Close to Her

Chapter 5

Rich leaned back in the chair, lighting a cigarette, and puffing the smoke into the air. His black hair buzzed to the rim and his black eyes focused on the ceiling as he exhaled more smoke.

The door flew open, and a distressed Marco emerged. His hair slightly tousled, as though he'd been raking his fingers through it repeatedly, his blazer, as well as the top of his white shirt, were unbuttoned. He paced to the other end of the room, pouring a deep copper-colored liquid into a glass, and taking a big gulp before motioning for Rich to get off the seat beside me.

Confusion swarmed my brain, I don't think I fully grasped what Rich said- if Marc believes your innocent he won't kill you. Whatever seemed to stress Marco worried me, at this point, I depended on this stranger for my life.

"Would you excuse us for a moment?" Marco said as the two of them exchanged a bitter look.

"Gladly," Rich smiled and left the office with that same twisted grin on his face.

Marco inhaled heavily and took another swig of the drink. I looked at him confused, and I could easily notice something was bothering him. His eyes traced the outline of the now empty glass instead of making eye contact with me and he sighed heavily while tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"Can you please tell me what's going on?" I asked as politely as possible, attempting to hide my frustration.

He frowned and ran his fingertips through his thick brown hair before meeting my gaze. "Nina...this might be difficult for you to hear,"

Oh god, they're gonna kill me.

"Your mother..." I stopped breathing the moment I heard those words.

"Nine years ago, she hid a contract from a very dangerous man, the man I showed you a photograph of." Marco started, and I wished for the universe to open up and swallow me whole, taking me away from this conversation.

Although a part of me wanted to listen to what he was saying, that part of me was too weak to do just that; that part of me couldn't listen to this explanation without shattering into a million pieces.

"His name is Venturo Castell; I understand you may not recognize him but if there's something you can tell me, whether you've heard his name before, I need to know,"

I shook my head erratically. "I-I don't know who he is," I stammered over my words trying to convince him of my innocence. "This is the first time I've heard of him, I swear." I let out a shaky breath that I had been holding in since he spoke.

"I believe you," he said, his olive-green eyes softening and his demeanor becoming less wary. He averted his gaze from mine and redirected it to the rim of the glass he previously concentrated on. We sat in utter silence for some time, meanwhile, I became even more nervous with every moment that went by. The silence was stirring more anxiety through my blood; I wished he'd just say what he wanted to say and get this over with; each minute of silence was driving me insane.

Before I could think twice about my next words, they spilled out of my mouth in a not so polite tone that left Marco alarmed with a cast of guilt draping over his face."Then why am I here, what do you want from me?"

I stood up abruptly and all the blood rushed to my head; my chest heaved up and down trying to stabilize the panic building up, my vision went dark for a moment and I couldn't see my surroundings clearly anymore yet I stepped further away from the afflicted image of Marco.

"I don't understand why you're telling me about my mother, she's..." I felt everything sway as darkness filled my vision; I closed my eyes tightly to clear the darkness, but only felt myself stagger backward with black dotting dimming my vision.