✧

I slot my keys into my front door with a paper bag and two cups of coffee wedged between my other hand. As soon as I step inside I slam the door shut with my foot and proceed to the living room.

"Breakfast is here," I declare and then find the living room empty. My brows furrow as I set everything down on the coffee table. "Luca?"

When I get no response I check the kitchen and then upstairs but he is nowhere to be seen.

"Luca?" I call out again but I'm met with silence.

Where the hell has he gone?

I check my phone but I have no messages from him so I give him a call but it rings out. I try again. Same result. I stand in the living room looking out the window but there is no one out there.

My heart thumps in my chest. Worry flooding me. He wouldn't just get up and leave without telling me where he was going. Unless he had an emergency he needed to attend but I'm certain he would have let me know first.

I huff out a breath and try his phone again but this time it goes straight to voicemail. I stare at the screen with deep confusion. "What the hell?"

My fingers itch and I run them through my hair. I don't like this. I don't like this at all.

Sundays are our days. He wouldn't just leave.

Minutes tick by and something uncomfortable waves in my chest. I have no idea where he would have gone, unless he headed home for whatever reason. But why? I'm struck with worry that something has happened and I'm not there to help him.

After twenty minutes there is a knock at my front door. I rush to open it and I'm relieved to see Luca standing there, his eyes are down and chest heaving. "Where have you bee–" I cut myself off when he flashes me his face. His skin is blotchy and eyes are red. I step forward. "What's wrong?"

He says nothing. Instead he stares at me, face twitching as his lips part and he tries to catch his breath.

"Luca," I exhale. "What's the matter?"

Again I'm met by more silence. He pushes past me into the house and I watch as his body slides against mine. I close the door after him and follow into the living room where he begins to pace, a hand on his forehead.

"You're fucking scaring me," I say heavily.

I'm trying to ignore the way my entire body is vibrating because his quietness is killing me.

Luca runs a hand down his face and then they rest on his lips. He glances at the wall blankly, his fingers trembling.

"Luca–"

"Are you changing my family's cafe into a gym?"

My brows crease so hard that my forehead aches. "What?"

Those blue eyes are full of dread and devastation. I recoil at his expression. Why on earth would he ask me that?

When I say nothing more he leans over to the coffee table and picks up the folder that has been laying there for days, the one my father gave me and I've not bothered to look at. He flicks through the pages so fast that I barely have a chance to see any of the words.

"Your signature is all over these!, Declan!" He explodes, words so harsh that his voice breaks. "Don't fucking play dumb."

I snatch the folder out of his hands at the frustration that is boiling up inside me. I never signed a single thing. But as soon as I start to read through the paper, I crumble at the fucking mess my father has caused.

My eye twitches. I knew he was meddling but I didn't think he'd stoop this low.

How did he even manage to do this? My business is my business.

I grind my teeth down into my jaw as I look over the forged signatures and agreements that I certainly haven't made. It's all bullshit. Such bullshit.

My gaze flicks up to meet Luca who is staring at me with heavy disappointment. Fuck. "No, Luca," I heave. "I've never seen this before. My father, he–"

"Fuck," he breathes out a sob as he takes a step back. "You never actually liked me, did you? Telling me that you're falling for me when actually you just wanted to steal from us. All I've ever been to you is some extra cash in your pockets. Haven't I?"

A hole rips straight through my chest. That's when I physically feel my heart drop to the floor at the sadness in his voice. "That is not true, Luca. I've never seen these before. My father gave them to me, you have to believe me. This is his doing. Not mine."

Tears roll down his cheeks and something bursts inside of me. He's trembling. Actually trembling. "I can't believe I trusted you with everything. With my family business."

"Luca, please," I beg. "Let's just sit down and talk about this. This isn't what you think."

"What is there to talk about?! You played me this whole fucking time." He explodes.

Oh fuck. I shake my head desperately.

"I never played you, Luca. I fell for you and it has nothing to do with your business. This is my dad trying to ruin everything, please. Let me try and figure everything out because it's not making sense right now."

My mind spins. How could he do this? That manipulative motherfucker.

"Then tell me!" Luca bellows across my living room. "Make it make sense to me."

"My father wanted me to make profits from a business. Instead of leaving me to it, he's meddling with what should have been my project." I admit.

Luca's eyes glisten with more broken tears. "Project? Is that what we were to you all along? A fucking charity case that you thought you could make profits on?!"

I press my hand to my head. "No," I clench my eyes together. "That didn't come out right."

"Did you or did you not make an agreement with your father to help our business for profits?"

When I find his gaze again my entire chest concaves. "Yes, but not in the way you think."

He chokes on a soft cry. "Why? Why would you do that to me? Why would you string us along like this when you knew how much we were already struggling? You're a fucking monster, Declan."

"He was keeping my grandmother's things, blackmailing me into getting them back!"

Luca's entire expression deteriorates to true agony. I've never seen this look in his eye before, the way he's looking at me as if he doesn't even know me.

"So you decided to take everything away from us in the process so you could get what you wanted from him?"

Oh God. I'm losing sight of this argument already. Nothing is coming out right.

Watching him cry right in front of me is chipping away at my bleeding heart. No no no no. This is the last thing I wanted. I never wanted Luca to think that he was some silly project. At the start I saw potential but then I saw the beauty of a traditional family business, everything else I did was because I genuinely wanted to help. Not because I wanted money.

I don't give a single shit about the money. I only care about him.

"No." I shake my head once. "I never did it to take away your business. Things have gotten out of hand and I'm not responsible for this. I don't want to take it away from you, I never did. That was never my intention."

Luca breathes out heavily. "Get fucked with your lies. You've already been caught. You've already owned up to making an agreement with your father." Then he takes a close step towards me, eyes shooting me deathly daggers. "Do what you want with my cafe but you will regret it if you do."

Then he attempts to walk by me, I grab his arm because I don't want him to leave. Not when we haven't settled this, not when I know he won't forgive me if I let him walk out that door. "Luca."

He recoils from my touch like I've permanently burned him. "Don't fucking touch me."

"I fucked up by not telling you, okay?" I plead but he's staring at the wall now. "I should have been honest at the start but I wasn't. I saw an opportunity and I took it because I wanted to help you, not because I cared about the money. Yes, I want my grandmother's things but I care about you more than any of that shit."

His entire face is covered with tears that I've partly caused. All I know is that I want to fucking murder my father for what he's done to make this a thousand times worse.

"But I never wanted to change the cafe into a gym or anything else for that matter."

Luca's jaw clenches as he looks up at me again, arms now folded across his chest. "Was any of it real?"

My entire face falters. "Are you seriously asking me that right now?"

"Answer the question."

I flick my eyes between his and admire his beautiful face, despite the sadness that is slashed across it. The guy I fell head over heels in love with because of how kind and down to earth he is. All those times I used to come into the cafe before we were even on real speaking terms all because I wanted to see his face.

Every time he would brighten my day with his warm welcome and vibrant smile.

His entire aura was contagious and I couldn't stay away because I wanted to douse myself in it.

"All of it was real, Luca. Every single second." My throat tightens. "My life is a million times better because you're in it. You make me smile even on my worst days, when I once thought that no one could get me out of my pitiful bad moods. I can't fucking lose you."

Luca sniffles and lowers his head. "I don't know if I can believe you right now."

He's hurt. I understand that.

I step forward and raise my hand to caress his cheek, push away his tears. "Please don't touch me," he begs.

My hand lowers instantly even though it's the last thing I want. "I'm sorry," I whisper. "But I am not taking the cafe away from you. I will fight to get it back and change all the damage my father has caused."

"I need to go," he drops his eyes once more.

"Luca, please," my voice dies in my mouth.

He clears his throat and walks around me. "This is too much for me right now. I need to go. I need to get the fuck out of here."

My body turns towards him desperately and I have no idea what more I can say to get him to stay. "Don't go," I beg. "Please."

Luca keeps walking and I follow him. Fuck. I want nothing more than to tug him into my embrace and reassure him that everything is going to be okay because I won't let anything happen to Chessman's, not even if it fucking kills me.

He opens the door and then pauses, looking back at me once. "I wish you told me."

The coldness of his voice sears through my chest. "I will fix this."

"Will you?" His eyebrow quirks hesitantly. "Or was this really your plan all along and now you're feeling guilty about it? You could have done what you wanted but I wish you kept my damn heart out of it."

His words aren't harsh or spiteful, merely a question. I open my mouth but before I get a chance to say anything back he's slipped through the door and is walking down my front steps.

"Luca," I murmur pathetically but he's gone. "Shit, shit, shit."

I slam the door and charge back to my living room, snarling down at the folder that is resting against the floor in a mess of papers. I pick it up and angrily flick through the pages, planning out in my head what I'm going to say to my father once I get my hands on him.

And God help me, I'm not going to hold back.

✧

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Author's Note

I AM BROKENNNNNN😭😭😭

Ugh. This is so painful💔

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Fuck Declan's dad, he's such an asshole

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