her words but he didn't fight what she was asking. We had no right to fight with her or yell or demand to be listened to. Camilla doesn't owe us a single thing but we owe her the world.
Once again, she is no longer looking at us and even when Gregorio walks away to retrieve a set of keys from the rings on the side of the elevator, her eyes remain down.
The entire time, I just stayed silent, wishing with everything I have that her eyes would meet mine, but they never do. It breaks me completely.
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