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Chapter Twenty-One
- Lilly -
He left.
No hug goodbye for me.
Not a kiss for Noemi.
Dante left Sebastian to tell us he had gone. Something about finding the man responsible for the attack. Wasn’t that Sebastian’s job?
At first, Noemi looked crushed when Sebastian came back to the safe room without Dante. Tears fell when he cleared his throat and, in words kinder than I would have used, told her that Dante had essentially deserted us.
“He’ll be back,” Noemi insisted in a voice laced with confidence and sadness.
“I know you’re a good person, Noemi, but aren’t you angry with him? He left you here. He brought you here and left you.” I knew my brother well, or at least, I thought I did. I was having a hard time believing Dante could really be that callous, especially where Noemi was concerned. “How do you know he’ll be back?”
She tilted her head and smiled weakly through her tears. “Because he always comes back, doesn’t he? You told me so yourself.”
“You amaze me. I’m sorry, but I’m pissed at him. After everything we went through today, how the hell could he just leave? I swear to God, if Sebastian ever did that to me—”
I cut myself off before I could utter the thought out loud. It wasn’t the same, was it? Dante and Noemi were in love; they were a couple. They lived and breathed for each other. Sebastian and I... we weren’t anything like them. Except the idea of Sebastian leaving me when I needed him the most made my stomach hurt.
“If Sebastian ever did what?” he asked as he walked back into the room. He had dropped the bomb on us that Dante had left, then had gone to meet with his men again.
I answered “nothing” but decided that would make me a hypocrite. I couldn’t demand transparency and truthfulness, then fall back into old habits.
“Ever walked out on me with no kind of goodbye,” I answered in a huff after being caught talking about him so openly. “I don’t think I could be as generous as Noemi’s being.”
He looked warily at Noemi. “I’m not passing judgment on Dante, but no. I would never do that to you. Noemi, can you give us a minute? There’s a small lunch served in the kitchen if you want something to eat before we leave.”
Noemi was intuitive, and I doubted she was any hungrier than I was, but she read the room, smiled, and left the two of us alone.
We were talking about each other like we were a couple, like we had some kind of future together. I smiled weakly. I wanted that future. I did. I knew that now, but I also knew that to get it, I was going to have to fight for it. Nothing came easy to any of us, but I was a Calegari and not just any Calegari.
I was Lilly Calegari. I knew how to get what I wanted.
And I was in love with Sebastian St. Valentine. I didn’t care who had a problem with it.
“Before you send me to eat, I’ll tell you right now I’m not hungry,” I warned him.
“I’m not going to get you to eat. I know this afternoon hasn’t been what anyone expected, but we need to get going.” Sebastian’s hand cupped my cheek. “Lilly, why don’t you pack.”
“I don’t need to pack. None of those things belong to me.”
“They all belong to you,” Sebastian insisted before leaning down to whisper in my ear. “I need to talk to Noemi, Lilly. You don’t have to take it all, if you don’t want to, just pick out a few things, but... there were some things he wanted me to say to her, Lilly. Privately. Sweetheart, you don’t want to hear this.”
I pulled away from him. “You don’t have to do this for him. I never realized he was such a coward. Don’t hurt her.”
“That’s not it. He’s not being a coward, Lilly, he just... he just wants her to know that he loves her.”
“Then he shouldn’t be such a chicken dick and he should tell her himself.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re right. He shouldn’t be a chicken dick. If he loves her, he should tell her. But he’s not here, and I gave him my word.”
“The two of you are very chummy all of the sudden.”
Sebastian frowned down at me. “He told me a few other things as well.”
