Betrothed To The Mafia Lord novel Chapter 281

Luca’s POV

“I’m sorry you were unable to reach me. I couldn’t even get to you because of my lack of a number, and it never crossed my mind to borrow someone’s cell phone to use in trying to get you you.” He continued to speak afterwards, voice easing out slowly as he spoke.

“No, no… it’s alright, it’s alright.”

I continued after a few pause. “Also, it’s a good thing you didn’t use someone’s phone to try to get to me, my phone number is a really private thing and I rarely give it out, for security reasons.”

“Ohh.” He whispered out after a few seconds and I started to nod my head.

“Yeah. I’m just glad you’re alright. I thought something had happened to you.”

I watched as the guilty look crossed his face in the next moment, right before he made to speak.

“Nothing happened to me, I didn’t even hit my leg against a wall. I’m so sorry I made you worry unnecessarily…” He trailed off after a few seconds and slumped into his seat, a small, dejected sigh slipping out his slightly parted lips, and after a few long seconds had passed, he started to speak once again.

“I haven’t even been here for long and I’m already making you worry so much to this extent, I feel so bad just thinking about it and I’m so sorry you’re going through all this stress because of me once again like you used to do back then…”

“Whoa, whoa… slow down.” I said as soon as I pushed myself into a more straight sitting position, as soon as all what he was saying started to sink into my head. I stared at him pointedly, and our eyes only remained locked for a few more seconds before he was averting his gaze. The inside of the car wasn’t all that bright because the sky was already really dark at this very moment, but a little bit of light had managed to bleed through the windows from lit up companies and passing cars rear end lights. I puffed out a deep breath after a few moments before starting to speak.

“Armani…” I started to say but he cut into what I was trying to say without me getting more than a word past my lips.

“We both know it’s the truth, don’t try to…” He started to speak but I shushed him after a few seconds, making him trail off on a small sigh.

“Relax, Armani. You’re so worked up at the moment, can you try to take in some deep breaths?” I said after a few moments, and although he didn’t audible respond to me, the sound of him doing what I had just requested made me relax a little as I listened to him drag in deep breaths into his lungs to puff it out after a few moments, and he repeated that motion for a little while.

“What makes you think I’m going through so much stress because of you?” I asked after a moment and watched as he hesitated at first before shrugging his shoulders a little.

“Oh, he was. He was proud of you a whole lot of times, a whole lot.”

I started to shake my head immediately. “Armani, I don’t know what made you come to these conclusions but he was never ever proud of me, he isn’t that kind of parent…”

“I take it he didn’t tell you to your face then… but he was pretty proud of you. He was always using you to make comparisons each time he was speaking to me, and those times when you’d be training and he’d make me stand beside him watching you, in order for me to try to master some of your moves by just staring at you. He used to talk about how proud he was of you, and how you were such a quick learner, and how he was sure you’d take over from him really well, and how his enemies were all going to be afraid of you because of how fearless and fierce you were, and about how he was sure I’d never be able to become half of what you’ve already become, but I should still try either way, to avoid being killed at a point.”

As Armani continued to speak, I started to realize just how messed up my father had been, because he didn’t ever say any of those words to me, and had instead said all those to my little brother, to make him feel really bad, like he wasn’t even needed around to begin with. I’ve never hated him more in my life like I did in that moment, because I was sure that all those words which father had said to Armani, despite how young he had been back then, had still managed to stick deep inside of his mind. I puffed out a deep breath and racked my fingers through my curls, and after a few seconds had passed, I decided to continue to speak.

“Armani, do you know how messed up our father was?” I started to speak and Armani blinked at me at first before starting to nod his head. I shook my head at him before continuing.

“No… I don’t think you understand what I meant. Father never said any of those words to me, not one. Not a single one. So why was he saying all those about me behind my back, and saying it to you? He was doing all these to make you feel really inferior… and I was sure that back then, he might have been thinking that he was motivating you by all what he had been saying to you, not knowing that he was doing zero to zero level of help to you back then.” I paused and puffed out a small breath before continuing to speak.

“Also, who cares about if he’s proud of me or not? He wasn’t actually proud of me, he was just a selfish bastard, that’s all. He only cared about himself and felt like he was proud of me because I was an asset in which he can trust to leave his fucked up mafia and thousands of enemies to, and nothing more.”