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Twenty-six:
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Underground Hearts Club Twenty-seven:
Twenty-seven:I had called Nero so that the two of us could talk. Nero and I were about a month apart. Maybe that should have been the tip off that there was something more to the two of us than we had thought. But I couldn’t imagine that my mother wasn’t my mother. There were two many secrets to fathom. The two of us were sitting at the Luna family restaurant, staring at each other.“Well….” Nero fiddled with his drink, which was wine, even though it was in the afternoon.“You put it together, didn’t you?” I said.He raised an eyebrow. “Put what together?”I groaned. “Come on. Don’t be like this. You’re too smart for that. You know exactly why I’m here. We’ve got to talk about the truth.”Nero sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve never wanted a cigarette more badly and I’m trying to quite.”I snickered. “Why, exactly, are you trying to quite? Does that have anything to do with a girl?”He glared at me. “Oh, come on. Don’t talk about this. Things are already weird enough.”“W
Underground Hearts Club Twenty-eight:
Twenty-eight:When I got to my apartment, I was surprised that Galileo wasn’t standing out there with the other two security guards. “Billy,” I said, “where’s Galileo?” Galileo normally went with me everywhere, unless I was with family or Cesare. Since I was with Nero, he hadn’t gone with me. But now I was beginning to think that maybe I did need one around my brother. In fact, I wasn’t even sure who I could trust anymore. I had thought that Thalia was my real mother---but now I wasn’t so sure.“I don’t know,” said Billy, “Galileo hasn’t been here all day.”I raised an eyebrow. “That’s strange. Normally he’s always skulking around somewhere.”Billy shrugged. “Who knows?”“Is Laura here?” I asked.Billy coughed. “Think about that question.”I frowned. “Right, of course. You wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t here.” I opened the door. Inside, Laura sat on the couch, staring outside at the window. I raised an eyebrow. “Laura?”She glanced over at me. “Oh. Hey.”“Are you okay?”She sighed. “I
Underground Hearts Club Twenty-nine:
Twenty-nine: There was someone stroking my face. I woke up, and I was not in a place that I knew of. My vision kept on going in and out but slowly, I focused on the face before me. It was not Galileo. It was not Cesare. And it was not even Nikos or my father. “Daddy?” the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was not Donatello I was looking at. It was the man that I had thought was my father. The Fixer. He smiled up at me. I never called him by his given name. I only kept his last name because it kept me safe. He and Donatello were twins, although it was easier to tell him because he had a big scar above his eyes. His nose also looked like it was broken. “Hey, sweetie.” He also had a deep voice because he’d been in a fire that had damaged his vocal cords. I pulled back from him. “I thought you were dead. I thought…I thought Cesare killed you.” He shook his head. “He let me go.”
Underground Hearts Club Thirty:
Thirty:It wasn’t a dream this time.My real father was alive and well. I was in a secret loft that Cesare Luna apparently owned. I had lived with my aunt. She had pretended to be my mother. But she was not my mother, and my real one had been on the run from Donatello. My father’s brother. My uncle. Nothing made sense.When Cesare finished telling me what we were going to do, I couldn’t help but feel strange. Not because I didn’t believe that he would help me save my family. But because I didn’t know what was real anymore.I was a Vitore.But who was my father? Titus claimed to be. Donatello had also. I didn’t know what was the truth anymore. My father had left me alone. But Cesare was still in the room, looking directly at me. “What are you thinking?” Cesare asked.“I’m thinking you’re unhinged,” I told him, “And I’m thinking that I don’t trust anyone anymore.”He smiled and walked over to the wall. There was a picture hanging from there that I hadn’t noticed before. I squinted at it
Underground Hearts Club Thirty-one:
Thirty-one:We had to have a family dinner to announce our engagement. Cesare had a whole closet for me full of clothes in his room. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was always one step ahead of me and seemed to know from the beginning that I was going to be with him. I was glad that someone had had faith in us. I didn’t know that I had faith in anyone. Everywhere I turned, people weren’t who they said they were. Or they wanted something from me. The one thing I could control was which viper’s den I went into.Cesare was the deadliest.So, I was trusting him.Maybe my judgement was a little clouded because he was the father of my child but I had to trust someone. With Cesare, there was a chance that I could have a family and a future. With everyone else, I would be a pawn in someone else’s game. At least Cesare would let me play in it.“What did your father say when you told him that we were engaged?” I asked.The two of us were in a black car. Cesare’s security guard was driving.
Underground Hearts Club Thirty-two:
Thirty-twoI hadn’t been to the Luna penthouse before. Most of the time, Cesare and his family came to my place with Laura or with me. I knew the Luna’s were wealthy because I’d seen the kind of money that their children had. But the money that Octavius Luna had was completely on another level. When Cesare took me into his parents’ penthouse, I couldn’t help but gasp. “Oh my fucking god!”Cesare laughed. “Impressed?”“You have a Monet on your wall.”“Ma likes art,” Cesare said, “she’s a collector.”Vera Luna came down the stairway and smiled at us. “Ah, the engaged couple!” she said. “You have no idea how happy I am about this. I’ve been watching you two dance around for months…and Cesare says that I have a granddaughter?”I blushed and glared at my fiancé. “You told her about that?”“She’s a grandmother. She’s been bugging me for grandchildren for years. I needed to get her off of my back. I think she was coming up with her own plan to get the two of us together if I didn’t take some
Underground Hearts Club Thirty-three:
Thirty-three:Vera had gotten a plate of cheeses, crackers, meats, and grapes set up for us out on the balcony of the penthouse. Laura poured us glasses of wine. “Does this often happen?” I asked.“You should know,” said Vera, “you’re one of us.” She popped a grape into her mouth.I frowned. “My dad was away a lot of the time, usually on the run from whatever horrible thing he’d done. But I was never really part of the life. I tried my hardest to stay out of it until my daughter was born and things…. things became complicated after that.”Vera smiled at me. “There’s a lot of terrible things that happen in this life. But there’s a lot of good too. For instance, I go to bed every night knowing that my children will never starve and they will always have a roof over their head. Sometimes, something as simple as that is worth the price.”I thought of Tori. I wanted what was best for her. What would I do to ensure my daughters happiness? I had gone to her father and he was probably the wor
Underground Hearts Club Thirty-four:
Thirty-four: You would think, considering how many shady people I was around, that I would have a good radar for danger. But when it came to Cesare and his family, I was finding it harder and harder to read people. Galileo was supposed to be my security guard and someone that I trusted. He was also Cesare’s brother. But somehow, I found myself getting tricked. Over an over again.When I was outside of the building the penthouse was in, I found a gun pointed to my head. “Don’t scream,” Galileo’s voice said, “I don’t want to hurt you. You’re completely useless if I hurt you.”I stiffened. “Galileo…what are you doing?”He pushed the gun harder against my skull and I found it hard not to cry out in pain but I forced myself not to. “Don’t ask questions, Emmilia. You’re going to get into the car and you are coming with me.”Galileo pushed me forward and forced me to get into the passenger’s side of his car. It was red, and once I was inside, he got in on his. “Your father is ver
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