For The Famiglia: Arranged Devotion (Complete)

Leather lounges and higher learning

It had been a week since I had moved in school was yet to start leaving me with much free time and I had made it my mission to get some sort of comfort and home feel in the apartment. Its cold modern ascetic was most unpleasant and a complete eyesore. Santos was busy constantly to my relief leaving me alone considering every interaction between us was an argument. I stood back appreciating the walls the paint had now dried to a deep midnight blue there was so many windows in the place the darkness of the walls weren’t so off-putting plus the brighter coloured furniture I had ordered to replace was bright enough to balance but out of everything I had done my favourite was the nook underneath the second floor, lined with wallpaper looking like brick with plants, books and a comfy chair by the large window it was a perfect study area. I wasn’t sure if Santos noticed or frankly if he had been at home since I had delved deeper into the project but I didn’t care much. His father ordered him to do whatever to make me happy anyway. As I stood in the nook aligning books on the shelf I was quick to find that out, however, “What the f**k!” I heard an echo across the apartment “Catarina!” Santos’s shouted as he made his way through the open floored room. It wasn’t hard to find me however and he was quick to stand in the entryway of the area “what the f**k is all this?” he demanded standing impatiently by the entrance.

I simply fixed the books however before acknowledging him “What is what?” I feigned dumb.

“All this! What is all this! Where is all my s**t” he exclaimed.

“Didn’t your father say to do whatever makes me happy? Well, I wasn’t happy so I changed it” I admit part of that was true I wasn’t happy in the cold looking apartment but it was also for petty reasons.

“You can’t just redo the entire apartment, Catarina” he argued.

“I can, you left me your credit card remember” I shrugged. Wasn’t this what the wives did in our world anyway. I’ve never once seen a man care about the decor of a house.

His jaw tensed at my remark “where is my lounge?” he suddenly switched subjects.

“The leather one? I got rid of it” I carelessly explained.

“That was my lounge!” he shouted.

“And it was ugly!” I shouted in return. Santos marched closer till he was practically standing over me a scowl on his face. Things was tense between us as they always were these days.

“Your testing my patience” his voice was suddenly low and deep, cool mint eyes staring at me.

“Isn't that why your father picked me” I challenged. Shaking his head Santos began to turn away “you opened this box when you lied to me Santos” I continued in defiance staring up at the large man in front of me.

“Have it your way, Catarina your the one who has to live in it more than me anyway” he simply waved me off “just leave some of my s**t alone” he barked before storming off.

:::

It continued like that in most of our interactions we would argue luckily he was right most of the time he wasn’t around and I was in the apartment alone in between phone calls to my family and meeting with Fia. A part of me thought about getting a pet of some sort but I wouldn’t get to spend much time with it starting college and all. To my joy, it was finally my first day my schedule was going to be busy three days in class, one-half day and an online course but I didn’t mind a workload, I always did enjoy keeping myself busy and perhaps it would give me a good outlet outside of my married life and with its current state it was probably for the best. Once I was on campus I felt like just another college student, no one knew who I was I could just go about my life freely perhaps even make a friend though I wasn’t the most social person, I was more looking forward to my education anyway the reality of what I would do with my future degree was yet to be determined but I’m sure I would figure it out along the way. Just as I was feeling like a regular student however it all quickly went to a halt “Catarina, Riny” I heard my name forcing me to search for the source when I found it my eyes practically popped out of my head.

“Dario... What are you doing here?” it came out more scolding than anything and perhaps it was. I knew what a dangerous president this was.

“It’s great to see you too, Rin” he beamed that wide smile he always flashed when we were growing up. Out of all Montrel’s boys, Dario only shared the thick dark hair and dark eyes of his father otherwise he was the exact image of his mother.

“Cut the bullshit, what are you doing here?” I questioned. It wouldn’t be wise to speak so frankly with someone older amongst us but I didn’t care when it came to Dario.

“Always straight to the point, Rin” he laughed “don’t worry no one knows I’m here. I’m just here for school, it’s been approved.”

“You’re going to school here in New York?” my jaw could have had to be lifted from the ground in shock. Going into someone else’s city was dangerous.

“I am...” he stepped closer still holding a smile on his face “looks like you and I are going to be seeing a lot more of each other again, Rin.”

Montrel’s words began to throb within my mind no doubt this had something to do with it. Another chess move on the board. I pushed myself to hide any nerve however “Well I better get to class...”

“Of course” he nodded “see you around campus.”