AryanaI watched from the corner of my eyes as Mr. Romano dropped the bombshell on his son, the man I had slept with two months ago. Alexander. So, that was his name. It suited him. I knew I was focusing on the wrong thing, but I couldn't help it as I was still in denial about my pregnancy. Only two days had passed since I had been told I was pregnant, and it was not hard to know who the father was. I hadn't slept with anyone else since that night two months ago. I had been far too busy juggling my schoolwork with my part-time job for that.If only I had listened to my rational side back then. Alexander had even wanted to go back to his car and get his condoms, but no, I just had to say it was okay. I tried to pull my hair out in frustration. What was I going to do now? My degree, my work, expenses, my family, what would I do? A part of me wanted to blame Alexander for not being persistent in getting the condoms, but I knew that wasn't fair. After he left, I went to shower. Still, I g
Mr. Romano looked at me as if he wanted to say something but changed his mind. He sighed."All right. You are free to go. Please allow us to keep in contact with you. After all, you are carrying my son’s child."I nodded. I was surprised by how easily he had allowed me to go. I thought that he would have forced me to stay or threatened me with my family, but he didn't."Let my men drop you near your place." He requested, and I acquiesced.I stood up and left the room with one of his men leading me out and another following after me. I glanced at Alexander, but he still didn't look at me. He had only looked at me twice throughout the showdown, and as much as I didn't want to care, it hurt. Especially his comment that insinuated I slept around. I slept with him despite not knowing him, but that was because of my rough week. It wasn't as if it was a habit of mine to have one-night stands.As I entered the vehicle that brought me here, the hurt I felt shifted to irritation. Why did I thin
AlexanderI watched Aryana shakily place her cup of water back on the desk and take a deep breath before she turned to both myself and my father."What the hell just happened?" She demanded. Despite the negative relationship we had between us, I still felt bad for her. She was a civilian caught up in a war between two mafia families. This was the first time she had ever seen someone get killed."That was our enemy, a family we are at odds with." My father answered cautiously."At odds with? All that happened can't be classified as something you would use the words "at odds with. "You guys murdered in broad daylight!"I was slightly amused at how hysterical she was, but again, I couldn't fault her. I grew up around this kind of violence, so it was normal to me, but to her, it was understandable that she would be frightened by this mere level of bloodshed. In her world, conflict constituted petty arguments and silent treatment. In my world, it included spilling the blood of those who wr
The staring match continued until Aryana admitted defeat and slumped in her seat. She looked resigned to her fate, and I felt sympathetic toward her."I won't."My father nodded, pleased with her decision."So what now? What about my degree, my life?" She asked with a sullen expression."Do not worry about that. We will sort everything out." My father replied."Can I know where you're carting me off to?" She requested."Unfortunately, you cannot. All you need to know is that you will be safe, and with my son at your side, nothing will happen to you." I kept quiet as my father assured Aryana.Aryana sighed and stood up. My father gestured for two of his men to guide Aryana out of the room to where she would be staying. I stayed behind, wanting to talk to my father and convince him not to send me away. My father then dismissed his remaining subordinates, leaving only the two of us."You and Aryana need to leave as soon as possible." My father stated in a calm manner"I will not run away
AryanaI couldn’t believe I had slept with a mafia family heir. This had to take the cake out of all the absurd things I had done. Who would have thought that a random person I would meet in a club and sleep with would be part of a crime syndicate? What would my father say if he knew? I covered my face with my palms and rested my head against the headrest of the backseat.I snuck a glance at Alexander. We sat at the extreme ends in the back of the car, leaving a large space in the middle. Since we entered the car and set off, we hadn’t exchanged a single word. I didn’t know what to say to him. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to talk to him. So far, Alexander had done nothing but look outside the car window. I didn’t know if he was truly admiring the scenery or was lost in his thoughts.Ever since he entered the car, his body seemed to carry a melancholic aura. I wasn’t exactly sure of the facts, but from what I had seen and heard, he wasn’t happy to leave his father in whatever war the
AlexanderMy head kept repeating over and over what Tony and Marcello told me. When we arrived in the car park and saw the vehicle we had parked beside, I immediately knew something was up. When Tony conveniently pulled out the key to the new car, it further confirmed my suspicions.Before we entered this car, Tony and Marcello had revealed that my father had placed a car here for us in case we got ambushed, but it did nothing to allay my doubts. The explanation was too simple to believe it was all a coincidence.My father had anticipated this attack, but I didn’t understand why he didn’t tell me. Instead, he urged us to depart today because he didn’t think they would attack immediately after their failed attempt at kidnapping Aryana. If my father thought that, why did he prepare for another vehicle beforehand?I looked at Tony and Marcello, feeling conflicted. Were they telling the truth, or did they know more than they were letting on? The two of them were my closest confidants. I d
Feeling a presence appear by my side. I looked over to see that it was Aryana. Ah. That would explain why Tony had stopped Marcello from speaking. I nodded to show that I understood, and we turned to enter the house.The house was welcoming, from the open door to the wide hallway. The floor was an old-fashioned parquet with a blend of deep homely browns, and the walls were the greens of summer gardens meeting a bold white baseboard. The banister was a twirl of a branch, tamed by the carpenter's hand that led to the floor above, its grain flowing as water might in waves of comforting woodland hues. Under the mini chandelier that hung in the foyer, it was nature's art, something that soothed right to the soul.As ordinary as the house looked, I couldn’t help but feel touched by its homeliness.“Where are we?” Aryana asked, and I was thankful for Tony speaking up as I had not been paying attention to the road during the short journey.“Queens.”Aryana and I shot my second-in-command incr
AryanaI fought the urge to squirm as all three eyes were on me. Damn, it. I shouldn’t have spoken up. There hadn’t even been a need for me to state the obvious. It was apparent what the man had been implying.I tried not to sigh in obvious relief when their attention shifted away. With their attention no longer on me, I used the opportunity to observe them. By how those two men watched Alexander with concern in their eyes, it was easy to see that they cared for him. Their relationship didn’t seem like the typical subordinate-boss affiliation.I then looked at Alexander, and upon seeing the broken expression on his face, my feet automatically moved forward before I forcibly stopped myself after taking two steps. What was I thinking? I couldn’t go there and comfort him. What was our relationship that I would do such a thing? Besides, he barely spoke to or looked at me throughout our journey here. He made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with me. He wouldn’t appreciate my presence
AlexanderA year have passed since the end of the war between my family and the Saconne family. Everyone was at peace. The Romano family was prospering with the added territory of the Saconnes we had divided amongst the other three great families.We were in good times now. Aryana had given birth to our son and he was adorable. He had my gray eyes, which I had also gotten from my father and Aryana’s golden-brown hair. I can still remember the day she went into labor. I had been so afraid and uncertain of what to do. Give me a gun or a knife, and I could kill anyone you wanted to, but give me a pregnant Aryana who was in labor? I was lost.I could still remember the emotions that threatened to overflow when an exhausted but overjoyed Aryana placed our son in my arms for the first time. Despite how wrinkly skin, he was beautiful.After recuperating, Aryana completed her master’s degree in Psychology. It had been a little bit difficult to see her stress over completing projects before de
“I was unconscious for two weeks?” Alexander was astonished, but I ignored his question because I just needed to tell him about my feelings in case this was all temporary.“And seeing how you would never wake up, I was lonely and scared, and I thought about all the times we had spent together, and I realized that I had fallen in love with you, but I didn’t know why I couldn’t say it, and then I regretted it and-,”Dry lips blocked the rest of my words from coming out. I didn’t hesitate to kiss back. It was amazing! I didn’t care that his lips were parched or that he hadn’t brushed his teeth in two weeks. I only watched him kissing me back, something he could do because he was awake!We slowly drifted apart.“Hi,” I whispered, afraid I would start rambling again.“Hi.” He said back to me. We stared deeply at each other, cataloging our features as if afraid we would forget with time.“I missed you.”“I missed you too.”I smiled widely, the first smile I had given in two weeks, and leane
AryanaTwo weeks.Two weeks had passed since Tony and Marcelo returned with an unconscious Alexander, covered in his blood. It’s been two weeks since Alexander promised me everything would be all right, since he promised he would come back. Technically, he didn’t lie. He did come back. Just not the way I had expected. It’s been two weeks since I last heard his voice, Since Alexander was last conscious.I missed him. I missed his voice. I missed his smiles and his grins. I missed seeing his gray eyes. I forgot how warm his embrace was. I missed the feeling of his lips on my body. I missed everything.To think that his last words to me had been to reassure and comfort me, and I couldn’t even tell him that I loved him. That was right. In watching over his prone body for the past two weeks, I came to the realization that I did, in fact, love Alexander. I couldn’t believe it had taken him falling into a coma for me to realize my feelings.How had I been so blind? Why had I continued to dou
Having found out the truth, there was no point in delaying matters. The only reason why Tom had been so successful in beating us down was because of Alfonso. Without Alfonso, what power did Tom have? Tom was already in a tight corner, and seeing how desperate he was to have sent Alfonso to kidnap Aryana, I could sense the end of this pointless war coming to a head.“I should kill you for your betrayal and send you on your way to meet my father, where you will spend your afterlife begging him for forgiveness, but I won’t. Not yet. What you’re going to do now is, you are going to tell Tom that you have Aryana, and he should meet you where we tell you to say. Do you understand?”The resignation was written all over Alfonso’s face. He knew he was done for. He had sealed his fate the day he decided to betray my family.“Are you sure it’ll be fine?” Aryana pulled me aside and asked. “What if he-”“Nothing will happen, I promise you.” I comforted her. “This will be the end, and we’ll finally
AlexanderWhy? I couldn’t believe it. I almost hadn’t wanted to believe it when Felice had taunted the knowledge in my face while kneeling on my feet moments before his death. Seeing my enemy at my feet greatly irritated me, laughing like a mad person instead of cowering and begging like I had wanted him to.Nonetheless, the information struck me like a bolt of lightning. A traitor in our midst had supplied the Saconnes with information about our trade routes so they would know where to hit. The traitor was also responsible for reporting my father’s location. Because of him, my father died. I was filled with rage. We had welcomed that traitor into our midst and had treated him like our family, and he repaid us like this?What pained me the most was who the most likely suspect could be. Marcelo and Tony had discussed this when I told them. We went over different possibilities and clues we could have missed.For the traitor to be reporting my father’s whereabouts meant he was high up in
My eyes widened in surprise.Elio Saconne was one of the brothers of Tom Saconne, the Don of the Saconne family. Marcelo had explained a little about the dynamics of the mafia families. Tom Saconne was the oldest of three brothers. After him were his two younger brothers, Elio and Felice Saconne. Despite how impulsive Tom appeared, it was a known fact that he doted on his brothers though I had doubts on whether he actually doted on them or if it was simply that he let them do whatever they wanted, precisely because he didn’t care about them.Alexander killing Elio meant a ray of sunshine for the Romano family as the war finally turned in their favor. It also told that Alexander was proving himself to his family members. Killing Elio was equivalent to cutting off a limb of the Saconnes. It was good news. I allowed myself to drag my eyes over Alexander and observe his features, spotting no happiness or pride in his feat. It had been quite a long time since I last saw him.I barely see A
AryanaWatching how the men under the Romano family cheered for Alexander settled the unease that had appeared ever since Marcelo told me what was happening. I was aware that this didn’t mean that they had forgiven Alexander. It meant that they would give him a chance to prove himself. I wondered if we hadn’t slept together or if I had allowed him to go back to grab a condom from his car back then, would this have happened? There would have been no need for Alexander to go into hiding. He would have stayed here with his family. His father probably wouldn’t have died, and these men wouldn’t have doubted Alexander’s loyalty to his family.I wished they wouldn’t be harsh on Alexander as it hadn’t been his fault. It wasn’t as if he had wanted to leave. He had argued with his father, but in the end, he’d had no choice but to obey his father’s orders. But I knew that wasn’t how the mafia operated.I watched in curiosity as they went on to perform the ceremony that would mark Alexander as th
“How are your injuries? I heard they’re better.” I changed the topic. I didn’t want to immerse myself in my longing for my father.“It’s getting better. You need not worry.” He patted my shoulder.“I know you need time to think about handling what will happen in a few minutes. I’m sure Tony told you about the displeasure of our men.”My eyebrows slightly furrowed at the words ‘our men,’ but he continued speaking before I could contemplate it. I decided that it must have been a blunder. After all, he was an old family member who served on my father’s side. It must have been a blunder.“I only came to tell you that I am here. I watched you grow from a baby to the man you are. You have my support.”I smiled, thankful for his support. He again gripped my shoulder, momentarily tightening his hold on me before letting go with another smile, exiting the study, and leaving me back to my thoughts.I let my mind wander as the time the men under the Romano banner would arrive slowly grew closer.
AlexanderReturning to Manhattan filled me with so many emotions. Memories of my father slammed strain me with so much force that I stopped in my tracks, earning glances from Tony, Marcello, and Aryana. I waved their concern away and stepped into the building that once housed my father, and meters in arms had arrived this morning to drive Aryana and me back to Manhattan. The ride back had been tense and quiet. The atmosphere between Aryana and me was strained. Since I told her I loved her last night and she didn’t reply, we didn’t know how to act in each other's presence. Even though I said she didn’t need to say it back, it didn’t mean I hadn’t been hurt. I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t say it back.Didn’t she love me? Had I read her emotions wrong? It was clear that she had feelings for me. Was it that her feelings for me were not as deep as mine, or was it too early for her? I scoffed bitterly to myself. It didn’t matter what. I couldn’t force her to return her feelings for