Page 13 of Sin of Innocence

“Emanu—”

I shook my head. “What, Christina? How long do you want to do this? I am getting too old to play these games as if I am in high school again. You either want to be with me, or you don’t.”

Her eyes began to get glassy as she stared at me. It pained me to see her that way, but it didn’t beat the pain in my chest every time she treated me like some classified fuck.

“You’re right. I’ll tell him. I feel worse lying to him anyway, so it’s best that he knows the truth,” she spoke softly.

I sighed as I took in the frown on her lips. Grasping her wrist, I pulled her into my chest. My arms immediately wrapped around her as my chin rested atop her head.

“I’m sorry, I just got a bit frustrated. You can tell him when you’re ready,” I cooed, kissing the top of her head.

We stayed there in that position for a while, both of us lost in our thoughts. I couldn’t stop my mind from randomly trailing back over to Liam.

“Christina?”

She hummed.

“Do you still have that internship?” I asked, praying that she listened to me.

“No, I resigned. I’m currently looking for another one. Is there something wrong?” Christina wondered, pulling away from our embrace. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I couldn’t tell her the truth either.

“Not yet, but you can never be too sure.”

5

CHRISTINA

I never knew life could ever be so good. Every day, I made sure to go visit Emanuel at his office. Last night was the most special. He told me to go to his office after hours where there was a huge feast waiting for me. It was our own little private date. We talked and talked, conversing for hours about everything.

He told me more about his mom and how much he adored her. She sounded like such an intelligent woman who lived a life of caring for her sons. She supported them through everything and really held the glue between all five of them.

When their father passed away, it stung but it never really hurt Emanuel. Their father wasn’t in their life much because he was too worried about his business. However, when their mother passed, their whole family fell apart. Emanuel mentioned that Luca was hit the hardest. He loved his mother more than anything, and he fell into a dark world when she left.

Letting out a sigh, I entered Emanuel’s office building like I had done for the past two weeks. Only this time, Hazel grasped my wrist in her tight hold and jerked me off to the side.

“I figured it out! I finally fucking figured it out!” Hazel exclaimed.

My heart immediately dropped at the sound of her words. I glanced around us, just to make sure my dad was nowhere in sight. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you show up around noon. Then, you discreetly go to the elevator and ride up to Mr. Mariano’s floor, where you don’t come back down until the evening. Even on your dad’s day off, you still do the same exact thing. So, that arrives at the only reasonable conclusion possible… something is going on between you and the boss, isn’t there?” Hazel challenged behind narrowed eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. There was no lie I could rummage up, and there were no words to justify my actions.

“You know, what? It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me anything. You’re an adult, and you are free to do as you please,” she winked. “If you are sleeping with him, though, I am just going to pretend that I am not the slightest bit jealous as I walk back to my desk and mind my own business.”

A huge smile broke out on her face as she walked back to the receptionist desk, whistling a tune with each step. I stood there, staring at absolutely nothing with my thoughts worrying about everything. If Hazel could so easily piece that together, how long would it take for my dad to do the same?

I walked over to her, letting out a loud breath as I did. “Hazel, thank you.”

“What for?” she questioned, placing on her reading glasses before she began to dig through a pile of papers.

“For not judging me. We may barely know each other, but I’m not sure how I would react if you told me that what I’m doing is wrong,” I answered truthfully.

She suddenly stopped looking through papers and snatched off her reading glasses. Her hazel eyes gleamed into my own as she huffed out a breath. There it was, she was preparing to tell me the words I had been so afraid to hear. I didn’t want to stop talking to Emanuel, ever. There was something he brought me, confidence that I never thought to find in myself. Leaving him meant losing that part of me that had been so suppressed.

“So, you’re saying that if I told you to stop seeing him because you are ‘wrong’, then just like that, you would stop? You would end everything just becauseI, a stranger, told you to? Honey, you are not a child who can be scolded. You are not a baby to be told, ‘no, stop doing that.’ Everything you decide to do is all up to you and no one else. This is your life. Everyone else is living in it,” she advised.

A frown tugged at the corner of my lips.

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