Ex flame

In a posh seven-star hotel, Matteo walked inside a well-known restaurant with Nova in tow. As they walked inside the restaurant, the hotel owner escorted them to their reserved cabin. Matteo is oozing power, which made everyone to move out of his way with fright.

"This way sir," the hotel owner said with a hint of fear.

He led them inside a spacious cabin with plush leather seats with and a big square polished wooden table placed in the middle. As soon as he entered inside the cabin, his gaze landed on Sussane, who is looking at him with wide eyes. She lost all the color from her face. She is sitting in Frederick's lap, and the two of them are sucking each others faces. When Fredrick saw him, he pushed her aside and stood up to greet Matteo. She fell down on the floor, unable to gain her balance in her heels.

"Matteo" he greeted with a bright smile, but his smile vanished when his gaze met Matteo's cold ones. Fredrick gulped audibly. He looked at Nova, who intentionally kept his eyes trained on the wall behind Frederick.

"I mean, Mr. Gonsalves" he toned down his voice a bit and added respect to it. 

Matteo is richer than Frederick and his stature is superior to him as well. But he used to be carefree and jovial before. That made a lot of people take him for granted and get away with so many things. But this new side of him scared Frederick.

Matteo gave a curt nod in return and took his seat opposite the California mob boss.

On the other hand, Sussane is still sitting on the floor, almost near Matteo's feet. She is looking at him as if she has seen a ghost. She knows that a day like this would come. But she never thought that day would be today. 

She gathered herself and slowly stood up to her feet. 

Matteo ignored her, while Fredrick is too scared to care about his girlfriend. The California mob boss is in his late fourties. He is a little fat and tall and struggles to stay fit. His hawk like nose is the first thing that everyone notice about him. He is fair and has plump cheeks.

"Your nephew is troubling someone who is important to me. Killing him is easy. But keeping in mind the fact that you always had your loyalties for us, I decided to bring this to your notice. Tell him to stay away from his neighbor. Or else don't blame me if I lost my patience and kill him" Matteo said coldly. He is leaning back and crossed his feet, one over the other. He looked calm and relaxed to everyone. But he is not. Even though he is pretending to ignore Sussane, he is noticing every single thing about her. The shuddered breaths she is taking, the way her hands are shivering when she tried to wipe the sweat off her forehead, the way she is looking at him with her eyes filled with guilt and a hell lot of questions, he is noticing them all.

Sussane is a beautiful woman. But he knows that she is a poison that is addictive. He knows why she betrayed him. 

'I never had feelings for him ' the words that she shared with Mia are still fresh in his mind. He doesn't know the true nature of his feelings for her. But one thing is true, he cared for her, but she used him. 

Now, looking at her after three months, he cannot believe that she is the same conservative woman who used to work with Mia. This woman is dressed in a very short dress and doesn't shy away from anything to please a man for his money and protection. 

Now, to his eyes, she doesn't hold the same appeal that she once had. But then again, he cannot explain the stab of jealousy when he saw her in another man's lap.

Fredrick wiped away the sweat on his forehead. He never felt on edge whenever he spoke with Matteo before. He got used to treating him like he is beneath him, even though that was not the case. But now, he can see that something changed. This Matteo is scaring the shit out of him. 

"I.. I am sorry for the inconvenience. I will immediately reprimand him. He will not trouble you again" he promised.

If this problem has arisen before, he would have told Matteo to adjust and ignore it. But now, he cannot even dare to think about telling those words. 

"Nova" he prompted his assistant to pass on the file Reed gave him.

Frederick immediately accepted the file and began to read it. It is written that Matteo will take care of all their legitimate businesses in California and even Fredrick should report everything to him. When Fredrick saw that Matteo is his new boss, he couldn't control his piss out of fear. Just a few minutes with Matteo is a scary experience. Imagining this same kind of fear long-term scared him.

"Please excuse me," he asked before running towards the bathroom.

When Frederick left the room, Sussane decided to take that opportunity to talk to Matteo. 

"Matt..." she started, but couldn't finish her sentence. 

Matteo banged on the table angrily. Cracks appeared on the otherwise strong wooden surface. Sussane jumped with fright and stumbled away from him. Even Nova got scared.

"It's Mr. Gonsalves for you" he snapped angrily.

Nova realized that Matteo and Sussane had a history. Silently he slipped out of the room.

Sussane became pale. 

"I am sorry Mr. Gonsalves. I am sorry for everything" she apologized sincerely. But he laughed coldly. He gave her a once over.

"Were you planning to apologize to my corpse if I would have died? " he asked sarcastically.

She shook her head as her eyes welled up with tears. But he is not done.

"You trapped the most powerful man in California to protect yourself from me, but you must not have guessed that I will come back as his boss. Now that you noticed that your old boyfriend cannot save you from my wrath, you decided to beg for mercy?" he sneered.

She shook her head to deny his words. What he said is not entirely false. She did trap Frederick to save herself from Matteo. She thought Matteo will not hurt her if she is with Fredrick. But her plans backfired.

'How can I make him believe that I am truly feeling guilty for trying to kill him that night?' she thought.