LUCREZIA
“I should talk with her for a moment,” Pietro spoke confidently as he stared at me with intense gaze which I returned with equal fervor gratefully.He wasn’t asking for permission, Pietro just pulled me out of the living room without waiting for anyone’s permission. He pulled me away from my father who looked like he just won the lottery and my sister who looked like she just received a news that stated she was adopted.I looked at her for the last time, I wanted to explain to her. I want to talk to her more than I want to talk to Pietro so I can clear things out with her. Letizia gazes back at me, with her eyes filled with so much emotion that I couldn’t tell the thoughts running in her head.She just found out the secrets that I’ve been hiding from her and she just also realized that I used her so I could sneak out at night and have a date with the Don of the Carusso family. She has the right to be angry at me and feel betrayed by my actions.IPIETRO“Why did you do that?” Pericles asked me as soon as I got home, I haven’t even taken off my coat yet.I stared at him but didn’t answer his question. I took my time taking off my coat and my watch so I could think of the answer to his question carefully. To be honest, I’m still not sure about the reasons behind my actions. I just know that I had to do it.“Which one were you asking me about? The part when I broke Lucrezia’s heart or the part when I apologized for it and even asked his father’s permission to marry her?” I asked back just to annoy him.Instead of becoming annoyed, Pericles looked at me as if I was a child doing stupid things that an adult can never understand.“Both Pietro. I don’t understand both!” he blurted out like a madman. “The Pietro Carusso that I know always took calculated steps. These… It’s crazy.”“It’s one word to describe it,” I replied nonchalantly as he fusses over it. I just don’t want to think about it and he
LUCREZIAI exhaled loudly as if a heavy boulder of rock is lifted off from my shoulders. I shut my eyes, my hand automatically reaching for my rapid beating heart. I still couldn’t wrap my head around what had just happened. I couldn’t believe that I’m already engaged with Pietro just like that.Last time, we just had a fight and in another spur of the moment, we’re now engaged.I had no idea that this could actually happen in real life. The whole thing wasn’t sweet and romantic as I had hoped for, as any women had hoped for in a marriage proposal. What happened was far from how things are depicted in the movies.The whole thing was a mess and things happened unpredictably. Just when I was ready giving up my love, Pietro swooped in and swept me in his arms.Pietro’s proposal wasn’t any good either. It wasn’t some sort of a dream I had that was fulfilled. He made it clear that our marriage would only be a marriage of convenience.What is marriage without love?I guess I’m about to fin
LUCREZIA“This is my fault isn’t it?” Letizia mumbled beneath her breath and I heard her perfectly fine. “No, it’s not like that,” I immediately regretted my words. I don’t her to feel this way, I don’t want her to blame herself for my decision.Even though one of the reasons why I wanted to marry was to protect her from a loveless marriage, it doesn’t really mattered much because I love Pietro too anyway.I have higher chances of being happy in a married life than Letizia. Life still had too much to offer for her and I can’t rob her of her innocence and freedom when she’s just about to experience life.I noticed how Letizia’s jaw clenched as she fidgeted with her fingers. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled an apology.“Why? This was my decision. I could have chose otherwise but I chose to do this,” I tried to lift up her spirits even though she feels disconnected from me.“If it wasn’t for me, would you have chosen to handle the business instead?” She finall
LUCREZIAI never thought that preparing for an engagement party would be as hectic as preparing for an actual wedding. I wish I was preparing for the wedding day instead. The thought that I will have to do all of this again after our engagement party for the wedding day already makes me feel tired.Don’t get me wrong, I want to get married. I am excited to get married, but preparing for a wedding is something I’m sure that no one would be excited about.It’s a task that is harder than preparing for the bar exams..I wish I could just skip through the preparation process and jump to the day where I’m about to walk down the aisle. However, I couldn’t and I’m stuck in doing all this arduous process.What’s making me feel more angry about this situation was that Pietro was never here to help me with the preparation process. He wasn’t there when we were trying to decide about the theme and motif of our engagement party, he wasn’t there when we are thinking of the design for the invitations
PIETROPericles is driving the car today instead of my usual driver because no one must know the places where I’m going today and the things I have planned to do. As much as possible, no one must know that I’m out in the streets so no one would think anything suspicious. I need to limit my trail especially that I’m going to places that I have no business with, and I have to do things that a person in my position mustn’t do.Pericles knows me, he knows my life and everything that goes within my head even. Hiding secrets from him would be impossible. Luckily, he is my greatest friend and the only person I could fully trust because he knows a lot about me, and he understands me.My phone buzzed in my pocket, even though it’s in silent mode, it rang loudly inside the enclosed vehicle because we were too silent.Pericles glanced at me over his shoulder, distracted by the sound of my phone.I’m sitting at the front seat beside him instead of sitting behind wh
PIETROAndrei… How long was it since I uttered and heard that name?I swallowed hard, my hand curling into a fist, crumpling the straight bill of money that I was holding as I watched the lady write my name on the cup.Andrei, it read.“How about you sir?” The lady asked Pericles beside me interrupting me from my thoughts. I stepped back in short surprise and turned to look at Pericles, pretending that my mind was not distracted for a moment, but judging by the way he looks at me, I know he knew.“Same with him,” Pericles muttered curtly and stared at me with concern.I immediately broke eye contact with him and faced the lady once again not wanting to talk about it.I watched as the lady wrote his name and order on his cup until my gaze landed on my hand curled into a fist, squeezing out the dollar.I relaxed my hand and shifted on my position. I haven’t noticed that I was being too obvious about it.I breathed out softly to calm my nerves as I try to hide the slight disturbance in
PIETROI don’t know what I should do with this guy. We came all the way here because he said that he had something that could help us, but all that he’s giving us was bullshit and things that we already know.He even dared to feed us unbacked rumors. Who does he think is he talking to? I shouldn’t have taken him seriously. “We did not come here to hear rumors.” I bit back my anger, knowing that it will only attract us unnecessary attention to yell at this guy. “Those weren’t rumors, it’s true. Rumors don’t start out of nowhere unless something had really happened. The whole ordeal was suspicious.” I reached for the dark chocolate tea I ordered and mixed it with the straw. He is saying that Eros actually killed his father and brother, if that was true, then no one could trace his deed back to him. A man like Eros can do a job properly. Killing would be a piece of cake to him and no one would be able to point out the connection of murder to him. A man like Eros who had all the con
PIETRO“I see,” my mouth slightly twitched as I finally see the great opportunity that is presented upon me. I leaned back on my chair, thinking about his words carefully, not sure if I must believe him or not. Maybe this is just one of the rumors circulating about Eros again and I just haven’t heard about this one. I see no reason why Eros would do such a thing. Changing a long time family tradition? Doing businesses behind the commission’s back? That wasn’t only dangerous and risky, it’s highly unnecessary too.Was he only exaggerating things about Eros so I’d believe him, or is Eros really capable of going to such extent?I’ve met Eros many times and he seems like a normal guy. In fact he is the most relaxed among all of us Dons. I always perceived him as a young and most inexperienced Don among us and I’m sure the other Dons think so too.The Cassianos is the third most influential family among the five crime families. Everyone was just waiting for
“Shit! Shit! Shit! You imbeciles! I’m paying you money and you can’t even kill one damn man!” Eros was agitated and he couldn’t stop yelling while staring at his computer. He had cameras all over his mansion so he could see everything that was happening. Eros had never seen Pietro fought anyone before. He didn’t expect him to be this good. He is like James Bond, taking down so many people at a time. Eros is not fully aware of Pietro’s past. He has no idea about the training that he got as a little child. Pietro was trained to be like a killer machine. His training could be likened to that of Black Widow, if only that character was real. Eros kept sending and sending all his people, but Pietro killed all the men trying to stop him from reaching his wife until Eros had no one else to send and stop Pietro anymore. Lucrezia had no access to the computer, but she witnessed how Eros was scared out of his wits as he watched what Pietro is doing to his men. Lucrezia could also fully hear
Lucrezia’s stomach turned. Even though they are criminals and big time mafias, they still have their own principles and things that they couldn’t bring themselves to do.Eros is just pure evil, a monster.He is a disgrace to the mafias. What kind of man could say those words with a straight face.“What does these things have to do with my father? What does it have to do with Pietro? Why do you have to kill him?” Lucrezia asks.“You see, your father and I share the same goal. We want to be the best in the Commission and Pietro is an obstacle stopping us from reaching that goal.Lucrezia felt more guilty upon hearing this. She thought Pietro was the one who was greedy. She thought he was the one trying to become the next capo di tutti capi.“If that is so, then why spare me? Why spare my father? I’m Pietro’s wife. Why not kill me with him?”“Because your father and I had a deal.” Eros answers taking Lucrezia by surprise.“A deal?” Lucrezia mutters breathlessly feeling like she just disco
“Vaffanculo! Vaffanculo!” Lucrezia curses repeatedly inside her car as she drove along with other Italian curses that she grew up hearing from their Italian helpers at home. Lucrezia pressed on the gas pedal, speeding at the almost empty highway at dawn to reach her husband at home who has no idea that his life is in danger. She shouldn’t ave gone to her home. She shouldn’t have told her father anything. She shouldn’t have stuck her nose where it doesn’t belong in the first place. She shouldn’t have opened the door to Pietro’s office and indulged herself in the secrets that he was hiding. No wonder why Pietro is keeping things from her. Just hours after she found out his secret and she had already placed Pietro’s life in danger. Lucrezia had no idea that her father is working with Eros Cassiano to get rid of Pietro. She should have known that in the mafia, everybody has their own dark secrets and hidden agendas to hide. The fact that Pietro has one, shouldn’t have surprised her an
Raimondo was silent for a long time as he listened to his daughter as she confides into him about Pietro’s secret. Raimondo earnestly listened without questioning her daughter’s words or interrupting her. Raimondo just stared into her daughter’s eyes as she went on with her story as if he was listening to her because he was worried about her. Lucrezia is supposed to tell her father about what Pietro’s secrets that she had just found about, the secrets that she discovered in Pietro’s office, but she changed her mind last minute because she thought it was a very important secret and it could implicate Pietro’s life, so she couldn’t rashly share those things to her father. Additionally, Lucrezia knows that her father would react negatively if he founds out bout that. Even she reacted so negatively when she finds out that her husband is planning something against the Commission. Unless she had ensured everything, unless she had everything straight with Pietro, nobody can find out abou
PIETRO woke up because of his nightmare. For the first time, ever since he slept in the same bed as his wife, he woke up with the same dream, the same nightmare again.Ever since Pietro was a child, there wasn’t a night when he had not woken up haunted by nightmares. He always dreamed of the same thing, the friend that he killed. Every night, he would jolt up awake and the last thing he could remember was the picture of him pulling the trigger and killing his friend. His dream is very vivid like it all happened again. It was always exactly how he remembered it happen. Saying that Pietro was traumatized would be an understatement. Pietro was broken by his past, and only Lucrezia was able to piece him together. Through the love and kindness that she showed him, Pietro was able to forgive himself and see his value. Pietro calmly sits up, his breathing was rash and heavy like he had just ran a marathon. When his racing heart had finally slowed down, he opens the light beside him caus
It’s already evening when I arrived home which means Pietro must be waiting for me at home. I wasn’t planning to stay outside until evening, but I had to travel between two different cities because Agrippa’s house and the place where I am going to get the key are located at two opposite cities. I wore a huge smile on my face as if I had the best day of my life as soon as I entered home. Just as I am expecting, Pietro is waiting for me at the living room just like how I always wait at the living room for him to welcome him home. Pietro’s eyes dropped on the shopping bags I’m carrying as soon as I entered the door. Seeing this, he did not dare ask where I went. He just assumed that I went for a shopping spree. On the way home, I stopped at a mall and shopped random things so that Pietro would think I spent the whole day at the mall. “You had a great day?” Pietro asked me as he walked towards me.I grinned at him. “I bought everything that I wanted.”“Good, you own all my money. You
Agrippa sighed at the other side of the door, the loudest that I have ever heard her sigh. She knew that there is no way I’d leave this place. Even though my foot is hurting, jammed and pressed at the foot of their door, I wasn’t willing to remove my foot and let her go.No, I won’t leave this place, not until I find out everything that is happening, and not until I have given all the help that I could give her. No one deserves to be abused like that. No woman or no wife should live in the same house with her husband abusing her. My face softened and my heart ached inside my heart when Agrippa finally opened the door, revealing her inside. Agrippa refused to look at me on the eye. Her head is lowered in shame even though she had nothing to be ashamed about. I swallowed hard, not saying anything. You wouldn’t know what to say once you saw a hurt person in front of you. I’m afraid that if I say something it will only make Agrippa close herself from me even more. Asking her if she’s
LUCREZIALife was back to normal when Pietro had arrived back home. Our life routine is back, and things got pretty boring for me once again as a wife who is always left at home without anything to take care of.If only Pietro gave me kids to take care of, then I wouldn’t have to feel so bored and I would stay all day at home without any complaints.I have sent Agrippa a message that I would visit her today. Although I haven’t received any reply from the heads up message I sent her, I decided to still just go. At least I have given her a heads up. Wheteher she replies or not it’s actually out of my control.With the help of Pietro’s driver and bodyguard that he had hired specially for me. I went to the mall first to buy something for Agrippa and her three little kids.I do not want to go there empty handed. Besides, I rarely go to their house to visit and I don’t give gifts to Agrippa’s kids often. 
LUCREZIAI stared at the ceiling as I lay on the bed with my eyes wide open as Pietro softly snores beside me. While Pietro is having the best sleep of his life, I couldn’t sleep because of I couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation we had in the car.For some reasons, Pietro’s words doesn’t sit well with me. I really don’t believe that Orenzio is the man behind all of this. I don’t think it’s possible that Orenzio knew about his father’s disease beforehand and that he was the one who told Serrano about it.I couldn’t forget the surprised look on Orenzio’s face and the anger that he felt as Serano stood on the stage making accusations against his father and telling everyone that he was hiding his dementia.Even if that was all just an act, I don’t believe that Orenzio could pull all that off so perfectly. A person always leaves a hint when he lies, and his eyes always tells