The Mafia’s Revenge

| 5 | You should've listened to me...

Emeliana and Demetrio don’t say a word to each other as they drive back to the Delassaro Manor. He knows how exhausted she is and respects the fact that she wants to remain silent as they head back home, they’ll have plenty of time to talk when she’s finally ready. They pull up to the mansion and park the car right at the front as Demetrio turns the car off and steps out quickly, walking over to Emeliana’s side and opening the door for her. She takes a soft breath and slowly steps out of the car, inhaling sharply as her bare feet would come in contact with the cold concrete ground.

“You good?” Demetrio asks her as he notices her walking slowly on the ground because of her lack of shoes.

“Yeah, I’m good.” She tells him, slowly picking up her walking pace as she gets used to the cold sensation against her feet.

The two of them make their way towards the doors of the mansion where the guards on duty look at Emeliana peculiarly, greeting her subtly and quickly opening the door for her to enter with Demetrio. She walks through the doors and into the mansion, her first instinct being to check the living room since she believes everyone has been waiting anxiously for her to come back.

She doesn’t even reach the living room before she notices Cartelli, Caesaro, Amethyst and Celestia step out of the archway and all look at Emeliana with relief.

"You're back, finally..." Caesaro is the first to speak up as he looks at Emeliana with a smile, but his smile along with Amethyst’s and Cartelli’s begin to drop slightly as soon as they see the state Emeliana is in.

“Hey…” Emeliana greets them and watches as their relief quickly turns into worry and concern.

"What happened...?" Cartelli asks her. Since the time Demetrio was leaving, he didn’t bother to tell them anything, he just said he was needed by Emeliana and left before anyone could ask why.

"Emeliana, are you okay?" Amethyst speaks up as she stares at her friend carefully, seeing that her dress is a complete mess and her makeup is completely ruined, black lines of tears and mascara running down her face.

"Yeah I'm okay…“ She mumbles, not wanting Amethyst to worry but she really isn’t okay…

"Where is Luca...?“ Celestia speaks up as she stands behind Caesaro, looking at both Emeliana and Demetrio with crossed arms.

"And Adriano...?" Cartelli adds on and Emeliana frowns to herself, feeling horrible about having to break the news to Cartelli…

"They're at the hospital…" She mutters hesitantly, watching as Cartelli frowns worriedly and takes a step closer to Emeliana.

"Hospital?" Why what happened to them?" He continues to ask and Emeliana takes a deep breath, mentally preparing to tell Cartelli and the rest of them what happened.

"Adriano got shot..." She finally says and fear washes over Cartelli’s face, staring at Emeliana for a few seconds in disbelief before he shakes her head at her again.

"What?" She questions her, not believing what she said that first time.

"By who? What happened? Is he okay?" Celestia is the one to speak up this time, walking closer to Emeliana as she too has the same worried expression as Cartelli does.

"He's okay... he'll be okay..." Emeliana tries to assure them but she knows it’ll be hard to do especially when she’s trying to believe herself as well… "He had surgery a while ago… but he hasn't woken up, his Doctor said it’ll likely be tomorrow morning. Luca stayed behind so he could be with him.“ Emeliana explains all of them as she glances between them.

"Okay, okay... but who shot him? I swear I'll kill whoever it was...“ Cartelli seethes and Emeliana watches as his fists tighten angrily at his sides, understanding why Cartelli is so upset…

“It was Calvino but he…” Emeliana tries to tell them but instead, she finds herself biting her own tongue, stopping herself from saying anything further.

“He’s what Emeliana…” Amethyst encourages her to continue and Emeliana looks back at Amethyst and sucks in a deep breath, releasing her tongue before she finally answers them.

“He’s dead… I killed him…” Emeliana answers monotonous and shock and surprise washes over all of their faces, never expecting Emeliana to be the one that actually kills Calvino…

“Whoa…” Caesaro lets out as he stands on Cartelli’s left side, staring sadly at Emeliana.

“Emeliana…” Cartelli says softly and Emeliana doesn’t feel like she needs to engage in this talk with them right now, she’s way too tired… Luca was right about her needing some rest.

“We’ll talk about this later or even tomorrow. I’m gonna go get cleaned up, it’s been an intense night…” She breathes out before she begins to walk past them, not saying a word after that. She heads up the stairs slowly and makes her way over to her room. Once she reaches her door, she opens it and steps inside, closing and locking the door once she’s in before she faces forward and looks particularly at nothing as she imagines all that happened tonight, all the blood she saw, Calvino’s disfigured body, all because of her… it was all her fault…

She can’t help herself, she feels sick to her stomach and she ends up running to the bathroom in a panic, shoving open her bathroom door before she racing to the toilet and leans over it, immediately throwing up harshly, retching as her body forces her to empty out the contents of her stomach. Once she is done she coughs loudly and feels herself start crying once again, slowly pulling herself to her feet before she flushing the toilet and begins to strip down to nothing. She is completely naked and stares at her herself in the mirror, seeing how messy she looks, but she feels even worse…She doesn’t even know whether to call this night a success…

She turns away from the mirror and walking into her shower, turning the water on and stepping under it immediately, not caring if it’s still cold at first before it slowly turns hot. She shuts her eyes and creases her eyebrows, running her hands through her hair as it absorbs the water, feeling tears in her eyes once again. She begins to sob to herself, quietly at first until it becomes louder and louder, her cries being drowned out by the sounds of the water hitting the ground…

.  .  .  .  .

After about an hour-long shower, Emeliana finally dresses up in some more comfortable closing, a baggy black top and pyjama shorts with black socks and fluffy slippers. She feels a little better after her shower but she’s still on edge, she still wants to hear from Luca, and he hasn’t returned yet so it makes her wonder if he even will tonight since he insisted on wanting space…

Emeliana, in an attempt to get rid of her anxiety, begins to leave her room and make her back downstairs where she would hear a couple of voices. Once she gets back to the living room, her eyes land on Demetrio, Cartelli, Caesaro, Celestia and Amethyst who are still sitting around and talking amongst themselves, their voice being the only ones sounding in the house since everyone else has gone home or retreated to their respective rooms.

“Emeliana, you’re still up…” Demetrio lets out as soon as his eyes land on Emeliana, shifting slightly in his seat so he can face her.

“Yeah, what time is it…?” Emeliana mumbles as she walks towards them, walking towards Amethyst and taking a seat beside her.

“11 PM…” She answers her and Emeliana nods before she glances at the rest of them.

“Okay, I’ll brief everyone in the morning then…” Emeliana tells them before she crosses her legs on the couch and begins playing with her hands.

“Now that Calvino is dead, should we be celebrating or getting inside a bunker…” Caesaro asks as he looks between Demetrio and Emeliana, a determined frown resting on his face.

“I don’t know, it’s really hard to say without Luca and Adriano here…” Emeliana shakes her head at him, still keeping her eyes on her hands.

“The guards said that Luca is actually on his way in, I just got word…” Demetrio gives Emeliana the heads up, making her look back at him as that one sentence grabs all her attention.

“He is? O-okay…” Emeliana nods, and for some reason, she feels her heart race in her chest. She’s not sure how Luca will react to her insisting that they should talk, but he can’t keep shutting her out, she has to at least try.

“You Delassaros are gonna need to watch your backs from now on.” Celestia begins to say, making all of them look at her. “Bonavelli won’t be pleased to hear what happened to Calvino… I know what that man is capable of doing…” Celestia speaks, almost as if she is talking from experience.

“Celestia is right… we’ll need to be extra cautious from this point on…” Cartelli agrees and Emeliana can tell that he is just as anxious as she is, perhaps he's even more worried than she is about Adriano.

“It’s been a long day, you guys should get some rest… we’ll meet up again in the morning…” Emeliana tells all of them, wanting them to rest up as well since it’s been an exhausting day for everyone.

“She’s right, we’ll have more info on this whole thing tomorrow, rest up guys…” Demetrio lets out as he stands to his feet and everyone else does the same except for Emeliana.

“Goodnight then,” Celestia says before she is the first to walk away with Caesaro just as the rest say the same to them. Emeliana turns to look at Cartelli and decides to stand up from the couch and approach him, grabbing his arm lightly and looking up at him.

“Cartelli, he’ll be okay, don’t worry…” She tells him before she hugs him briefly, wrapping her arms around his torso just as Cartelli welcomes her warm embrace.

“Okay… sleep well Emi…” He tells her before he lets go of her after a moment.

“You too…” Emeliana tells him before she lets him walk away.

“Amethyst, I’ll come up in a second, I wanna talk to Luca first…” Emeliana tells her just as Demetrio walks up to her and looks back at Emeliana.

“Okay sure, you might find me sleeping already though, cause I’m a little tired as well…” Amethyst responds just as she nods briefly in understanding.

“No stress, if I so then goodnight in advance…” emeliana says finally just as Amethyst begins to back away with Demetrio.

“Goodnight…” She tells them both of them just before Demetrio smiles at Emeliana and begins to leave with Amethyst. Emeliana remains completely alone downstairs, turning around to face the front door as she begins to walk towards it, waiting for Luca to finally walk through the double doors.

She waits in silence for a few minutes before she soon watches as the doors begin to open and in walk Luca, exhaustion and anger as clear as day on his face as he frowns to himself. As soon as he walks in, he pauses for a moment and stares at Emeliana, holding onto the heels that she had left in his car from the time she arrived at the hospital.

“Luca…” Emeliana breathes out, smiling at him a little as she walks towards him, feeling completely relieved to see him.

“Hey…” He greets her as he slowly walks into the house and approaches Emeliana.

“Hi…” She lets out as she keeps her eyes on him, holding onto her hands nervously.

“I thought you would’ve gone to sleep by now…” Luca lets out as he continued to walk towards her but instead walks past her which creates a sharp sting in her chest.

“I was waiting for you…” She mutters and it makes him come to a stop and sigh to himself, sighing softly as he turns back to look at her, finding her staring at her warily and nervously.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Luca shakes his head at her a few times.

“I wanted to, I still think we should talk…” Emeliana tells him as she continues to walk towards him. He lets out another breath through his nostrils before handing Emeliana her heels.

“Fine, come on…” Luca tells her before he tilts his head, motioning for her to follow him. She sucks in a breath of relief and lets go of her hands, trying to let her nerves subside as she walks behind him. She is still incredibly anxious about their talk and doesn’t know how it’s going to end, she just hopes that Luca can forgive her for the mistakes she made tonight.

The walk silent towards Luca’s room and he opens the door for the both of them to enter, closing the door after Emeliana has entered the room. As soon as she’s inside, her eyes follow Luca as he walks towards the edge of the bed and takes a seat, letting out a heavy sigh before he faces Emeliana once again.

“W-what did you do with Mattia…?” Emeliana asks nervously. As she brings up Mattia, she can’t help but worry slightly about his wellbeing. He’s simply collateral damage and she hopes that no real harm comes to him since he has never actually wrong Emeliana.

“Don’t worry about your little boy toy, I put him somewhere safe,” Luca says bitterly as he glares at Emeliana, and at the mention of that, she feels her heart drop.

“What?” She asks as she shakes her head at him, taking a few steps forward as she slowly places her heels down on the floor. “Luca, what the hell does that mean?”

“I saw you Emeliana, I saw you dancing with him, he had his f*****g hands all over you and you didn’t even do anything to stop it…” Luca says angrily, motioning his hands to Emeliana’s body, his tone rising a little as he frowns at her jealously.

“Luca, it wasn’t like that… it did mean anything, I swear… I was trying to distract him long enough for the sedative to take effect…” Emeliana tries to explain it to him, understanding why he is so upset and how he might have misinterpreted the situation, but from the looks of it, he doesn’t seem to be buying it.

“Luca, please, you have to believe me…” Emeliana insists as she walks up to him, taking a short breath before she hesitantly speaks again…. “I-I… know you’re also angry about Adriano…” She mumbles and Luca huffs and stands up from the bed, keeping his hands on his hips as he begins to pace around irritatedly, barely even looking Emeliana in the eye.

“Of course I’m angry.” He forces out, clenching his jaw before he finally looks Emeliana dead in the eye. “Adriano got shot because you decided to go after Calvino on your own when I specifically told you not to…” Luca tells her sternly, motioning his hand towards her to add emphasis.

“I saw an opportunity and I chose to take it Luca, I-I-I… couldn’t wait for two of you to come to my rescue…” Emeliana tries to explain. When she saw Calvino, she had to act on instinct, and though she regrets that the death of Calvino came at the price of Adriano getting hurt, he is still gone, and they no longer have to worry about him.

“How can you even say that? We’re supposed to protect you Emeliana, but how are we supposed to do that when you make it so f*****g difficult…” Luca hisses at her, all while trying not to raise his voice at her because at the end of the day, she’s still the girl he loves… but that doesn’t mean she can do whatever she wants without consequences.

“You should’ve listened to me…” Luca lets out and he sounds completely defeated as he runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head, visibly frustrated about the entire situation.

“I know, I know and I’m sorry… I’m sorry Luca, for everything, the guilt is eating me alive…” Emeliana says to him, fighting back the tears she feels in her eyes as she walks up to Luca and grabs hold on his hands, trying to look him in the eye but he tries to avoid her eye contact altogether.

“Luca…” Emeliana says softly before she grabs hold on his face making him look at her and that’s when he notices the tears in his eyes, watching him blink rapidly as he fights not to let them fall.

“I need time to think Emeliana…” Luca tells her lowly as she reaches for her hands and pulls them away from his face but she is reluctant to let go…

“Luca please just talk to me, I’m here, I’m right here…” She pleads as her tears fall freely and Luca shakes his head at her and steps away way, making her let go of him and stare at him sadly for pushing her away.

“Emeliana, please, please just let me be alone right now…” He says quietly as he frowns to himself and looks down at the floor to avoid looking at her. Emeliana decides to sop forcing it and do as he asks… She f****d up and things are not to going to be fixed in a night, she needs to accept that…

“Okay… okay, I’ll go…” Emeliana tells him as she wipes away her tears and bites her lip, not wanting to cry anymore because of today’s event. She bends down to pick up her heels before walking towards the door, but before she reaches for the handle, she turns back at Luca with her eyebrows creased.

“I love you…” She tells him softly, not knowing if he will say it back or not, and instead of waiting for a response, she leaves the room without looking back again. Once Emeliana is gone, Luca sits back at the edge of his bed and rests his elbows on his knees, holding his head in his hands as he lets his tears fall completely…