Chapter 271: Your Mother Is Alive
Chapter 271: Your Mother Is Alive
Camilla
"You were not abandoned."
The words rang through me like it mattered, like it could make a difference now after everything that had already happened. It couldn't, though and it made my heart harden because I wasn't sure how to survive any other way.
"Well, I guess it is a good thing I didn't care enough to have felt like that anyways." I shot over my shoulder, knowing I needed to get back on track so I could just sleep the rest of this week off. So I could ignore how close they were getting to something I wasn't ready to talk about.
"This is about the fact that Cosmos Beck needed the money for his daughter and it would have cost you nothing to pay for her surgery. And as for my father, he doesn't concern the three of you apart from your attempts at trying to kill him all the goddamn time!" I raised my voice at the end, Adriano's eyes falling to my arm where his bullet had hit even if it was me rubbing in front of it.
I could tell just by the tension of the room that there was no escaping what was about to be said but I have been beaten, bruised and broken piece by piece over the last year without them. What was one more?
"Two things. Princess and you listen well." Adriano said, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to throttle or fuck me right now.
Tipping my chin, I dared him to try and touch me right now so he could see what would happen. Not even his words would be able to land a punch with how closed off I became in this moment, knowing that if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to come back from this. I didn't know if it was the medicine or the fact that I was just tired but my walls were up in combat with the truths that were begging to be let out. But if I let that happen, it would become real and I wasn't ready to experience that kind of grief yet.
Meeting his eyes, I reveled in the distraction of his anger as much as I did his desire last night, standing and waiting for whatever he had to say.
"You don't care, Camilla and that is why you are hurting so badly and refusing to let us help you." He said instead, his face solemn as he searched mine for any essence of truth.
"It is why you will be happy to know that Cosmos' daughter's total treatment plan was over double the amount he stole from us and we paid the entire bill without blinking because children should never have to pay for their parent's shortcomings." He said, the last part threatening to tear away at the walls around my heart.
"You will be happy to know she is going to live a long and happy life if all goes well but despite Cosmos's motivation, we can't let a crime like this go unaddressed with who we are. If we do, it makes me look weak to my Mafia which means I get to deal with hundreds of problems that I can guarantee would raise for another man's choices."
My breath hitched as Gregorio stepped around my side, not touching me but making me see him to show he didn't buy my most recent words to him either. I think at first he was quiet because he wanted to punish me for leaving again without a note hurt and pained from my pain.
"His daughter's life is saved now." Gregorio said, unapologetic about the fact he was going to make Cosmos pay nonetheless.
"If he loves her as much as you think he does then he should take the consequences willingly because it was never a secret to him the kind of people he was stealing from."
'The kind of people who would give me nightmares just by spending five minutes with them.' That was what Cosmos had told me when we had been in the waiting room to visit his daughter in the hospital, although he probably only knew of the Night Reapers side of them.
I wished I was so desperate that I could just see the side of them too but I couldn't. Instead, I listened to Gregorio and Adriano's words and I hated that I had because somewhere above all of my anger and attempts to push them away, there was the fact that they were right. About Cosmos Beck, about his daughter and about me feeling lost in abandonment. Even though I said my father didn't concern them, their denial of that would have been right too because there was still a truth that had never been spoken, the truth I had once again remembered this morning and vowed to let it out at the end of the night.
"What was that look for?" Domenico asked from his side, making my head turn towards him and realizing my expression must have given something away. When my eyes met his, I could tell he has been trying to get a read on me as Gregorio and Adriano spoke. Based on the look on his face, he knew something was up.
"None of your business." I muttered, still not sure how to apply this even after two weeks of being back in Kumon City.
I should have done this last night in the gym but instead I ended up pinned beneath him. This time, I doubted it would be out of kindness if I ended back up on the ground.
"Adriano, there is something I wanted to talk about with you guys."
I hadn't forgotten about the fact that they didn't know their mother was alive over the span of these last few weeks but I also didn't know what to say or how they were going to react. Some stupid, minuscule part of me was worried they wouldn't believe me and I couldn't handle the idea of having another person in my life look at me like I was crazy.
"What is this about?" Adriano asked as his eyebrows narrowed slightly, his hand shifting at his side like he wanted to touch me to offer comfort.
It was sad enough to want to laugh at because I am sure he will want nothing to do with me by the end of the night. Knowing there was no ideal time or way to say this, for the first time tonight, I lowered my eyes down to the ground and whispered.
"He didn't kill your mother."
The change in the atmosphere was gradual but although I wasn't looking at them right now, I could feel their eyes on me, a deathly silence growing around us.
"What did you just say?" Domenico asked for a second time, not because he didn't hear me but because he couldn't begin to comprehend what I was saying. Adriano and Gregorio were in deep shock that they weren't capable of saying anything right now.
Forcing myself not to flinch at his tone, I swallowed anxiously before bringing my head up, looking at the dark haired man only a few feet away.
"Your mother never died, she is living at The Safe with my father and…"
"Camilla, go upstairs now!" Gregorio cut me off before I could even come close to finishing my sentence, his voice not anger but instead scared.
When I turned around, I found both of their eyes pinned on their silent brother but apparently they were able to hear the words he wasn't saying. He was so well versed in schooling his expression into neutrality that I couldn't even come close to knowing what he was thinking but the second he spoke up, he didn't hide much.
"She will say right fucking there and explain herself." He growled with his gaze held on me, my eyes being forced back to see the shake of restraints in his arms and the darkness of his eyes.
Still, I couldn't tell if it was because he thought I was just cruelly joking or straight up trying to hurt them.
"I…"
"Adriano, you don't look like you in control right now and while I know you would never hurt her even a shake could risk pulled back open her wounds." Domenico interrupted, speaking almost as though he were trying to bring down a fox from its interest in an unknowing rabbit.
Allowing myself another glance, I then saw the balled up fists at Adriano's sides, realizing it was because he was trying not to grab me like his brother had warned against. I wouldn't try to stop him if he did but his responding scoff made it seem like he wouldn't go there anyways. Despite this, though he looks pissed, making me understand the vision of the man that made everyone fear him.
Right now, he was terrifying because the darkness of his eyes didn't look like lust or sadness or regret. It looks like anger and I was about to be the one that fell victim to it.
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