Chapter 109
ALESSANDRO’S POV
The sound of the clock ticking was the only sound that could be heard in the room. My focus was on the tumbler half- filled with whiskey, amber liquid catching the dim light as I twirled it around, the ice clinking against the glass like a warning I refused to heed. A full–bodied cigar too burned between my fingers, smoke curling lazily toward the ceiling like the lies I’d been telling myself lately.
I didn’t want to think about Nikolai.
But I did. Every goddamn second even when I smoked day and night.
My phone rang, vibrating against the table like it had something important to say. I glanced at the screen.. Father.
Of course.
I let it ring until the sound grated on my nerves, then finally picked up, jaw tight.
“What?” I snapped. There was no sweetening my voice.
“Leah is moving into your home.”
It was the first thing my father said to me without even greeting me.
“What the fuck?”
I stilled. The whiskey stopped swirling. The cigar paused mid–air.
“Leah, your fiancé will be moving into your home.” He emphasised every word.
“No, she’s not,” I said flatly.
“Yes, she is,” he said with the kind of finality that only years of control and manipulation could breed. “You’ve embarrassed this family enough. The scandal with the boy was a mistake one we are still cleaning up. Leah is your future. She represents order. Stability.”
I laughed. A sharp, humorless sound. “You mean obedience.”
“I mean legacy,” he barked. “You don’t have the luxury of chasing feelings, Alessandro. You’re not a child anymore. Nikolai was a phase. One I tolerated for far too long.”
I stood up so fast the chair scraped violently against the hardwood. “Don’t say his name like that.”
“Like what? Like he was nothing? Because he is nothing. A distraction. And you, my son, are done being distracted.”
“But we talked about this and I don’t want her“, I ground out, pacing now, the whiskey forgotten on the table, the cigar crushed in the ashtray. “You said you promised you’d give me time.”
“Time has run out,” he said, voice cold as steel. “This family cannot afford another scandal, especially not after Sabrina.”
Sabrina.
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My stomach twisted. The ghost of her name still had the power to claw its way through me.
“She died,” I said quietly, bitterly. “Because of you. Because your nonsense.”
There was silence on the other end. Then a low, threatening murmur.
“Be careful, Alessandro. Grief makes men foolish. Don’t let it make you weak, we are mafias”
I closed my eyes, forcing down the fury and the helpless ache that came with it.
“Nikolai isn’t a scandal,” I said hoarsely. “He was the only thing that ever made me feel like I wasn’t choking in this damn cage you built.”
“And yet here you are,” Father replied, voice smug and composed. “Still in the cage. Still mine to command.”
A long, tense pause stretched between us.
“I don’t think the church will approve of it.” I spoke finally.
“The holy bible doesn’t approve your whore either, Alessandro, he is a man but you are keeping him in your home
anyway.”
“Don’t call—”
He cut me off. “You keep him around to warm your bed. It’s Leah’s duty, not him. If Leah is there with you—”
Then I asked, “Does she know? Leah? That I won’t touch her. That I’ll never love her?”
“She knows what’s expected. And so do you. You’ll be a dutiful husband. You’ll make appearances. Smile when you’re told. You’ll do your part to clean the mess you made. Or I’ll cut Nikolai’s family off from every deal, every connection, every
breath of air we control.”
My blood turned to ice.
“You leave him out of this.”
“Then do what you’re told.”
He hung up.
The silence that followed was louder than any scream.
I stared at the screen; heart pounding, then hurled the phone across the room. It shattered against the wall, glass spraying
like my rage.
Leah. Moving in. The final nail in the coffin of whatever hope I’d been stupid enough to hold onto.
I sank back into the chair, elbows on my knees, face in my hands.
But even in the silence, I still saw him. Nikolai, with stormy eyes and a defiant mouth.
And I knew…
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I was about to lose him all over again.
I ran a hand through my hair frustratedly. “Fucking piece of shit!”
I yanked open the drawer beside the liquor cabinet and pulled out my other phone. I powered it on with trembling fingers, thumb hovering for a moment over the screen before I searched Leah’s number.
It rang once. Twice.
She picked up on the third.
“Alessandro?” Her voice was smooth, expectant. Too calm, like she already knew.
“I’m not interested in you,” I said bluntly. No pretense. “I won’t pretend. I won’t touch you. I won’t play house just because our fathers made a deal over blood and power.”
There was a pause. Then a soft sigh. “I figured as much.”
“Then why agree to move in?”
“Because I’m not stupid,” she said, voice sharper now. “Your father made it clear what would happen to my family if I didn’t cooperate. And you know how these games work, Alessandro. None of us really have choices, do we?”
I rubbed my temple, tension pounding behind my eyes. “You deserve better than this arrangement.”
“So do you,” she replied evenly. “But that doesn’t change what’s happening.”
“I won’t pretend with you,” I repeated. “You move into that house, you’ll be nothing but a name on paper. I’m in love with someone else, and I won’t stop seeing him.”
Silence again. Then: “He’s worth all this?”
I didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”
She exhaled, a mix of sadness and reluctant respect,
“I figured he must be, to make you stand up to your father like this.”
Then, quieter, more hesitant:
“But it still hurts, you
know.”
I frowned. “What does?”
“That I like you too, Alessandro and I am coming to live with you“,
I didn’t bother replying to her, I hung up then dropped the phone onto the table. The whiskey was warm now. Useless. I
downed it anyway, hoping it would scorch away the growing ache in my chest.
But nothing burned like the thought of Nikolai walking out of my life.
Again,
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I lit another cigar, even though the last one hadn’t even gone cold.
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