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I straightened my back. Wide–eyed staring at Mama. “Matteo Santoro is ruling Emperio?” I clarified. “The
Emperio?”
“Yes. Matteo Santoro is the emperor of Emperio, Aletta,” Mama answered and frowned at my reaction. “Why?”
201 PM c d
I shook my head, I can’t answer Mama’s ‘why‘ because another ‘why‘ was also in my brain fogging me.
For real? I gulped.
If Matteo’s the Mafia emperor then why… Why does he need to help me? Why doesn’t he execute his plans for revenge earlier? Why? Was it because he waited for me to… to escape first? But why?
Why on earth he-
“I like you, Aletta. I like your fierceness and control…”
That’s what Matteo told me last night after I left him in his room when I was so heartbroken and sneaked into his room to–to forget everything and we
Does he? Does Matteo really like me?
“No goodbye kisses?”
And that’s how Matteo teased me earlier… I blew him a kiss. Winked at him and left.
I
Fuck! I even flirted at him.
Him–the emperor.
And damn… I laid with the emperor last night. Out of rebellion. Out of desperation. As I said I sneaked into his room last night because I seduced him to–to fuck me.
Yeah, fuck me!
And that was what he literally did to me in his room.
“Great!” I hissed.
“Great?” Mama scrutinized me. “Did I miss something? Or did you miss something to tell me?”
“Bring me home, Mama. I forced myself to smile
“But we are talking about the emperor. I can’t believe he was with the Corvinos… Mama worriedly added. Thinking that the favor of the Mafia’s emperor will be with the Corvinos..
“He said he was there for revenge…” I uttered.
“Revenge?” Mama asked.
I shook my head. “I can’t tell much here, Mama. Can we go home?” I smiled sweetly at her.
“Oh, dear…” Mama said and caressed my face with her warm hands. “Certainly,”
Vitale’s villa was as beautiful as I remembered–timeless, elegant, and filled with the scent of gardenias. Dinner was a quiet affair, a spread of my favorite dishes laid out on the table. I ate slowly, savoring the flavors and the comfort of being home.
Afterward, as we sipped wine in the living room, my mother broke the silence. “Now, tell me everything. Aletta.”
I was stupefied. Thinking Mama will ask again about Matteo. “I have no idea much about the emperor, Mama” I shook my head while saying those words as fast as I could. “I just met him once,” I added as Mama frowned “Actually, it was the message he sent me that made me curious why he knows about the Vitale family.” I smiled awkwardly “And-”
“When I said tell me everything, I wasn’t asking about how you met the emperor, Aletta. I was asking for you to
tell me why you have changed your heart towards enzo. He was your dream, Aletta. The reason you opted to stay
in Milan even though you hated being with your father and Mikaela.”
“Oh ”
“Or should I still ask?” Mama cunningly looked at me, like she was telling me I can’t hide anything from her. “Maybe it was Matteo Santoro that helped you change your mind, right? When will I have a chance to meet the man you fancy now?”
“It wasn’t like that!” I pitched. Shocked by my mother’s assumptions “Matteo and I are just acquaintances
The
because of some task Lorenzo gave him. If I know he’s the emperor then I should not get annoyed and irritated at
him most of those times. My bad, Mama, I always thought of him pissing me off by following me as he was acting as
someone as low as one of the drivers of Lorenzo.”
“Okay,” Mama only said that means I should continue.
“Actually, I realized all the stupidity of mine, Mama Lorenzo. Stefania. The betrayal. The wedding. I’d walked away from all of it because I realized everything I thought was right for me came tumbling out wrong.” The words spilled out before I could stop them. “I was so foolish for thinking that my eight years of cherishing someone could make him really mine. It can’t. It only made me hopeless. Pathetic in the eyes of Stefania.”
“When did Stefania return to Milan, anyway?” Mama asked curiously. “Was that the start of their affair?”
“Yeah,” I sighed and started telling her all that happened the moment Stefania was back in Lorenzo’s life. Mama listened without interruption, her expression unreadable until I finally ran out of words. “I’m so lost and stupid. I thought that I already had Lorenzo’s love when he stuck with me for those years. I never thought he was just waiting for Stefania to be back. Alright, I know he really wanted to marry me–No, not him actually! His parents. Indeed, his parents Luca and Gloria Corvino want me to be their son’s donna and not Stefania. And their reasons? It sucks,
Mama!”
“What was their reason?” Mama asked in her edgy voice
I shrugged. “Me to become the mother of their family’s heir, I’m just a vessel for them, Mama. But I wonder why they don’t like it to be Stefania. Maybe that bitch half–sister of mine doesn’t like her body to bear children at all.”
just not like that, Aletta,” Mama said firmly, her voice low and commanding “You’re my daughter. A Vitale That name is your legacy. And damn the Volante’s name, it doesn’t weigh. And that’s the probable reason for them choosing you over Stefania. They want Vitale’s mafia to be reconnected with them.”
I laughed, a hollow one “What a pitiful family!” I commented.
“True. They are “Mama smiled. “And since you are already here….it’s time to remind the mafia world of what our
name means
My phone vibrated that stopped me from commenting back on what my mother said. I took it out from my pants pocket, thinking of shutting it off again but seeing Matteo’s name made me smile,
“Yes, Matteo?“Tanswered swiftly, but grimaced next as my mother’s gazes daggered on me.
“Acquaintances only, right? Mama hushed.
“Watch the news,” Matteo said. “Can’t believe you forget everything here easily, Damsel. Don’t be like that
“And why?” I asked.
“Because I will follow you when you intend to forget me,” Matteo said, which made me glimpsed at Mama. Making sure she didn’t hear anything. “I will follow you to remind me, Damsel. Remind me and how you moan my
name when 1-
“I think I will watch the news now,” I snapped with my flushed face. I was sure as hell being so red at the moment because of Matteo’s teasing. “Thank you for the information, Matteo,” I added in my formal tone and ended the call.
I typed next, telling Matteo to not call again because I was with my mother and I don’t want Mama to have about us. Since Matteo still doesn’t know that I learned already about his secret being the emperor of Emperio, I still have some aces to play with him for that
