Chapter 23 (Marco)


    I go to my journal and pick it up and take it across the room where I move the rug on the wall aside and


    open my safe, cing the book in a more secure venue. I ignore Aliyana’s tantrum, because that is


    what it is, a tantrum.


    This isn’t about the book; I see it now. It is about us and it’s time we talked.


    “I love Cami, Aliyana, but I’m not in love with her.” My voice is not raised in my confession, nor is it


    changed by the truth. Because for Aliyana this is news to her, but for me, I have said those words in my


    head every single day Iid my cursed soul in her path. Every time I stepped foot in her home I have


    said those words in my head.


    She turns around and I see her tear-stricken face, “I don’t want to hear it, I just want to leave and stay


    gone, please Marco.”


    “No, hear me out, if you still want to leave then go.”


    “Leaving you when I did and how I did was the only option there was. Marrying mees with a heady


    price tag.”


    “Mischa?” She asks, and I nod as she moves into the room, further away from the door.


    “Yes, and no. Ie with an early death sentence. I have a lot of enemies, many of them. When I saw


    you on that rooftop you stole a piece of me, I didn’t want to give to anyone, and every day since, you


    took more. But like you, I made Ren promises, and one of them was leaving you to live your life.”


    “What? But I only met you that day, and Ren died that night.” Shees closer to me and her eyes are


    so confused but wary.


    “It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen you. I knew you from the time you were a kid. Never meeting you in


    person was for my sake of mind.”


    “I don’t understand.”


    “No, you don’t. But I didn’t want to put a child’s face to the woman who would potentially be my wife.”


    “But you chose Cami.”


    “Yes, it is aplicated situation. My father wants me to have an heir and Cami is one I initially


    chose to give me that, but I changed my mind a bit toote. My father agreed to Dante Moretti’s terms


    and the day I approached him about everything, it was toote.”


    “So, you chose to hurt me instead? Do you have any idea how I felt?”


    “I’m ending our engagement. I want to be with you, I’ll marry you in secret and keep you here just like


    Edio did with his wife.” A tear leaks from her eyes and she looks behind me at the painting of the


    beautiful woman who once graced this library. A woman many don’t know about because her


    husband’s love, became her prison, and her life an obsession.


    “I thought you hated me, I convinced myself that I wasn’t good enough, it took me months to get over


    you and now you want to marry me?”


    I walk closer to her and graze her arm which she moves and turns away from me.


    “I loved you Marco, I begged you, you left me without a backward nce to even say goodbye, you left


    me there, then you announced to the entire world that your marrying Cami. Now what? You finally


    see the bitch she is so decided that you’ll just have me? Do you honestly think I am just going to forgive


    you and forget what you did? How you made me feel?”


    “You are mine dammit, you have always belonged to me,” I walk behind her and wrap my arm from


    behind her waist, “I’m sorry, so sorry, I was not strong enough to stand up for both of us, to fight, I’m


    sorry Aliyana.”


    Her knees give out and I willingly go with her to the floor as she sobs. I hurt her, and I’m hurting too, but


    spending this time with Aliyana so close to me and not having her be mine, has made me realize that I


    want her and my brother is right, I am not just a Catelli and Edio DeMarco found a way to be with his


    wife and keep her safe, I can do the same.


    “I love you Aliyana, you can’t leave me, never again.”


    I whisper things in her ear as she quietens down.


    “My father will never allow two of his children to be married to a Catelli, don’t you get it? Your actions


    doomed up.”


    “I will find a way, Aliyana, your father is a man, like all of us.” I will kill him if I have to, she will hate me


    but eventually, she will learn to live with it. She lifts herself up from her position and looks at me with


    her red-streaked face, and glistening green eyes, and I swear my soul leaves my body in hope of


    touching hers.


    “Kiss me,” She utters and I hold on to her neck, knowing if she knew the lengths I would go to have her,


    she will run.


    “Ti Amo, Mezzosangue,” I love you, half-blood. I confess my biggest sin before my mouth descends on


    hers.


    I kiss her like I should have done all these months, I kiss like I have not kissed another and she kisses


    me back, like she is mine, because she is.


    Aliyana’s hands grab onto my shoulders as mine goes to her button. She slips her blouse over her


    head as her naked flesh, a sight for a monster like me remains trapped in a white bra, begging to be


    released. I hold on to her, feeling her pulse race underneath my fingers.


    This what it feels like to have your heart in your fingers. Fragile, yet so powerful it can stop your


    existence like that. Her chest expands, as she watches me with those half-mast eyes.


    It is on this day, a cold Sunday in 2012, 2 days before Christmas that I make a vow, that Aliyana


    Capello will be my wife and I will kill anyone who stands in my way.


    "Take what is yours, Marco." I stare into her soulful green eyes, my pulse racing with adrenaline. My


    cock hard, and my mind fuzzy from the thought of her. From the promise of her intoxicating smell and


    hypnotist eyes that stare at me, like I am her fucking god, and that is what makes her the most


    dangerous person in the world. Because I will start wars, and risk everything for her.


    “Can you feel it? This.?” I ask her.


    She tilts her neck, as a tear slides down her cheek, “I was made to be yours.”


    “Yes.”Content from N?velDr(a)ma.Org.