Page 32 of I Would Die For You

Is he for real? If this is only a slice of the pie, what was the whole like? The amount staring at me has almost six figures. Six fucking figures!

“I…I don’t know what to say.” Dazed, I can only shake my head.

He smiles softly. “Say you’ll stay. Even though I suspect you won’t.”

Despite Stefano being here.He doesn’t add this, but he didn’t need to. I heard it.

I can’tis what I want to reply, because this Stefano isn’t the man I had fallen in love with.

I'm not naive. I knew he would change once becoming the Don's enforcer. I just didn't realize the change would break my heart as I lost the man I had originally grown to love. And this cultured beautiful city of Turino, it’s just full of sadness for me now, evoking painful memories everywhere I look, redolent of loss.

The more I stay, the more I’ll lose whatever wisp of my heart still remains. To lose more of Stefano with each passing day, and feel each painful loss in a long drawn out process — I won’t be able to survive that. Better to cut it off early. Love is a bitch, and she’s not going to win this time. I’m taking the reins.

I have no reason to remain in Torino anymore. With the kind of money Don Giacomo has given me, I can leave on the next flight out and never look back. I can nurse what’s left of me somewhere far away.

“Cara, what’s waiting for you there?” he asks.

I'm silent for a few seconds as I think hard about his question. Nothing is really waiting for me back in the States. But I don't tell him that. "It's still my home. I was never supposed to stay here." The US is such a vast country, I’ll be able to find a place for me there to lick my wounds in quiet and solitude. I may even head out to Hawaii, a whole new beginning.

My father is also still there, though he isn’t one of my favorite persons anymore. He can’t know I was handed off to a prostitution ring, but he knew what sort of people he was sending me with. He never came looking for me.With what money?Everything he earns, he sinks into his gambling addiction.

“I don’t want you to leave, Kaya. And I know Stefano would want you to stay. But I won’t stop you if that's what you really want. However, you must know this. Once you step foot off Italian soil, you won’t be able to come back.”

Money’s not an issue now, but then again, why would I want to come back here? To witness how much of a shell Stefano has turned into? I’d rather die than see this sight that will leave an indelible mark on my soul. No, I’m not doing this. Self-preservation is what kept me going when I found I would now be in servitude to a man who held my whole life in his hands until I’d paid my father’s debt. It will keep me going now. I have to cling to it because there’s nothing else.

“You came here on a tourist visa, valid for three months.”

And I’ve stayed for a year now.All this time, I was here clandestinely. Italian law doesn’t take kindly to such pranks. Once the page is turned, this part of the book will be over and done with.

While I don’t want it to end, I have to face the facts—it’s already ended. Stefano is Don Rossi’s enforcer, and there’s no place for me in his life now, nor is there for a man like that in mine. The young man I love, he’s gone.

Yes, self-preservation is talking now. I better listen to it.

“I’m sorry, I can't stay.” I shake my head.

The Don stares at me for long seconds. “Va bene. Stay at least for dinner, before you start making plans?”

Almost three hours later, after an elegant meal prepared by Don Giacomo's chef, Dino drops me back at the club. I’ve been in a sort of daze all this time, half of me here and the other already on US soil, planning for a future I couldn’t even fathom earlier today.

This money, it’ll open so many doors. I don't even have to go back to Portland as I'd originally planned. By gifting me with this huge sum of money, the Don gave me freedom to pick any place to create a new life for myself. I know the money won’t last long in expensive cities like New York or LA. But some sleepy little town on the coast of Florida or Washington, I can see myself there. Rent wouldn’t be exorbitant, and I could find a job in a local shop or restaurant. Maybe even go to college and get a degree.

Fantasies are running in my head when I open the door of my studio and step inside the dark living area.

“Where the fuck have you been?” The voice growled at me as soon as I closed my front door.

I yelp as much in surprise as from the jolt of the big body pinning me to the door now.

“Stefano,” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”

“Where have you been, Kaya? I was out of my mind…”

When he grabs my wrists and pulls me along towards my bed, I steel myself and try to push him away. What is wrong with him? He’s acting like a possessive primate right now, and that shit doesn’t fly with me. He could’ve called…but then I notice I left my phone here, still charging on the bedside table.

“Don Giacomo asked me to dinner.”

He freezes. “What? Where?”

“At his house, dumbass.”

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