"You snatched something which was very dear to them."

I widened my eyes hearing it. What is that supposed to mean?

"I've literally no idea what you're talking about." I said in disbelief.

"I don't know either." He mumbled.

"No you're lying, you know it." I said and got up. "I'm done with this Logan, I need to know what I did. You all can't keep me in the shadow and expect me to follow whatever I'm told to do. I very well know how to break rules even with thousands of security guards hovering over my head, but I'm not doing this for the sake of you." I said getting irritated.

He looked at me with a confused expression.

"What? You thought I'm very normal with all this, you all not telling me anything and shit? When I got to know about Rodger and you didn't tell me anything in the forest, I kept my calm. I asked dad, I asked Victor and I asked Jason but no one told me anything and I still didn't do anything. And it's all for you. Before you were here, if these people would've acted in this way, I would've kept irritating them by putting myself in danger, so that they would tell me but I'm not doing all of that just for you and this is what I get in return?" I shouted a bit, I was getting frustrated now.

"Due to me-"

"Yes due to you." I raised my tone. "I don't wanna trouble you or put you in messed up situations like I did with my past personal bodyguards, that's why I'm trying so hard to be in my best self possible."

"You don't have to change for me." He murmured.

"I'm not changing myself, I'm just trying not to be a brat, the way I was with the bodyguards, dad, Victor or Jason. Especially now that I know you're going through so much, I definitely don't wanna trouble you more." I sighed.

"I said I don't want anyone's pity." He said firmly, looking straight.

"What? This is not my pity, this is my--" I stopped myself immediately before saying something because I didn't know either what I wanted to say. I wanted to pick my words wisely before making it worse.

"Your what?"

I cleared my throat while avoiding gaze.

"Care, my care for you." I confessed.

"Why?" He seemed a bit lost hearing that.

"What do you mean why? You don't care about me?" I raised my eye brows.

"Of course I do."

"Why?" I asked.

He glanced at me with a chuckle and shook his head.

"So, back to the topic-"

"Veronica, I really don't know what you did that they're getting so mad." He said, cutting me off. He got up and picked the bottle of water kept on the balcony's table to drink it.

"That's impossible, they trust you so much. They obviously might have told you what really is going on." I mumbled.

"Why are you asking me all this when I really don't know. You should go and ask your brother or father and force them to tell you, maybe they will let you know then."

"I can't ask them because I know they won't tell me." I rolled my eyes.

"And how are you so sure that I'll tell you if I knew?" He questioned.

"Because I trust you, I know you'll tell me if I really insist." I said genuinely.

My words made him freeze while drinking water. He looked at me and gulped the water. His facial expression kind of changed when he heard me.

"You shouldn't trust anyone that easily." He mumbled, looking away. His voice had some depth of seriousness.

I narrowed my eyes and came near him.

"You're not anyone to me, you know that right?" I said raising my brows.

He didn't respond hearing that and kept avoiding to look at me. I sighed and stood closer to him, making him look at me.

"Fine, if you're saying you don't know anything then I trust you. I won't ask more questions about it, yeah?" I said and cupped his face.

He looked at me right in the eye, he had some darkness in his eyes. I tip toed and kissed his lips softly. He didn't respond at first which was quite weird but soon, his hand reached my waist, pulling me closer to him while deepening the kiss.

"Why do you trust me so much?" He whispered against my lips.

"I don't know, it just comes from inside." I smiled and kissed him again. His cold, rough lips were brushing mine like a painting brush and I felt like an art. It felt beautiful, peaceful, soothing, something which I've never experienced before.

"We've never talked about something, you know." He said breaking the kiss.

I opened my eyes and looked in his hazel duo, "What?"

"Jason." He mumbled.

I knew where this was going. I backed off a little, still being in his arms, close.

"What about him? I said under my breath, enough for him to hear.

"We're making it worse, Veronica. We're letting each other dwell more in this whatever relationship we have, when we already know the future." He spoke, still looking at me. His voice still seemed quite lost.

"What future?" I played dumb. I knew he was correct but I didn't wanted to admit it, not yet.

"Jason. He's your future, baby." He uttered, caressing my cheeks.

"We don't know that." I said in a very low voice, barely audible.

"What--"

"Why are you talking about this all of a sudden?" I interrupted him.

"It's something we never really discussed about." He said, looking away. Again.

"No, you're behaving very weirdly since we came here."

"I'm not. I just spoke about this because we know yours and Jason's relationship-"

"What relationship?" I cut him off again and stepped away a bit. "Which relationship are you talking about? I haven't given any commitment for the future, Logan. Dad decided all of this, I didn't. Therefore, no one has any right to point at me for having any type of relationship amid my future marriage, which doesn't even have my own consent." I spoke with a stern voice.

He stood silent and let me speak. His hands were still around my waist.

"I mean what is this? The 18th Century? Where daughters marry the person selected by the family. What about my consent and my choice?" I stood my ground.

"So you're telling me that you won't marry Jason?" He asked directly.

It made me fall in silence. I really didn't have an answer to that.

"I-I don't think so- I mean it's just-"

"See, this is what I'm talking about." He barged in. "You yourself don't know what's gonna happen in your future. What are we doing then?"

I took a pause and looked at him. His face brings the memories of our times spent in Mexico. All those days and nights when we were together, not thinking about anyone or anything else. I felt content.

"Happiness. I'm doing what is making me happy. I really don't know about you." I muttered.

This made him silent. He practically didn't expect my answer to be like that. He stared at me with an unknown expression and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were red and had a pinch of pain. He backed off and we both were parted now.

"Happiness is a short term shit." He mumbled and kept his both palms on the railings, making me face his back. He took out another cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

"Don't be ridiculous, do you seriously believe that?" I asked in disbelief.

He looked at me, "That's how my entire life has been. Short term happiness, which doesn't last forever."

I didn't say anything, or rather I didn't know what to say because I knew he went through a lot and happiness was something which he never really experienced properly.

"But that doesn't mean you'll never get a happiness which lasts forever." I said.

"I feel happy, being with you." He confessed while taking another puff of the cigarette, still looking at the scenery in front. 

I snapped my eyes at him in surprise and smiled.

"That's actually good." I said in astonishment, not because he feels happy with me, but that he actually admitted it.

"But is it gonna last forever?" He mutters and I froze hearing that.

He looked at my side, "Will it last long, Veronica?"

I was again silent because I knew I would never be able to answer that question, knowing that my future has something else written.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about." He mumbles in a low voice while blowing out the smoke from his mouth.

"Why are you saying all this, Logan?" I asked feeling a bit helpless because there was nothing I could say to make this better.

"Because we both are digging our own graves." He said in a deep voice while smoking. I didn't say anything and waited for him to continue.

"We both know it's gonna end with us being hurt. I know that, you know that too. We both do, Veronica. You can't deny it." He said and turned towards me.

"What will be the point of this happiness when your father will get to know all this? He'll kick me out of your life, my whole sufferings of so many years getting trained would be for nothing. You'll be hurt, shattered. What's the point?" He tried to make a point and looked back at the scenery.

I stood there silently, listening to him and thinking about all this in my mind. I knew that each and every word he said was correct, but I like living in denial I guess.

"Maybe it's meant to be." I finally spoke after a gap.

He stopped smoking and looked at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe this is the type of happiness written for us? The short term happiness, which we're supposed to enjoy till it lasts." I said with a genuine feeling, this was the first time I was so optimistic about something.

He looked at me in disbelief and continued to smoke, looking away.

"False hopes." He implied.

"But worth it." I defended quickly.

"You're not understanding Veronica-"

"Why didn't you think of all this before coming closer to me?" I asked, stopping him. I was quite confident that he didn't have an answer to that.

"Because you knew it was worth it." I answered for him and he looked away again. That was enough for me to know that he agreed to me, without expressing with words.

I went closer to him again and cupped his cheek, making him look at me. Our lips were just an inch apart.

"Does this feel wrong?" I asked, bolting my eyes with his gorgeous ones.

He stared deeply in my eyes, trying to figure out an answer.

"It is wrong." He said plainly.

"No Logan, I asked does it feel wrong?" I asked again

He didn't say anything and kept staring at me. I didn't rush it either and stood like that. We kept looking at each other and that's when I didn't realise that he decided to cover the space between us by kissing me. I smiled and kissed him back, devoting my everything with passion and devour.

His fingers were caressing the strands of my hair while I just held him tight. We both were lost in the moment and felt each of it. I broke the kiss and looked at him.

"And this is what I'm talking about." I whispered with closed eyes.

It sure feels right.

He sighed and looked at me. Before we could continue, we heard a loud shout of Logan's name from down stairs. We both stepped away and went down to see Mark calling him.

"Steven Sir is asking you to come where the deal is taking place." He said.

"What? Why is he asking me to come?" Logan asked with a confused look.

"Please talk to him, he'll tell you everything." Mark gave his phone to Logan.

"Hello?"

"......oh"

".....Alright, I'll be there."

Logan said. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. Dad would never let Logan leave me alone, then why would he ask him to go to the trade? It obviously meant something serious happened that they needed Logan.

"I need to go." Logan said with a serious look, giving Mark his phone.

"And what about me?"

"Mark will be here for you and 150 security guards are already arranged, they'll be here." Logan muttered and left before I could say anything.

"Looks like it's just me now." I mumbled to myself immediately feeling his absence around me. My thoughts were still living in the balcony, thinking about the moment we shared just now. I sighed knowing that we'll have to face the pain one day. I turned around and left.

I decided to go to my room when suddenly my eyes fell on the open door of Victor's study room.

I went inside and saw the whole room filled with files and papers. Being bored, I decided to simply see what all is going on in their mafia lives. There were different files for different things.

Drugs, Black Money, Extortion, Contract Killings, Art and Cultural Thefts, Ceramics, Gambling and many more.

And that's when I found a black file with the major heading written as Mafia Basic Commandments and Rules~Cosa Nostra.

I knew what Cosa Nostra was, dad told me few years back. Cosa Nostra is the traditional name used by the Mafia to refer to their organization, which is Italian for "Our Thing". The term was adopted by the Italian press, as they needed a name to separate the Mafia from other organized crime organisations in Italy.

I opened the file and the first page had only one line written.

"~I swear to be faithful to Cosa Nostra. If I betray, my flesh shall burn.~"

I've always found it amusing, seeing the loyalty people have towards the Mafia world. I turned the page and the file was divided into two parts, first part was commandments, a behavioural guide for the mafia and the second part was basic rules. It caught my interest and I started reading it.

The commandments, served as a guide for the behaviour of mafia members are as follows:

→Never be seen with cops.

→When asked for any information, the    answer must be the truth.

→No one can present himself directly to another of our friends, there must be a third person to do it.

→Wives must be treated with respect.

→Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.

→Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife’s about to give birth.

The last one was marked as most important. This was the reason why I never liked the mafia world. It asks people to serve for the mafia, without caring about the loved ones. That's why it's called the brutal world.

I turned around the pages and came on the part of rules; codes.

~ You don't look at the wives of those who are our friends.

~ Men experienced with family betrayals are not allowed in the mafia.

~ Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.

~ Pay “tribute” to the boss always.

~ Reputation is everything.

~ Always obey the five legendary families of Mafia, The Originals: Bonano, Colambo,
Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese.

That was our family. My dad's great-great grandfather was a Genovese, a member of the five original mafia family, that's how I am half Italian, a bit. It's just the small traits as descendants. Our whole family's original name is something else which I don't even exactly remember because it's a Sicilian name. So yeah, Veronica isn't my real name but I'm glad they decided to give me one decent name which didn't involve mafia traits.

There were approximately 275 rules printed. My each bone in the body shouted 'no' when I thought of reading all of them. Therefore, I shut the rule and commandments file and kept it in its place.

I walked further more in the room to find a locker with four files kept inside. It was password protected, obviously. I came outside of the room and saw no one was in the corridor. I closed the door and came back to the locker. Luckily, I knew the password, I've always known it. I once heard dad and Victor talking secretly about it, unknown of the fact that I was hearing. Yeah, I've always been a brat, going against the rules and all.

I opened the password part and pressed the letters "lealtà".

It meant loyalty in Italian. I smiled when it accepted the password and the locker got opened. As I said, there were total four files inside it. The first one was named The Genovese. I realised it were the family files present there. I had no interest in knowing about my family, therefore I thought to move forward and look at the next file in the locker.

The Theodores.

My eyes widened reading that. I immediately took the file out of it and opened it. The first page had a family photograph of the Theodore family.

William Theodore, the main scary guy, Dylan Theodore- his son, then William's wife, his father and mother. That was the picture. I turned the pages and saw a heading named proofs. It was filled with the proof of the Theodore family, doing the illegal work. Those were the evidences which they carelessly forgot to erase. Furthermore, there were pages about each Theodore member. I kept turning the page when my eyes fell on a particular person's name.

Rodger.

I sucked my breath and realised that this was probably my only chance to know about that guy.

I opened his page and saw a picture of a human figure which was faceless and a question mark was made on the face, which meant that his face was unknown.

I saw the heading 'About the member'.
I quickly started reading what it said about Rodger.

Sociopath

Highly Temperamental

Unknown

Manipulative

Violent

Killer/Murderer

Obsessed with Power and Control

No boundaries

Impulsive

Dangerous

My eyes were stuck on killer. A killer was chasing me. I wasn't exactly scared but the thought of him, wanting me was kind of strange and eerie. I also remembered how Logan once told me that he was dangerous.

He was tagged as a sociopath, which was pretty expected. And all the other traits were indicating that he was indeed a scary psychic guy.

I took a deep breath and read further.

Was kept a secret until 5 years ago, Theodores revealed that they have another son.

5 years ago?

All I could remember was Victor telling me about Rodger just two months back. And he also told that they all got to know two months back only. But he was revealed five years ago? Why would no one tell me that? I was shocked reading it.

The other pages were left blank which indicated that they didn't know anything else about Rodger. I sighed and closed the file. I still couldn't believe that Rodger came out of his secret life five years ago, does that mean he's been wanting me from five years? The thought of him following me for the past five years was giving me chills but I decided to calm myself down before coming to conclusions.

I kept the file inside the locker and looked at the other two files. The third file was named The Michaelsons, which was kind of expected. Before I could do anything else, I heard sounds from the hall, downstairs.

"Veronica, where are you?" Dad's voice echoed as he shouted my name from the hall.

Shit.

They came back. I hurriedly kept the Michaelson file in the locker. If anyone knew I was in Victor's study, they'd kill me and if they knew I opened the locker, then my ghost would be killed too. I kept all the papers properly in the file and kept it in the locker when my eyed fell on the fourth file.

I froze reading the name of the file because it was the least expected thing I thought I'd find here with the other files.

The Lockharts.

I was confused that why their file was kept in the locker with the other main ones, especially with the family files. I stepped forward to pick the file when dad again called me.

"Fuck." I cursed, stepping back while closing the locker. I kept everything in its own place and came out of the study room quickly.

Oh, how I wish I could read what was actually written in that file.

The year going on right now is 2019. Which means five years ago when Rodger was revealed, it was 2014. I didn't want Covid to exist in their lives so yeah :p

Anyways, stay safe and healthy, I love y'all <3
Amelia.