Chapter Fifteen

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Luca (Dream)

"Char, Layla, I'm home!" I called, setting my bag down and shutting the front door behind me. There were no voices in the house and I stopped dead in my tracks when something caught my eye next to the staircase. Suitcases. One big, one little. Layla's Ellie stuffed animal sitting on top of them.

No. No, this couldn't be fucking happening. Why were they leaving? Things were good. Why were they leaving?

"Charlotte!" I bellowed, determined to find her and change her mind. There was no way I would let her do this to me. I went on a rampage, searching every room for her. I could convince her. If only I could find her, I could convince her to stay.

Could they already be gone? I took the stairs two at a time until I reached our room, and my heart skipped slightly when I saw her standing there. Her perfect silhouette was at the center of the window, framed by rays of sunlight, almost as if she was an angel. I watched her for a minute, tracing every inch of her with my eyes. Her shoulders hung in a defeated way, breaking my heart on the spot.

"Charlotte?" I croaked out.

She flinched at the sound of my voice and wiped her cheek quickly before turning around. Those beautiful eyes of hers were clouded with tears.

"Baby, what's going on? What are you doing?" I couldn't believe how desperate and weak my voice sounded. What had she done to me? I had fought all my life to prevent myself from having any weaknesses, and yet here she stood in front of me, my biggest one. Always.

Charlotte bit her quivering lip, searching for the words to say whatever she was going to. I hated seeing the look in her eye, but I couldn't place my finger on what exactly it was. Fear? Anger? Complete brokenness.

"We're leaving, Luca. I can't do this with you anymore." The words came out mechanically, as if she had been practicing this over and over, trying to get up the gumption.

"What?" I felt tears of my own welling up in my eyes, but I clenched my fists in an attempt to hold them back. My father's voice echoed in my ears. Crying is for the weak.

"Charlotte, please don't do this. I'm begging you. I'll change."

"You won't, Luca." She shook her head wildly. I had given her this speech a million times over. This time I meant it though, didn't I?

"I can't hear this anymore, Luca." She sobbed. "If I don't get us out of here, you're going to kill one of us."

My face fell. Us? She couldn't be talking about Layla. I would never do anything to hurt her. And I would never do anything to hurt Charlotte if I was in my right mind.

"Mommy, where is my Ellie?" My heart nearly stopped at the sound of Layla's tiny voice. I looked at her and the ruins of my heart crumbled. She had her backpack on, her winter jacket, and a pink cast on her right arm.

"What happened to her arm?" I breathed quietly, and Charlotte shot me a glare.

"It's downstairs with your suitcase, baby." Charlotte bent down and zipped up her jacket. "Why don't you tell daddy goodbye and I'll meet you downstairs?"

"Charlotte, please..." I begged one last time.

"Bye daddy. See you soon, I love you." Layla smiled.

"Goodbye sweetie. I love you, too." I bent down and kissed her cheek.

Layla skipped out of the room, leaving Charlotte and I alone again.

"What happened to her arm, Charlotte?" My voice wavered, afraid of her answer.

"See, this is exactly what you do. I can't take these games with you anymore. You know exactly what happened to her arm, because you broke it!"

Her words hit me like bullets. I broke it? No, I couldn't have. I fucking love that little girl with everything I have.

"You're lying!" I seethed.

"You need help, Luca." Charlotte whispered. "And once you get it, you can be in her life. But not until then."

Charlotte tried to brush past me, but I caught her arm. "I won't let you do this." I growled, something sinister taking over my body.

"Luca, you're hurting me." I couldn't hear her voice anymore. I slammed her down onto the ground, straddling her hips so she couldn't get up.

"You're not taking my daughter." I hissed. I could tell she was in pain, but I couldn't stop myself. Who did she think she was? Walking out of here with Layla like that? Lying to me and telling me I had hurt our daughter? No. No fucking way.

I hit her once, and then twice, and before I knew it, her face was a bloody mess beneath me. Her fingernails clawed at my skin in defense, drawing blood.

"Luca!" She shrieked, struggling against me. I grabbed her shoulders and slammed her back onto the floor. The sound of breaking bones filled the room as her head hit the floor. Blood pooled around her head, and her struggling stopped all together. She went limp in my arms, sucking in one last breath before falling unconscious.

What the fuck was I doing? Why was I doing this to her? This was Charlotte, my lifeline, everything to me. Why did I always push her too far? I nearly threw up as I stared at her tattered body crumpled in my arms. How had I been capable of hurting her like this?

"No, no, no!" I chanted, scooping her in my arms and laying her on the bed. "Please, baby. Please wake up. I'm so sorry."

Nothing.

"Angelo! Marco! Someone, please help!" I scrambled for a towel to stop some of the bleeding.

"Momma, are you... Mommy!" Layla shrieked, rushing towards us.

I knew I should stop her and get her out of here before she saw this. It was too late, though.

"Daddy, what happened to mommy? Why is she bleeding? Is she okay?" Layla put her tiny hands up to Charlotte's bruised and bloody cheeks.

I was in complete shock. What had I done? "Layla..."

"What happened?" She sobbed. I covered my ears to stop for tiny cries.

What happened?

What happened?

What happened...

Luca- Present Day

"Luca, fuck!" Angelo's pissed off tone jolted me awake. "What happened?"

It took me a minute to realize where I was. I was wearing the same clothes I was in last night and I was sitting in my office. My back hurt like shit and everything in my office looked destroyed. Remnants of the night before came back to me.

Charlotte walking in on Claire and I, our fight, my hand striking her cheek, the fear and hate in her beautiful eyes. I'd come down here after and apparently demolished my office. Wood was splintered all over the place, tables and chairs tipped over, and several empty alcohol bottles scattered around.

An overwhelming need to vomit consumed me, either from the memories or all the alcohol. Angelo seem to recognize my need and tossed a trashcan at me.

"Have you lost your fuckin' mind?" Angelo spat as soon as I finished emptying the contents of my stomach into the can. "Actually, don't answer that. You clearly have."

"I don't want to hear your shit today," I grumbled, shoving my hand through my hair. "I have a wrenching headache." I reached for a half full bottle of vodka and took a large gulp.

Fuck, I hated this stuff. Angelo knocked it out of my hand.

"That's not going to help anything. You need to get ahold of yourself. We can't have this right now."

"You think I don't know that? I didn't ask to have a daughter dropped in my lap all of a sudden."

"Yeah, fucking father of the year." Angelo waved an empty bottle in front of me. "This is exactly why she kept Layla from you." He said the last part under his breath.

"Now you're on her side too?" I scoffed. Of course, my men were turning against me.

Angelo swiped a bunch of empty bottles into the trash can, trying to clean a bit of the mess up. "I'm on the side of your little girl, Luca. The one who needs her mother and father to act like adults and stop trying to hurt each other." He continued cleaning, hardly looking up at me.

"I hit her." I blurted out, not sure why I felt the need to admit this to him.

Angelo looked back at me with disappointment in his eyes. Days ago, we sat here in a similar position and he tried to convince me I wasn't my father. Let's see him try to argue that now.

"What happened?" He asked, putting one of the chairs back on its feet and sitting in it.

"Claire came by yesterday. She said she needed a little more information for the article, but when she got here, she tried to come on to me. She tried to give me a blow job and Charlotte walked in." I sighed, fully committed to laying it out there for him. I needed a handle on the situation and clearly couldn't do it myself.

"Did you let her? Claire I mean?" Angelo asked.

"Fuck no." I barked. "I was shocked when Charlotte walked in and stopped it immediately."

"So you declining head from another woman resulted in you hitting Charlotte?" Angelo snipped. I couldn't even blame him for his disdain. I was a fucking disaster.

"It wasn't that simple." I groaned, reliving the fight in my head again. "I tried to tell her it wasn't what she thought, but she just wouldn't fucking listen. Tried to tell me I couldn't bring women here, in my own house. I accused her of being jealous and may have led her to believe I screwed Claire. But she brought up my dad again, and I just snapped."

"What does 'May have led her to believe' mean?" Angelo narrowed his eyes.

"I told her I did and gave her all kinds of gruesome details." I admitted.

"And then you hit her?"

"I hit her... and I pushed her against the wall and came really fucking to really hurting her."

"You motherfucker. What is wrong with you? Have you completely lost it?" Angelo stood up, trembling with anger.

"No!" I defended, quickly trying to diffuse the situation. Honestly, if I was sitting here listening to the same story, I would have reacted the same way. "I stopped before it got too far."

"Before it got too far?!" Angelo seethed as he paced back and forth. "News flash, Luca. She's the mother of your child, IT WENT TOO FUCKING FAR."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. He was right. This time, i fucked up beyond repair. I just couldn't seem to stop myself with Charlotte. I loved her so goddamn much and the fact that she kept Layla from me was absolutely crushing.

"You've got to get this under control. Maybe you should talk to someone." He suggested, calming down enough to sit again.

"Talk to someone? I have a Mafia to run, Angelo. Anger management isn't exactly my top priority."

"Well, you better make it your top priority or you're going to lose them both. Is that what you're trying to do? Prove to her you're a shit father and make her run again?"

"Of course not..."

"That's what you're doing. You're not your father, Luca, but you're getting dangerously close to becoming him. I know you don't want that."

I clenched my jaw, not wanting to admit he was right.

Tears pooled in my eyes. "You should have seen the look in her eyes. She hates me, Angelo. I love her so much, and all I've done is treat her like shit. I want to fix it, but how can I get over what she did?"

"She's not one of your soldiers you can control, Luca." Angelo softened a bit. "You've got to stop treating her that way and talk to her. Really talk to her and understand why she left. You essentially kidnapped them and forced them to stay here, yet you two keep dancing around without having a real conversation."

"She kept my daughter from me. I've been so consumed with that, that every time I try to talk to her, it's all I can see. I know there's more to it than that, but I can't get past the pain." I chewed on my lip again, desperately trying to hold back the tears in my eyes that threatened to fall.

"I get you're pissed, Luca. Hell, I'm pissed too. But she owes you an explanation. Give her a chance to give you one. Charlotte doesn't hate you, but if you keep treating her this way, she will. And once she does, you won't ever be able to come back from that."


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