Mafia Guard Loves the Daughter

5

5

The Honest Daughter

Ehryl

I find the sound of my mother’s music calming as I sit in the living room. She had some big surprise for me even though she didn’t say she had, but it was obvious. I know her enough and noticed the way she keeps fidgeting, but even if it’s my birthday, she needs to finish a few things in her office.

The door is ajar. Her classical soothing music filtered in throughout the house. We love her music. At least I do. I’m not sure about the man in the room with me, who is quietly playing chess on his own, while I nurse the cold iced tea in my hands and gazing out the front yard. The beautiful garden was filled with an array of plants that my mom planted. The flowers are muted in the dark, but even they look as if they’re preparing for their nightly slumber.

Canon fills the silence in the room. It would take her a while to finish her work as Tax season is coming. I use this chance to look at Rigel, Orion’s foot. He shone so brightly in the inky dark sky. Shimmering against the belt and torso of Orion.

“You’re hiding something.”

My blood runs cold. I watch my reflection in the window and force my face to remain passive. Unfeeling. “This again?” I sound exasperated.

I feel his heavy gaze on me. I try to spot his reflection in the window, and he’s still on the couch with the chess set on the coffee table. Effortlessly leaning on his knees a hand ready at the board.

“I’m simply stating facts.”

I sighed and just ignored him.

A beat later.

“Why is your default the silent treatment?” He breaks his gaze to move his rook to take a bishop.

I blink. Ripping my gaze away from his reflection and to the silent dark night. Orion’s foot still twinkled at me with the same fervor as earlier.

“Last I checked Ehryl, you’re an adult. You should use your words more.”

I purse my lips. The words were close to slipping from my tongue.

Dieth with his heavy gaze and imposing image, he has this power over people that I don’t understand. But it works. He easily manipulates people the way he wants them with incredible ease. He does it so well that no one questions him about his home life. I’m only sure his close friends know about us. Dany knows about him because we grew up together and have been together longer. She’s the first person that truly forced us to get along. And he doesn’t mind her, nor is he bothered by her presence.

He’s an enigma. But I know the thousands of secrets he keeps. He thinks of me as a small-town girl, with no idea of the world outside of it, yet now he’s asking me to spill my secrets. The irony grates on my skull and heats my skin.

I close my eyes and think of Andromeda. Naming her constellations in my head till my heart eases and my nerves calm down.

Alpha, Alpheratz, beta, Mirach, Gamma, Almach, Mu, Upsilon…

I open my eyes and look over my shoulder, he looks up from his board to meet my gaze full on. He reminds me of a bird of prey. Waiting for me to make a mistake so he could sink his talons into my bones. He sees everything and my one lie, but if he can keep thousands of secrets then I could say one lie.

“I have nothing to hide, but I think you do.” I raise my brows as I slowly turn to face him on the window seat.

He arches his brow with a sardonic smirk. Still nonchalant and filled with ease he finally used his black queen to take a knight. “Everyone has secrets, but some keep them better than you do.”

“I’m not keeping anything” I hear Mom’s music easing to another calming classic. I Giorno. Its soft melody is low and calming, a great contrast from the tenseness between the two of us. “But I know your secret.”

He checks the White, and fluidly tips the king over. It rolls off his board and to the floor. Towards me. I watch it slowly roll on the floorboard and freeze a meter away from me.

My eyes were only away for a few seconds. But the next second I looked at him, there was a shift in his face. The ease has faded, and in front of me is the man I know he is.

The man my father planted in this family.

He oozes deadly confidence. The danger that Dany once said she noticed about him made him dangerous and attractive. The European boy who came to our doorstep was a mirage as the man in front of me couldn’t possibly be that boy.

“I don’t think you do.”

“What makes you think that?”

His lip twitches. “Because if you knew who I am, you wouldn’t be comfortable being alone in the same room with me, being normal like this”

He doesn’t know. He hasn’t figured it out. I smiled at the irony but almost cried because of it. I grit my teeth and force the tears back as I stand from my seat. I was meaning to walk away, but I spotted Mom leaving her office with a large, gift-wrapped box in her arms.

In instinct, I smile wryly. I don’t have good instincts.

“What? Didn’t you give me your gift already?”

“I think you deserve two gifts. So what?” She beams. Handing me the large and heavy gift in my arms. “Careful”

I almost dropped the box. Surprised by the weight of it. “W-What is it?”

“Our gift for you” Dieth stands from the couch, resuming back his usual laidback demeanor. An easy lopsided smirk and tilt of his head. He should win an Oscar “I chipped in for that by the way.” no remnants of our earlier conversation remained. A mask he easily slips back on like breathing.

I pry my eyes away from him and try to soften my words as I say “Thank you, you guys. You really didn’t need to give me—” I tore the wrap off and I almost dropped it all over again. “Is… this a MacBook Pro?”

“Yeah!” Mom jumps up and down with the largest grin on her face. “For college! It’s one terabyte and everything. I don’t know much but I told Dieth to pick the highest end because you deserve it.”

“Mom…” my throat feels dry. “This must have been expe—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Dieth interjects

“he’s right. Don’t even think about that, little duck” Mom places a hand on my cheek. Her motherly smile is a great contrast to her beaming eyes. “You deserve everything good in this life.”

“You do deserve it” Dieth adds with a grin. Not sure if he’s honest.

And I’m not sure if I really do.

I put the gift on the nearest surface I could leave it on, dropping it like a hot potato. Then wrap my arms around my mom, who laughs. Dieth just watching the both of us with amusement in his eyes, but his gaze on me has an air of suspicion in it. I close my eyes to ignore him.

“You’re going to have the best time,” Mom says close to my ear. “You’re going to be a scientist!”

I painfully nodded along.