CALLAN’S JAW tightened after hearing the words that came out from my lips. Our gazes locked at each other, not saying a word. Not knowing what to do with the tension rising between us.As silence engulfed the surroundings, I could almost hear my heartbeats in my ears—banging like a drum. What should I do next? Should I add to what I have already said? I wasn’t lying when I said that.Marry me, Callan. Never I have imagined that I would be the one saying that to a man. All my life, I have admired the idea of love from what I see in my parents. Love then leads to marriage that lasts for a lifetime, if not an eternity.Back when I was still in college, several guys had shown interest in me. It didn’t lead to long-term relationships, however, I managed to get to know love in its genuine form. I remember when I was in my third year of college, I flirted with a senior. That was the first time I had known how could light a fire inside a woman—how it pushes you to do things you wouldn’t thin
EYES WIDENED with shock; it wasn’t easy for me to take in the realization I just had. I inhaled a deep breath, feeling the urge to open the door and get inside but that would be a stupid idea. Instead of prying further on the meeting, I slowly closed the door and walked away faster than I ever could. One thing that I realized after hearing the things mentioned in that meeting was, there’s something serious going on and it’s causing too much trouble. They mentioned another family, is that their enemy? Because they were connecting the attack to them. Back when my parents were still alive, did they also participate in that meeting? I kept walking in the long hallways. Looking behind me and checking if anybody had noticed my presence earlier. Gladly, there was none. It didn’t take long for me to arrive in a hallway, which was new to my sight. I couldn’t probably be walking in the right direction back to the kitchen because on a corner there was another door. Would that lead to an exit
Callan’s serious gaze pierced towards me. Still not moving on our position, I looked at him—innocently. But deep inside, I already know I have established an upper hand in this situation. I shouldn’t show weakness and back down at the last minute. This is the only way that would allow me to understand the world my parents had once lived in. Before building our own family, they already had theirs with this organization. “What do you say, Sir Underboss?” I mumbled. Callan’s masculine perfume wafted in each inhale I make. It sent a weird flutter reaction onto my stomach. When Callan moved even closer, so that his cheek rested in mine, still trapping me in between his arms, somehow my confidence slowly eroded. I swallowed. Hard. “Do you know what married couples do? Hmm…” I blinked repeatedly hearing his words. The next thing was I felt his lips pressed onto the warm part of my nape. This time, I gasped. Oh my god. Feeling the heat rushing through my veins towards my face, I didn’t
I RAN to the nearest corner so that I could hide from the people who got out of the room. Without having a single idea why I had to hide and what could be the reason why I couldn’t be seen by anyone other than the people who already knew me. My heart hammered in my chest—thinking about what Callan did and then his words. He also looked concerned. “What?” I mumbled as soon as hearing him curse. Then a voice echoed from the distance. It was Callan’s father. “Capo, a spy managed to get in the mansion. There was a woman who got lost in our room and ran away. She must have heard about the meeting that took place. We’re still finding her.” “Boss,” someone muttered once again. “We made sure no one was tailing our convoy when we got here.” “Capo, Luca,” that slow deep voice of a man sent shudders on my nerves. Everybody got silent. But Callan finally gathered his confidence back and started walking towards them. Each step he makes sounded like the loud erratic beats on my chest—how can
I GASPED UNDER my breath. But before I could see their fingers pull the triggers, Callan moved in front of me and blocked my view. The next sight that came to me was his back turned towards me. “What are you doing, Callan? I’ll try to talk to them.” “What are you gonna tell them, Esmé? You dumb words?” Despite the tension that grew among everybody Callan’s words made my eyes formed into slits—offended by what he muttered in front of everyone. I thought that the situation was serious but not to this point. I was wrong because when I tiptoed and peeked in front of us, I saw the men still raising their guns at me even if Callan blocked my presence with his body. Why is he doing this? Even if I couldn’t understand why, somehow, I was moved by his efforts. Is this how serious the situation really is? Would a diplomatic conversation not be enough to settle this one? “We know that the rules… rules,” Capo Luca spoke again. This man stands out from the crowd of men as his hairs are almo
WITH THE WORDS muttered by the boss—Callan’s father, the men that were aiming their guns at me retreated, putting their guns down. I exhaled a sigh of relief but Callan didn’t face me after the tension was resolved. Everybody looked at me then towards’ Callan’s father… “Let’s see where we’re heading after that announcement, Don Ravij,” a man who I didn’t notice earlier before he was hidden at the back spoke. I could look at his face so well, but I saw him holding a cane. “A beauforte and a ravij… sounds about right,” said the man referred to by everybody as the Consigliere. I gulped but I didn’t move. I waited until everybody started and only me and Callan were left in this massive hallway which is just one part of their massive mansion. Footsteps echoed in the surroundings, and soon I heard Callan cursing. “Holy shit,” he muttered, but his voice was low for anybody to hear it. Except me. I felt guilty… even if I admit that I proposed an offer to him thinking about my situation,
THE NIGHT was young by the time we left. Only the two of us. Callan was driving in the back seat while I sat beside him in the passenger seat.It was too impossible to be in this situation. I lost count of how many times I had glanced beside me to just get a glimpse of Callan and tried to decipher his mood.Where are we going?And I thought he couldn’t leave the mansion all by himself. Turns out he has the freedom to do what he wants. He was not a prisoner to the rules of their organizations.As I gazed at Callan, he was grasping the steering wheel, eyes focused on the road. For the past fifteen minutes, he refused to talk to me even if I already tried my best to snatch his attention and make him look at me for longer than 3 seconds.If he’s not gonna talk to me and would keep acting like he hated me and the rest of the world, then why am I here?I cleared my throat and mumbled. “Why did you let me go with you, Callan? Where are we heading?”Beside us, the streets were filled with tre
Callan’s POV I WAS DUMB, to begin with. It was already evening and I still decided to go out and beg someone to talk to me, even if I knew it would be a headache to convince her on the matter again and again. In this unexpected and uncalled-for situation. “Let’s discuss something important.” “What is it my dear, Callan? I don’t like talking about important stuff over the phone. Why not come and meet me?” It had been months since she and I last talked face to face, and after seeing her once again on that road incident, her familiar smirk and rebellious gaze bore on me, something inside tugged at a familiar emotion that I had tried to hide. Arinya… She’s the one I had known back in high school up until the present. She’s the sweet girl I had hung out with, worked so hard to court, and pursued in all the ways possible only to learn that our families were enemies and we were forced to pull apart from each other. You know that feeling of being smitten by someone only learning they
Growing up, I have had a sense of good and bad in the world. I learned that people make choices and sometimes they make bad actions, which makes other people label them bad. Yet, there’s more to people being and choosing to do bad things. I had never seen people do the most brutal bad things until I saw men barge into our house and fired bullets at my father’s already dead body. And my mother—which wounded my soul to the point of not even knowing if I could ever get back on my feet once again, only to discover that I have been betrayed by my own mother. She’s already dead. For real this time. I have not forgiven her, but I have learned to move forward. But the sudden turn of events of my life allowed me to grow in ways I wouldn’t have imagined and led me to the arms of the man that I could trust, fight, and grow old with. And today’s our 5th wedding anniversary. Even if we had to go through hell and fight for our lives, it led us to this paradise that I wouldn’t trade for anyth
TWO MONTHS after staying in our new house in Chicago, I have grown much closer to my husband. Our routine was basically waking up and preparing meals for us both. On some days, he’ll be joining me in the chicken, and on other days, he’ll still be there but will be doing work on his laptop. Callan had been hands-on in collecting real estate properties in our area as part of the expansion project of Chevalier Holdings. I love staring at Callan as he gets lost in his work, conducting meetings with his colleagues. While I cook in the kitchen and prepare snacks for him. Then I would get lost in doing my own tasks as well. On these days, I have seen Callan in every mundane moment that I could think of and I have loved him more. The way we lay in each other’s arms around evening after all our tasks are accomplished it certainly felt like home. Ever since I lost my family, I have learned that life must go on even if you feel like the world has just collapsed on your shoulders. A significan
I COULDN’T believe that a day like this would still arrive in our lives. I was standing in the middle of the airport with people roaming around. While Callan had just paid our travel tax and was smiling widely raising our first-class plane tickets up in the air. He looked better than he did weeks ago, I must say. He could smile now. Joke things with me. His face has more color time, and the dark circles under his eyes start to fade away. As for me, I still wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares of the chaos we experienced. I remember there were nights when I dreamed of the people I killed. That night when I shot Aldo Cato. Things haven’t been easy for us to return to living our normal lives. We had been deeply affected by the loss, battle, and exhaustion that we had gone through just to sort out the mess in the mafia world, at least in our lives that involved dealing with the Cato clan and resolving things regarding the order and structure in the ravij organization. We
“Esmé you wanted to know why I did this? I wanted my daddy to prioritize me. I should have been the heir to the ravij organization! I was his eldest daughter! It wasn’t fair!”As she said that, Callan took a shot from the revolver she got from me, the shot left a dent on her chest as she looked upward towards me muttering soft voices leaving a faint fake smile on her face as if she was grateful.I then hugged Callan, replaced my face on started crying Callan patted my head and he tried to calm me down, “It is over, my wife. It is over.”Immediately afterward, someone spoke from the black boxes in the room, “What a great show this was. It is certainly not over. Definitely not. Please move upstairs.”Callan shouted, “Bastard, I will kill you for killing my men and for hurting me and I will break your limbs for hurting Don Thoron.”Callan laughed, “Whoa, well, you should be very careful what to say next. Move upstairs. I am right here waiting.’“It must be a trap. Husband, let us go bac
FURIOUS, I RAISED my face upright in the eyes of the man who was holding a sniper on the 3rd floor looking at us, and then one by one other men from other floors looked below from the balconies of that building and some started shooting from the windows. We covered ourselves and I aimed precisely, even though many of my bullets were not hitting the target, I managed to take down quite a few from the sight. The abandoned building was a 12 storey high and there were soldiers of the Cato clan inside and outside. The men that spotted us first were the ones on the balcony. As instructed, twenty of our men started running to the gate to enter the building. As they were running, one fell down and got shot. Another soldier tried to lift him up on his back but ended up getting shot as well. The others ran for their lives and got inside. As they went inside, they took down all the men of the Cato Clan on the first floor and started walking upstairs. I could only hear bullet after bullet, no
MAYBE IT IS true that when love finds you, the fear of losing it is greater than the risk of dying itself just so you can fight for the person you love.Is rescuing someone worth it? I do not know about anyone but for Callan, I will do everything.“Hey, Esmé. We are ready. It is only logical if you lead this mission in the absence of the underboss.”I cleared my throat and thought of the words he just said.I looked around; I don’t think whoever leads the troop will matter at this point. We are all marching towards a similar purpose.But if I were to judge the situation, Aakil should be the one to lead instead in the absence of my husband. Or maybe Capo Mariano.“Hmm… maybe Capo Mariano could be the leader. Or Aakil?”Aakil cleared his throat and then spoke, “The consigliere mentioned your courage and we saw it too. That gave us determination. This is what the organization needs. I cannot take Callan’s place. I am not a descendant of Ravij's head. They won’t accept me as their leader
CALLAN DID NOT SEND any updates and I was left without any notice. I woke up to an empty space beside me on the bed. With everything that happened for the past days and after learning that Don Thoron had been captured by the Cato clan and had been tortured by the men in their camp in town, I knew Callan was deeply affected by it. I saw it in his eyes before he left.The unwatchable footage sent to us was brutal. But Uncle Mariano said that Don Thoron particularly said not to risk the remaining troops to save him because Callan still has to be protected when he returns.If nothing is heard about him for three days straight, Callan shall immediately become the new mafia boss of the ravij family.Callan didn’t say anything, but he balled his fists and he was greeting his teeth. No one could talk to him other than me.Their mafia boss had been captured, tutored, and maybe already dead at this point.Preventing the urge to cry from the sinking feeling in my stomach, I got up in bed and gra
CALLAN'S POVI arrived at the hideout of the Cato Clan in my hometown… the silence was deafening.In the middle of the night, I moved in silence as well.I brought a gun with me and started looking through the surroundings.I saw a group of Cato’s men, feeling so complacent as they roamed around their camp—an abandoned building with almost no lights to light up the place. That was an advantage for me.I already hid my car with weapons somewhere nearby. As I stepped out of the darkness, I was welcomed by a group of henchmen who were carrying knives in their hands.One of the men tried to enrage me and said, “Look the dead man’s son is here.” I drew my gun and shot his head and they all went alarmed and hid behind the walls and barriers and I hid behind a stack of broken tires nearby.There is a room up ahead that they are guarding. That was their hideout. I remember when Arinya brought me to their hideout not knowing I was the first son of the ravij family. Her twin brother treated me
CALLAN'S POVMY MIND COULD only think of the darkest things that could happen as time passes by. I have no other means to unleash feelings of ease and lightness, I only hope Don Thoron, my father, was still breathing.Whoever that person was that dared to smash my father with a baseball bat, I don’t care if she’s a woman. If she’s as evil as the men that we come across in the organization she deserved the violence she was causing to others. And Aquila, the last time I saw him was at the bar when I broke things off with Arinya. They were stepping into the situation. The news was Aldo Cato died after all with the mission that we did.Esmé did well in shooting him multiple times, just like I told her. I will make sure that whoever was orchestrating actions from the Cato clan does not live to tell the tale. The lion of the ravij family that was once sleeping inside has now risen up and it will now obliterate all creatures that cross the path of his might. “We have to leave if we want t