Mattia

Nuelle and Marco had long driven away from the house, but somehow I was still staring at where I last saw them. Every bone in my body blamed me for thinking that staying quiet was the best choice. Drowning in self pity was not what I had my mind set on. I had promised myself that I would confess my feelings for her the first chance I could get. But, after she openly admitted to being in some sort of situation with my brother, I realized that maybe I did not have a chance to begin with.

I only ever wanted to keep my family safe and happy. Yet, somehow this code that I lived by only caused our destruction. When Tia and Christoph drove into the driveway I urged myself to move. There was no need for them to question me on why I was standing in the damn hallway for no apparent reason. I took a deep breath before I opened the door to my bedroom. I had expected something to be thrown at me which is why I carefully walked in. My eyes scanned the room for her when she was nowhere to be seen. I closed the door behind me and took one more look around the room.

"Gia?" No answer. I headed into the bathroom and found her sitting on the floor near the toilet, crying her eyes out. She had pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

"If you don't want to go through with this then just say it!"

"Get up." I walked up to her.

"Don't!" She moved away from me. "Answer me."

I sighed, "I never said anything about not wanting to get married."

She stayed quiet for a second. Her eyes staring me down, whatever was going on in her head was happening fast.

"Then I want to elope."

"What? You've already started with the preparations. You were the one who picked out the date."

"And now I'm deciding that I want to elope."

"Gia", I paused to collect my thoughts. "What is this about?"

"You want this or not. If yes, then we elope."

"I'm not eloping. I have too much shit to deal with as is, I'm not doing something that reckless only to have to deal with your people afterwards. The wedding will go as planned!"

I turned on my heel and headed to my office. Gia was known to overreact, however something else seemed to be at play here. She was the type of person to find joy in glamorizing every detail of her life, eloping was most certainly not an element of that category.

I opened up my laptop to check work e-mails to catch up. I was ready to make my return to the office. There was still much that needed to be taken care off and I had lost sight of the importance of maintaining the well being of our business. I needed to get back on track which is why I sent an email to Lana, letting her know about my return as well as to have her plan a staff meeting. Not long after I got the notification that I received an e-mail. I had just turned towards my laptop to click on the notification when a knock on my door disrupted the process of doing so.

"Busy." I said, thinking that it was Gia.

"Mattia?" Marissa's voice called out to me instead.

"Come in."

She walked in with her head hanging low, eyes reddened and puffy. I sat back in my chair and waited until she was seated.

"To what do I owe this visit?" I asked curiously.

There was a brief moment of silence before she said the most random, shocking thing.

"I'm in love with Tobias." She murmured as she blankly stared at my desk.

I was confused as to where this was coming from. "Did he do something to you? Did he threaten you?" A thousand thoughts rushed through my mind.

"No," she shook her head. "I've always been in love with him." She spoke with tears.

"Where is this coming from!" I thought I was losing my mind. "Marissa— whatever is really going on, you can tell me."

"You're not listening to me!" She sounded hysterical.

"Dammit, Marissa. What the fuck is going on in this house." I ran my fingers through my hair as I spoke to myself. "I'm not doing this with you. You know better than to mess with a fucking asshole like James."

"He's good to me. When are you going to accept this? I sneak around with him, you pretend not to know. For how much longer are we going to keep this up."

"Like I said. He's not a good man. I've been lenient with you. I have been letting you have your way, but I have also always been vocal about my ill feelings towards him. One mistake, Marissa— and all of this will be gone. I don't give a shit if you want to fuck him. But, that's about it."

Within a blink of the eye Marissa had gotten up and stormed out of the room. The pen I had in my hand flew across from me as I could no longer control my rage. I wanted to break something or someone and at this point the only two people that crossed my mind were James and— my brother.

Truth is that I did not know about my sister's secret relationship. However, I sure as hell knew that it needed to stop. I could not think straight, yet somehow I wrote a strategic business plan that covered thirty something pages. It was either converting the bad energy to something as positive as this or— hurt someone.

I would not have known that I had intensely been working for almost three hours straight if Emillio did not come knocking at my door to let me know that he had arrived. I walked him out to get some fresh myself. I wandered off into the backyard. It been a while since I last took some time to— just be. To not worry or overthink. I took a seat on one of the pool chairs, soaking up the remaining sunlight which was vastly disappearing. I was surrounded by silence until the sound of distant laughter called for my attention. Her voice was kind and full of life. I looked to my right to see her and Marco playfully pushing each other. They could not see me which gave me the opportunity to carefully watch them and analyze their behaviorism. It felt like the attraction and feelings I had yet to find an explanation for were slowly turning into obsession.

------------------------ //

Emmanuelle

My stomach roared with butterflies. Every quick glance, the soft touches and kind words that were shared contributed to my feeling of having a crush. Was it love? No, I knew that. Could it turn into love?

I stared at Marco as my mind scrambled to find an answer to that question. The longer I looked at him, the more I saw his brother. I could not shake off the pain I felt when Dimitri and Gia's engagement was announced. The pain was surreal— different than any pain I had ever felt prior to this experience, but when Marco looked up and smiled at me my mind pushed Dimitri aside.

"Ready to go?"

I nodded and sipped the last of my drink. He called for the waiter, handled the bill after which he got up and held out his hand to me like a perfect gentlemen. We did not rush to get home, instead we took a drive through the city to soak up the last of our weekend freedom before starting work again on the next day. We did not speak much during the ride, but there was no silence in the car due to the old school love songs that were blasting just loud enough for us to hear. Feeling the wind blow through my hair, cooling my face— it felt like freedom. Eventually, we ended up back at the house and with that the disturbance of my peaceful mind returned. We walked into the house, laughing and cracking horrible jokes that would not be funny if told to anyone else.

"Where have you two been?" I heard a voice call from behind us.

When we turned around we saw Tia standing on the staircase. I immediately let go of Marco's hand and hoped that she had not noticed anything. Out of everyone I feared her reaction the most maybe because apart from Anthony, she was the only other person I truly considered my family.

"We— uhh," I struggled to form an answer.

"We just went for a drive to catch some fresh air."

I nodded in an agreement with Marco. Tia did not respond, she just smiled and made her way down.

"I'm going to start dinner. The others must be tired."

My eyes stayed on her until she had made her turn into the kitchen. Meanwhile, Marco was patiently waiting for my attention.

"I—"

"I know," he licked his lips. "There's no need to rush anything. I had fun today."

"Me too."

"Good, then we can do it again."

"I would like that."

"I really want to kiss you right now." He said, seductively.

I looked around us to see if the coast was clear before I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the lips. Marco smirked.

"I'm going to shower and see what I have planned for tomorrow. I'll see you at dinner." He kissed my hand.

I decided to make a quick stop at the kitchen before heading to my room. Even though Tia had walked away in what seemed like a clueless manner, I still needed the reassurance that she had not noticed anything that could lead to unnecessary speculation. Knowing Tia, she would not say anything unless the two of us were absolutely alone and this was the only time I could be alone with her or so I thought. But I could not be more wrong. I walked into the kitchen to see Gianna standing by the sink. I did a super fast 180 turn and went up to my room. My day was going far too well for it to get another chance at being ruined by this woman.

One hour later we all gather around the dining table. I was the last one to join them since I had taken an extra long bath, listening to my music. The look of sour faces were not welcoming at all. If not for Anthony, Tia and Marco, I would have turned on my heel again and stormed off.

Marco had held me a seat next to him which was right across from Marissa. Dimitri sat at the head of the table. Gia sat on his left, Marissa sat next to her and Anthony sat at the end of that row. On Dimitri's right you had Marco, myself and Tia next to me. There was no sign of Emilio and Christoph which was weird since they usually joined us.

Marco and I were the only ones who would casually exchange words. Every time I turned towards him I would catch Dimitri looking at me and he did not bother to look away when I caught him. Soon enough some of the others at the table noticed this too. Marco put his hand on my thigh and gave it a small squeeze, demanding that my attention stayed undivided.

"So, how was the date?" Gianna suddenly asked.

She would have died right there if my eyes could kill her.

"Yes, do tell." Dimitri put his fork down. They basically wanted to know the same thing yet Gia was not amused by Dimitri's comment.

"What date?" Tia asked.

"The one they went on. Right?" Gia spoke again.

I could feel Marco squeeze my thigh again, "We did. It was good." Were the only words that left his mouth.

"When did this happen?" Tia's eyebrows were pushed together.

"I've been wondering the same thing." Dimitri spoke with a bitter tone.

Marco and I looked at each other. We had barely gotten the time and space to truly get to know one another and the pressure from our family had already begun.

"We've just been spending a lot of time at work and decided to hang out today, see what happens."

"You are serious about this?" Concern was evident on Tia's face.

"We haven't decided yet." I spoke under my breath.

"Seemed a lot like it when you said that you're with him." Gia could not keep her mouth shut.

"Okay," Tia waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "You are both adults. You see what works for you. But, whatever happens. We always stay family." She put emphasis on always.

She was right, it was for us too see what does work and what does not. And though I wanted to shout in their faces that it was not any of their business, I did not since I could understand what Tia was trying to say. Whatever would or could happen should not change the dynamic of our family if it is not for the better of it. But what if this change— a change that would break us more apart was needed in order for this relationship to prosper? I could not help but wonder this.