Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
“Love,” he spat the word. “That I ever loved you was my biggest mistake. I won’t make it again.”
Loved? I could feel my heart shatter as I looked into his menacing face.
“Luca, please.” I reached for him but he shook me off. There was only cold anger in his eyes.
“Because you are my wife, you’ll live. Don’t expect more. We are done.”
I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. I stared at him, my throat clogging, my heart drumming in my chest. For a moment, he hesitated but then he turned and stalked off, leaving me standing there alone.
I sank down on the sofa, where Luca had sat before. The leather was still warm. I touched my stomach and I cried. Cried because I might have destroyed our love. That Luca had let himself love me in the first place had been a miracle. What if I’d lost him forever?
I was still sitting in the same spot when Matteo entered the room cautiously a couple of hours later. He pushed the button that opened the curtains and light flooded the room. I blinked twice, but my lids felt like they were made from lead. Slowly I lowered my palm from my stomach.
“He didn’t kill you,” Matteo said. His voice didn’t reveal his emotions. His facial features were similar to Luca’s, but Matteo was poster-boy pretty where Luca was all hard lines and raw attractiveness. But he looked enough like Luca to set my heart aflame with heartbreak.
He walked toward me, his eyes taking in my bloody clothes and the blood on the couch and the ground.
“Do you need a doctor?”
“It’s not my blood,” I whispered in a raw voice.
Matteo didn’t say anything for a while, only regarded me. “Making him bleed. You are quite good at it for a woman.”
I raised my gaze to meet his straight on. My eyes burnt with unshed tears, but I couldn’t cry anymore. I’d cried for hours. I stood, legs shaky. I grabbed Matteo’s arm. He let me, only regarded me emotionlessly.
“Matteo, I didn’t do anything. I swear on my life. I swear on my…” I trailed off. I’d almost said “child.” “Please, help me. Help me make Luca see the truth.”
“The photos.”
“The photos show me with Dante in a restaurant and a car. We talked. He considered using me against the Famiglia as leverage. That’s all.”
“Then why did he let you go, Aria. Why?”
I stared up at Matteo. I couldn’t tell him about the child when I hadn’t even told Luca. “Because he has an ounce of decency in his body.”
A dark smile curled his lips. “Is that so?”
“Call Dante, call Valentina. They will tell you what I told you.”
“As if their word means anything. They are the enemy. You remember that, don’t you?”
“Then look for the person who took the photos. They probably shot more photos that prove my innocence. Isn’t it strange that Luca gets only the photos that make it look like I cheated? Perhaps someone wants to weaken Luca by destroying our marriage. Perhaps it’s the Outfit’s doing, or someone within the Famiglia.”
I could tell that Matteo was really considering it. “And you really think Luca needs you to be strong? You think they could weaken the Famiglia if they destroyed your marriage to my brother?”
I wanted to say yes, but I wasn’t sure about anything anymore. I was so broken up and confused.
“I would gladly die for Luca,” I said instead. “I love him more than anything else.”
Except for the child growing in me. Our child.
“Then perhaps you should take that knife and put your life down.”
I was stunned. “Do you think he’s better off without me? Luca loves me.”
Or loved? My heart clenched with a pain so acute I almost crumpled.
“He would return to being what he was before you. He’d be worse than that. He would be the monster he needs to be to reign over New York. Whatever small part of him was capable of love, maybe you killed it.”
I nodded mechanically, my insides churning violently as I fought for composure. I turned away from Matteo’s anger, unable to bear it because I knew he was right to be angry. Luca wasn’t a normal man. He was Capo. He was raised to be Capo and for me he’d risked so much, and now he thought I’d cheated on him. If I ever managed to gain his trust back, I’d never do anything without him ever again, not for Gianna, not for Lily, not for Fabi, not for anything in this world.
“You know I’ve watched our father shove a needle under Luca’s fingernails, have seen him cut Luca with a knife, have seen him beat Luca so hard he lost consciousness, but through all that, I never saw Luca show the agony he had on his face when he saw you with Dante.”
I cupped my mouth with my palm, and sobbed. I couldn’t bear the thought of having hurt Luca like that. “I didn’t cheat,” I choked out. “If you don’t believe me, torture me. You said it yourself once: if you use your knife on me, I won’t be able to keep a secret.”
Matteo walked around to face me and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I believe as long as Luca thinks you cheated.”
I touched his forearm. “Please, Matteo, help me prove my innocence. Please, not just for me.”
“Even if you didn’t cheat on him, you went behind his back. You visited enemy territory and risked not only your life, but also Luca’s. He would have put down his life in front of Dante to save you; had you thought about that when you strutted around Chicago?”
“I only wanted to see Fabi. It’s Christmas time,” I said voicelessly.