Chapter XXXIII

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POV: Aletta

It's 3am and I turn the kettle on ready to make a nice warm cup of chamomile.

Bella is sat in the living room with Alex as he miserably broods over his broken heart.
My chest aches watching my best friends heart crumble like that, and it's even more painful knowing why.

Alex is one of the purest most caring people I know and for Elenor to leave like that makes my chest ache for him. But on the other hand, I know how it feels to be in her position.

Everyone deals with situations differently and this happens to be hers, I just hope she realises what she's missing.

In fact, tomorrow I'll talk to her and then we can see how it will go.

"Hey" Bella yawns as she drags herself over to the kitchen.
"I'm gonna crash here tonight, Alex said spare rooms free if you want to too." She says sleepily and I yawn in response.

"Sure, I'm too tired to drive anyways." I respond while pouring the water into a mug and placing a teabag inside.

I carry the mug over to Alex who gives me a broken smile. "Thank you Allie. For everything" he says gratefully and I smile warmly in response.

"That's ok. I'm always here for you. But right now it's kinda late so why don't we head upstairs and I'll talk to you in the morning." I suggest and he just nods, standing up and heading up the stairs.

I head to the guest room, chucking on a nightie I found in the wardrobe, it's either Bella's or Ellie's and neither would mind me borrowing it.

I throw myself on the mattress and shut my eyes allowing tranquility to envelop me.

The next morning I am awoken by buzzing besides me. I open an eye glancing in the direction of the buzzing to see my phone screen lit up.

With a groan I grab my phone and take a better look at the screen: it's mike, my assistant.

I click the green button to answer the call.

"Aletta, hi. I'm sorry to bother you, as I'm sure you have a great motive as to why you weren't at the office this morning, but I just wanted to let you know that I rescheduled the meeting with the Japanese sponsors for this evening."

My eyes almost bulge out of their sockets at the realisation of what happened so I scramble out of bed instantly.

"Thanks mike your a life saver! What times the meeting now?" I ask.

I hear him chuckle slightly at my reaction but he continues to give me the details.

"You'll meet them at 7:30pm at 'le restaurant manifique'. Reservations are already in place, I'll be there too of course. I'm sure your already aware of the smart dress code and yep, I think that's it." He finishes off and I let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Thanks Mike, I owe you." I reply.

"I'm your assistant, Aletta. It's my job." He laughs and I chuckle slightly too.

"I suppose, but you really are the best at what you do. I'll see you tonight then. Bye."

I hang up the phone and head over to the bathroom.

I put on one of my many Spotify playlists, singing along loudly and carelessly in the shower. When I get out I don't bother turning the music off, instead, I wrap a towel around me and head back into the room, placing my phone on the dresser.

I head straight over to the wardrobe, humming along to the songs, and choose out an outfit that I'd left here previously. That's the great thing about Bella's house and Alex's, we're always round each others so there's no worry of borrowing clothes usually.

I turn around only to be frightened and squeal at the top of my lungs.

"What the hell are you doing in here!" I shriek. "Cover your eyes you perv!" I say while launching a cushion at the man sat on my bed.

"Nice to see you too, love" he smirks while scanning his eyes up and down my body, only covered by a very revealing towel at this point in time.

"Get the hell out of my room, Angelo." I warm through my gritted teeth.

His smirk falls at my hostility and his facial features harden.

"Bella told me to let you know that her and Alex were going to meet Ellie." He says plainly and stands up, walking towards the door.

He stops behind me for a second, as if he were going to say something to me. My pulse quickens and my mind starts spinning, but the moment is soon over as in an instant he disappears behind the door.

I stand there in a trance, unable to move for what seems like forever, until my phone buzzes, snapping me out of the daze.

Reminder: Lunch with papa at 2:00pm

I read the reminder. I almost forgot about lunch with him today, thankfully I'm rather organised so I put it in my calendar already.

Speaking of, I quickly put in a reminder for dinner with the sponsors tonight, so I don't forget.

I grab the outfit I picked up before being startled by Angelo, and get dressed. I then blow dry my hair and tie it up.

My outfit is simple, black jeans, a red shirt and my leather jacket.

I grab a pair of black boots, putting them on quickly and head on toward the door.

I can't be bothered to put on makeup so I head straight downstairs, the house is empty anyways as Bella and Alex already left so there's no point in hanging around.

I get to the bottom of the stairs and realise that I can't remember where I placed my keys. Fantastic.

I search in the living room, but they're not there. They're not upstairs because I didn't bring them up. Dining room perhaps? Nope.

Ah! The kitchen.

I head into the kitchen and my eyes land on the same man who scared the life out of me this morning.

I don't have time for this.

I ignore his presence, not having the will power to even look his way. I feel his eyes watching me as I walk in front of him towards the sink to look for my keys.

He doesn't say anything. Just sits and stares while I continue to search.

I can't find them anywhere so I groan in frustration muttering curses under my breath.

"Looking for these?" A low voice says and I instantly pivot to face him.

He holds up my car keys in front of him so I walk over and reach out for them, snatching them from his grasp.

I don't even bother to respond and just walk away.

He seems awefully quiet, not even muttering a word but as I open the door I realise why.

I don't have my bloody car.

I shut the door and head back inside turning my phone on ready to call an Uber. As I'm getting ready to call one, my motion is interrupted by Angelia husky voice once again.

"I'll give you a lift." He says while grabbing his own keys from his pocket.

"There's no need. I'll get an Uber." I bluntly reply.

"Just get in the car Aletta you don't need an Uber." He says.

I turn and look him straight in the eyes as I form a sentence.

"I'd rather walk than get in a car with you ever again." I say in a hostile voice, hatred painted across my face.

"Aletta-"  he begins, but I cut him off instantly.

"No Angelo. You don't get to tell me what to do. I'm not the same little girl who was too timid to speak up any more. You should learn that just because you're the big bad wolf, doesn't mean everyone will cower at your feet."

His eyes harden at my words as his lips form a straight line. I turn away and look at my phone once again, when he suddenly grabs my wrist, spinning me around to face him.

"You May think your all tough, love. But let me tell you, no one disobeys me. No one. Not even you. You know who I am, what I'm capable of, talking to me like that is unacceptable." He growls and to any other person they would have been on their knees begging for forgiveness by now, but after all he put me through, i will never beg him for anything.

"Oh really? Well guess what, I'd rather gouge my own eyeballs out and drink bleach before ever blindly obeying you. I do what I want when I want, because I am my own boss. Not you. You may be a Mafia man, and I may end up dead but that's a much better fate than what you suggest. So I'm going to say this loud and clear. Don't ever think you can take advantage of me, making me do what you want because you can't. Accept that or don't. I couldn't care less. But until you realise that, don't think you can just waltz back into my life. Your about 7 years too late for that."

I don't wait for a reply before snatching my wrist from his grip and storming out of the house. I ring the Uber and plonk myself down on the doorstep waiting for it to arrive. After about 6 minutes it does, so I get in and head down to the cafe to meet papa.

I head inside and am greeted by a joyful expression on papas face. It instantly brightens my mood so I walk across to him with a soft smile.

"Aletta, how are you, it feels like forever since I last saw you!" He exclaims and I chuckle.

"I saw you last week remember." I say and he laughs a bit too.

We sit down and order lunch and we have a nice conversation. It's pretty much the same as always, he complains about me working too much, I try to reason why, we talk about the others, catch up on what's happened. You get the gist.

Soon enough though, he brings up the one topic I was trying to avoid: Angelo.

"I notice Angelo's back. I heard he's staying for good this time." He says, carefully analysing my expression.

"Yep. Unfortunately. If he knew what was good for himself though, he would just disappear again and stay out of my life forever." I say spitefully and my dad shakes his head in disapproval.

"That boy has been though so much Aletta, don't be too harsh on him." He says softly and my mood spikes to anger and disbelief.

"You know what he did to me! How could you take his side?!" I exclaim, my voice raising visibly.

"I'm not taking his side, all I'm saying is, he's not had it easy, and you don't know the whole story. Try not to be too harsh, if there's one thing I do know it's that for every wrong he does, he pays for it twice as much." He says and I just shake my head.

He sees my expression and finishes by saying to just think about it. We then finish the lunch on a light hearted conversation but what he said still lingers on my mind.

How do I not know the whole story... surely there can't be more to it..

I run a few errands after lunch, doing the shopping, then working a little. Then, I head home for a bit, get changed and head down to my office for a couple hours for a small meeting.

I'm greeted by the same mix of cheery and miserable faces as usual when I head into the building.

I go straight into my office taking a seat behind my large, glass desk when there is a knock at the door and Mike, my assistant walks in.

"Hey mike. Is everything okay?" I ask as he walks in.

"Yeah, I just came to tell you that the clients are running slightly late so they'll be here in 20 minutes." He says and I nod.

"Okay, Thanks mike." I say and he nods.

"Also, I came to ask if everything is okay? You've been acting funny this past week." He asks and I can tell he's genuinely concerned. He leans against the edge of a chair as he waits for my reply.

"Yeah, everything's fine, just a few minor changes have happened and an old acquaintance has re entered my life." I say while slouching in my chair.

"Yeah, I get it. If your free Friday, maybe we could go to dinner and you could have a small break from work?" He asks hopefully and I smile.

Bella always says that he has a crush on me, but I don't seem to feel the attraction. He's a nice guy but I'm too busy to date.

"I don't know. Everything's so up in the air recently." I hesitate and he gives me an understanding look.

"Well if you change your mind, the offer still stands." He smiles and I return a smile.

He heads on out after so I return to the paperwork on my desk getting back to work.

Soon enough the meeting is over and it's time to go home and get ready for dinner with the sponsors.

Throughout the whole day though my mind still lingers on the thought of what papa said at lunch, and the conversation I had with Angelo earlier...

And it becomes clear that my life's about to change once again...

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Author note: Hey there!

Sorry it took me so long to update again... but I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Don't forget to comment and vote!
I really do appreciate it!

***Also, I have the rest of the story planned out and I can now say there will be about 5 or 6 chapters left! ***

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you continue.

See ya in the next chapter!

Byeeeee :))

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