AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Raniero chose that moment to walk down the stairs. He stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and tilted his head in question. He mouthed the words ‘Are you okay?’ and I nodded. I hit the mute button on the phone.
“It’s my dad.” I explained and Raniero nodded, heading to the living room, probably to give me some privacy, which was really sweet of him. He had every right to stay in his kitchen if he wanted to, but he was giving me the space I needed to deal with my father. I would have to remember to thank him for it later.
Reluctantly, I turned the mute off.
“Dad, is that really all you are taking away from this situation?”
“Where ARE you?” He bellowed.
“If you don’t calm down I’m going to hang up on you.” I warned him. “What Raniero did isn’t the pivotal point of this discussion. It’s whatyoudid. You’ve lied to me my whole life!”
“I have not.” He countered, and I could tell he was going to come up with some excuse or another story that would make everything sound better. He was good at that. Any time something went wrong, he would do his best to spin it in a positive light. I used to love how he helped me out in that way, but right now I didn’t want to hear it.
“You have too!” I shouted at him, possibly for the first time in my whole life. I never even shouted at him when I was a kid. I was always too afraid of disappointing him. “You always told me that your business was built on hard work and effort.”
“It was!” He tried, but I wasn’t going to let him back peddle.
“How is getting in bed with the mafia hard work and effort? Unless it took hard work to befriend them. Or get them to back you. Convince the Don to give you money to hire people to work for you. And I bet it took a lot of hard work defending criminals whenever they needed you to. Protect what they stole or whatever it was you did for them. I’m sure that took a lot of hard work.”
“You have no idea what you’re…”
“What am I talking about? Yes, I do. I know what you’ve told me my whole life, I was there, and not once did you mention that you had an illegal money backer to help you out.” I huffed.
We both fell silent for a moment and I could hear him breathing heavily on the other end of the phone. He was pissed, but he knew I wasn’t going to be pacified. He knew how stubborn I was and how I got when I got something in my head. He wasn’t going to be able to talk me out of it, especially now that I was all fired up.
So of course, he tried a different tactic.
“Pumpkin, if you just come home, I’ll explain everything to you. All my choices, everything that led me to that point. But please, tell me where you are so I can come and bring you home.Raniero is not a good man to be around. It isn’t safe with him. He’s a monster.”
“Well you should have thought about that before you stole whatever it is you stole from Raniero’s father because he arranged for me to marry him.” I blurted. So much for keeping that little tidbit a secret. The silence on the other end was deafening. “How’s that for truth, Dad. The man you are so afraid of me being around is my husband.”
Deciding that I was done with the conversation I hung up the phone. I knew he would call right back so I put it on silent and shoved the phone back into my pocket. If he didn’t feel the need to be truthful with me, I didn’t feel the need to waste my time listening to him. Not right now.
Annoyed, I poured another cup of coffee and topped off mine, fixed them both with cream and sugar then headed into the living room. Raniero was where I knew he would be, lounging on the couch watching the news with his arms crossed over his shirtless chest. I stood there for a moment, enjoying the sight before he looked up at me.
“Everything alright?” He asked. I nodded and went to go sit next to him on the couch. I sat cross-legged like I always do then handed him his cup which he took with a happy moan. “Mmmm thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I replied and took a sip of the fresh, hot, un hindered cup. “Yes, everything is alright. My father… he calls me every Friday and Monday, but I forgot yesterday so I had a lot of angry and worried messages on my phone. I thought I would call him back and let him know that I was okay, but it turned into him finding out from Stella that I was with a guy named Raniero, which apparently made him think I was hanging out with a monster.”
“Well… you are.” He shrugged and took another sip of his coffee. I rolled my eyes.
“Oh shut up. I haven’t seen you be a monster. You certainly aren’t a monster to me.”
“You’re my wife.” He said over his coffee mug, then winked at me. “Besides, your father has every right to be worried about you being with me. He knows me for the me that everyone sees; the one I have to be. I wouldn’t want you with that guy either. That’s why I’m trying to be a better guy.”
I smiled at him and leaned forward so I could kiss his cheek. He looked at me, a little startled.
“What was that for?”
“Because I wanted to.” I shrugged. “That might be the case, but he still doesn’t get to treat me like an insubordinate child. Especially when he won’t even be truthful about how I ended up here in the first place.”
“Ah, so he knows you are his payment?”
“Yes. I wasn’t planning on telling him everything just yet, but….he got me angry.” I admitted. “Which let my mouth run away with my brain.”
Raniero shrugged and smiled at me, with no look of worry or concern on his face.
“It is what it is. He was going to figure it out at some point. At least you were the one to break it to him and not one of my father’s people.”
