Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
“But we have to do something!” Aria exclaimed.
“I won’t go into war over this!” Luca hissed.
I understood him. He had to consider only the Famiglia. But I didn’t have to.
***
Liliana
I was woken by the ringing of a phone. Slowly my conversation with my Father and then Romero replayed in my mind. My eyes darted toward my travel bag in the walk-in closet, thinking and hoping it was Romero again before I remembered that it was on mute. Disappointment crashed down on me once more. I sat up, disoriented and exhausted from crying. The clock on the nightstand told me it was only 10pm. I walked toward my desk where the landline phone was and picked it up. It was Aria. She must have heard already. Had Father called her to tell her the good news?
I picked up. “Hi Aria,” I rasped. There was no hiding that I’d been crying. Aria knew that voice.
“Oh, Lily. I just heard. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe it.”
“We’re not going to let Father get away with it. We’ll figure something out,” Gianna shouted in the background. They were together, they had husbands they loved, and I’d be stuck here with an old man I would never be able to love. How could things have gone so horribly wrong?
“Did Father call you?” I asked, my voice regaining some of the emotionlessness I preferred.
“No, he didn’t. We found out through Romero.”
“He told you.”
“Yes, he did,” Aria said slowly. “He attacked one of the other soldiers who said something to him, so Luca had a word with him, and figured it out.”
“Why did he attack that man?”
“What do you think? Because he doesn’t want you to marry Basci,” Aria said softly. “He’s been trying to call you for the last hour but you didn’t pick up. He almost went crazy over here. He wants to talk to you.”
“He’s there with you?”
“Yes. I’ll hand him the phone now, okay?”
Fear corded up my throat. “Okay.”
“Lily,” Romero murmured into the phone. His voice was anything but detached now. I released a harsh breath and felt tears run down my face.
“Lily?”
I swallowed hard. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me anymore now that I’m promised to someone else.”
“No, never. I know I didn’t react the way I should have. I…I was so angry when you told me your fucking Father wants to sell you off to that old bastard. I wanted to fly over there and kill him. I didn’t want to let out my anger on you so I tried to push it back.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Do you still want to run away?”
Yes, more than anything else. “It would mean war. You said it yourself.”
“I don’t care. I would risk war for you.”
“Is Luca there to hear you say that?”
“No, he isn’t.”
“He would kill you if he could hear you.”
“Your sisters would risk war over you as well.”
I didn’t doubt it. Gianna, in particular, but even Aria who was the more reasonable would do anything to protect me, and that was what scared me so much. Fabiano would soon be in the midst of mob business. The war with the Russians had gotten worse in recent years, and I probably didn’t even know half of it. If New York and Chicago started fighting each other again, this could cost the lives of many people I cared about.
“I have to meet him tomorrow.”
“I don’t want you alone with him, Lily.”
“But what if he asks me and Father says ‘yes’?”
“You are a honorable Italian girl, play that card. If I have to worry that you’ll be alone with him I’ll book the next flight and be there tomorrow. Fuck. I want to do just that and kill him.”
I smiled slightly, wishing he could. I wanted nothing more than to have him with me, to feel his arms around me. “I’m not a honorable girl anymore. Maybe if I tell my father I can get out of this marriage.”
“He might kill you. Your father has been very volatile since that thing with Gianna.”