I GAZED AT CALLAN and the way he held our gazes locked with each other made me feel uncomfortable. It seemed like he was just waiting for the right timing to tell me something. "What is it that you're gonna tell me about?" I was bracing myself for the impact of Callan's words. While the surrounding guests were talking among themselves as they gazed in front. Now, things have been settled at the wake of Callan's mother. We both excused ourselves from his relatives then walked to the corner of the hall. Looking at the seats surrounding the area, it dawn on me. This was actually a huge chapel. Somehow, my chest started leaping in unsteady beats. Sighing a shaky breath, I held onto Callan's arms. From a distance, I saw Callan's father stood up on his seat and grabbed a black phone from his pockets. Two men sitting behind him on the chair stood up. When Callan's father walked towards' the exit of the chapel, the men, which I assumed were his boyguards follow him as well.It made me won
THE GUESTS KEPT coming as the hours of the day went on. There was complete silence that filled the surroundings as I sat beside Callan and him beside his maternal relatives. Don Thoron met some people outside of the chapel and maybe sent them instructions on whatever matters. As an underboss of the organization, I believe Callan has to be part of those affairs as well. But no. He was sitting beside me, holding my hand. That gave me somehow a sense of appreciation towards his father, he knew the situation was already difficult to handle but much more when Callan still had to manage things related to the ravij organization which I assumed were currently a mess. I breathed in the silence and weighed of pain inside my chest now that I heard what Callan had kept to himself for some time now. I didn’t know that things escalated slowly in Callan’s life until it ended up in the worst possible state. Even if he repeatedly said that he did not blame me, I still felt crying. From the pain, t
THE FUNERAL SERVICE of Callan’s mother began. The chapel hall was filled will silence with only the sound of the service echoing in the surroundings. Hands intertwined with each other, I leaned onto Callan’s shoulders. I caressed his wrist hoping that would be enough to ease his pain. We then rode the car to the coast in the next town. There was a beach that Callan’s mother truly loved. Don Thoron announced that his wife would want to be in that exact place for the last time. It was afternoon when we arrived there. The sun strikes our skin but not so intensely that it hurts. To others, it may just be a normal sunny day. But to the Chevalier and Ravij family, this was one of the saddest days in their life—especially for Callan. They walked towards the coast, looking below where the waves crushed through the rocks. The wind blew my hair as I kept looking at Callan standing beside his father. He was holding the gold urn. His father lifted the lid and emptied the ashes into the ocean.
WITH A NOD, I looked away to gaze at the window on my side at the backseat. Callan was caressing the side of my head as I was leaning onto his shoulders. The drive towards the barracks as he called it was long. It took around three hours on the road, non-stop. It was a miracle that I kept my mouth together and prevented myself from asking questions. A phone rang inside the car, I was sure it was Callan’s phone as soon as I heard the familiar ring. He moved and I backed away from him a little. As he positioned his phone to his ears, I heard the faint voice of the person on the other line. “Did father already arrive?” Callan asked the person on the call. I observed his movements in silence, when I looked ahead onto the passenger’s seat, there was Aakil just looking ahead onto the road. The driver had been someone unfamiliar, but looking at his face he had the same aura as Aakil, eyes on board and composure intact. Several minutes passed by before Callan dropped the call and retur
I STILL COULDN’T look at the man, my heart was still getting pricked by pity but the decision was not on me. It wasn’t my people that have died because of a traitor. And the fact that because of this man’s betrayal, Callan’s mother was killed among many others? The pity I felt was slowly covered by anger.We stood at the portion of the room where enough lights had been turned on. Callan revealed himself to everybody and they all paused—the man from beating their prisoner others from training onto the dumbbells from a corner and others from cleaning out their guns.The surroundings were dominated by men, but there were also women that I see. Around my age, if not older than me.A door opened right in front of us. The old man addressed as the consigliere of the mafia organization revealed himself and had invited us in.“The underboss has arrived along with his esposa.”Only Callan and I walked inside the room held open by the consigliere. There were several men gathered at the long tab
AS THE GENTLEMAN around the table gathered ideas, I kept my silence. Instead of blabbering just anything to join the conversation.Callan had joined in and laid down the status quo based on his informant. I was astounded by the way he managed to capture the attention of around 10 men to listen to him with a commanding presence and charisma.Soon, I realized that the ravij organization was filled with decent-looking people but with the blackest of morality as none of them were innocent. I did not feel comfortable right in an instant, nor will I ever.But I knew that we were conspiring against a common enemy, and it was better to connive with the lesser evil from my perspective this time.Listening to the men leading the conversation, I’ve had the chance to observe them—from the way they look and present themselves. They looked a little ragged with messy hair but had huge accessories around their neck and wrists. They have huge watches as well. Others were leaning onto their chairs with
CALLAN’S EXPRESSION softened and he squeezed my mind. He did not say anything immediately instead, his lips moved but was still thinking very carefully. “She could fire a gun,” somebody spoke breaking the silence inside the room. Two men stepped inside the room. It was Capo Mariano and his son Alec. I stood up from my chair and smiled. “Oh my god, you’re here.” “Sorry, we were late,” Alec shrugged his shoulders apologetically. But extended his arms for a quick embrace. On the other side of the table, Capo Mariano shook hands with his peers who immediately offered him a chair. “Where have you been? I didn’t see you earlier.” Callan answered my question instead of Alec. “They were asked to keep a look out at the highway where father and my relatives passed through.” He also stood up and nodded at Alec as a greeting. “I can look after Esme when we’ll be in Italy when we assassinate that fucked up ass Aldo Cato.” “I can protect my wife,” Callan said without hesitation. The men a
THE CAR SPEEDS OFF like it was rushing to just get to somewhere. In the backseat with Callan’s hand resting on my thigh, I could hear the loud erratic beats of my heart synchronizing with his.We were sitting so close to each other that it would be impossible to keep our hands to ourselves. I hugged his arm and rested my head on his chest and he was caressed the top of my head.There was nothing else left to do at the barracks. While Alec and Uncle Mariano decided to stay for a while to talk to Don Thoron about some matters, I knew my part in the meeting had been enough earlier.I can’t pretend I know the entire deal that’s happening in the organization, but at least I can appreciate what Callan has done.We were dropped off by the driver to a hotel, far from the town. I believe it is for safety reasons. It would be better to stay away from places where Callan might be recognized by anybody with ill intentions.Callan opened the car door for me. “Thank you,” I muttered, smiling.We we
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