IN THE MIDDLE of the flight, I put on pajamas and got ready to lay on the single bed on the back part of the jet. There were not much of turbulences that happened for the past hours. I had spent most time looking through my new phone.When I opened my social media accounts, there were hundreds of messages and notifications. I looked through it but did not open it one by one. Mostly those were just messages from old classmates back in college who had heard the news about my parents’ death and the fire that burnt our house to ashes.I looked through familiar names—some of the few people with whom I had gotten close over the years but drifted apart from each other when they successfully got on a cruise while I remained stuck in our city after graduating from college.There were three of them… all women. But I understand if they had so much going on in their lives abroad that they didn’t know what was going on with me during the past months. This was one of the notable lessons I had learn
AS CALLAN LOOKED AWAY, I put on my jeans back and looked down. My cheeks were flushed with shame and shock. I made sure there was no one in the vicinity. I just needed to get off my clothes so water wouldn’t drip on the tiled floor.I cleared my thoughts and then looked at the surroundings once again. Callan stood with his back turned at me from a close distance. Before he pointed at the nearest door. I assume it was a room. “That’s our room for tonight. I asked for a double bed. We’ll have the penthouse by morning.”I nodded. Callan walked towards the doors and swiped a card then the door unlocked. Without saying anything I rushed towards the room and stepped inside.The room looked elegant despite the simple interior with white and grey accents and gold carvings on a few pieces of furniture positioned inside.There was also a large television a small kitchen on the side and a bathroom on the left. True enough there were indeed two beds beside each other. Each one has a bedside table
IT WAS NOT enough to squirm and urge Callan to pull away from his grip on my wrist. Even not enough to glare at him for him to let go and allow me to walk away from the room.I don’t know if he was worried about what I just heard or if he just felt he was in the authority to demand what I shall do from now on the fact that I am under his wing.“In case you wanna hear more about what I said earlier—”“Will you really tell me the truth, Callan? Do you think it would be that easy to just accept everything you’ll say just because you’re caught off guard?” I bombarded him with questions, one after another. “I get it, Callan. You love someone else. You had me cover up her presence that once graced your life to present yourself better in front of your family. Yet you made it sound like I was so desperate for you. You told me you’re just fulfilling your duties. You did not tell me I have a better use for you and you need me as much as I needed you. I spent the entire time feeling guilty! If y
Callan’s POVESMÉ LEFT and I found myself drenched in cold water as I allowed the shower to just drip off my face. The cold droplets traveled from my jaws to my chest.It was just my senses detecting everything as my eyes were shut close and my mind drifted off from all the work I had to finish on the way here, and all the times Esmé clouded my mind with the little things she does which seemed to bother me a lot.For instance, her words were a while ago.I balled my fist and with a grunt, I had already punched the wall in front of me. My cold hand turned hot, now throbbing with sharp pain. I used the same arm to lean onto the wall as I silenced the grunt coming out of my mouth from the jolting pain on my knuckles.“Fuck!”When Esmé asked why there were times we were drawn to each other’s bodies even when I always tell her I love someone else… I was flabbergasted. Looking at her eyes that suppressed the tears that desperately wanted to escape, I wanted to give her the truest answer I c
Callan’s POVSOME PEOPLE gasped at what they had witnessed. With a tightened jaw and palms almost balding into firsts, I wanted to land an uppercut to the old man’s face so his smirk would vanish. My men followed me inside this store and saw what I had just done.I pushed the man away. “Call the police! This man’s preying on drunk women!” I shouted.The man’s eyes widened in shock and looked at the surroundings. His blackened lips moved and his gaze was agitated, as if looking for a way to escape.“What’s happening?” Esme’s words were soft, confused about what just happened. I held her shoulder when he was about to stand up.“It’s alright. I’ll handle this.”“The man helped me… he ordered me drinks after I bought dinner. He even asked if I wanted ice cream for dessert.”My forehead formed a line and looked at Esmé very carefully. “No, you paid for your food and drinks with my card. You have it with you remember?”Esmé pointed at the man and then mumbled. “He borrowed it earlier. He s
I WOKE UP feeling cold. When I opened my eyes, the quiet peaceful sky greeted me. Somebody was breathing beside me which gave me warmth. I inhaled a deep breath and moved, only to witness Callan’s peaceful face as he slept deeply.The alcohol didn’t have much effect on me this time. But the cold at this hour alarmed me. I touched his forehead and sighed in relief when I felt him still warm. I looked around and the surroundings at the resort were quiet, maybe everybody was asleep.My gaze landed on the men wearing suits who were sitting at the entrance part of the villa. One of them was sleeping and the other two were talking in low voices.“Hello…”They saw me and immediately walked towards the pool.“Callan is still fast asleep. May I ask for help in carrying him to…” I paused a little, feeling quite embarrassed to say, “Our room.”“At once, Mrs. Chevalier,” both of them stood on each side of Callan and stood up. Callan moved a bit and maybe realized what was going on.With eyes half
Callan’s POVTHE COLD WAS SEEPING THROUGH the back of my neck and to my hands as I stared at my father gasping the hair of some man. Blood was running from the wounded side of his head. He was shivering in fear and growling in pain.A 12-year-old me stood right behind my father. I was feeling the same but without the blood running down my head. Instead, I was shivering and my hands were just grasping the ends of my shirt. We were in the underground portion of our mansion; the hall was dark with only a light hanging in the middle right above the head of the man being tortured. I could not understand why my father was hurting him. He was shouting the words “I’m sorry… I apologize, Don Thoron. I stole the money from the capo. I gave it to the Cato clan. Did you tell them about us—the ravij?”There was no response.“You are well aware of the code of silence,” my father’s voice was stern and another punch landed on the man’s stomach.“Arghhh!” a shout escaped the man’s lips. He was limping
I SLEPT KNOWING there was nothing left for me to do but figure things out sooner. As the next day arrived, Callan’s words resurfaced inside my head. This was the last thing that he said to me before he called it a night. “No one can hurt you as long as you’re with me.”‘But you do, Callan…’ I wanted to say. The gala will be in the evening and the invitation has already been sent to us. Callan was the one who received it from the guards. Then handed it to me as he was fixing his hair. “We’ll leave in an hour. I’ll wait for you in the car.”“W-what? In an hour? Callan, I just woke up.” I looked at the blanket covering my body and touched my hair which I’m sure is a mess right now. “We will roam around the road for a bit and look for clothes for the event in the evening.”“Aren’t you gonna attend to your clients?” I asked as I immediately got out of bed and fixed the sheets. “I am only doing this just because I owe you a lot, Callan. Once this meeting with your relatives is over, you
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