Deception

Chapter 49 - I Don't Belong Here

He yelps and flies to the floor, landing with a thud. A blood curdling groan escapes him as he holds his side and the men around him step back fast, most of them unsurprised.

Turning to walk away, I put the stick over my shoulder before the jolt of anger resurfaces and I turn back again. This time, I smash it against his body so hard he screams loud enough to even shake the glasses on the bar countertop. I hit him again and Renzo leaps off the bar, trying to tell me to stop but I can't.

Control is the one thing I've always had, and now its gone.

I throw the crowbar which clanks against the wooden floorboards, and I step back from the unconscious fool.

"Anyone else wanna talk about my wife?"

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Coming home made me more unsettled today than I've been recently.

The search on Catalina stopped three months ago. I was the one who stopped it, she didn't want to be found. She wanted to hide using my money like the little brat she is.

When I gave up on the search, I shoved all her things lying around the house in her room and locked it, but today somebody mentioned her for the first time in a while and it sparked a dangerous fire in me.

I push the key into the keyhole, slowly turn it and push her bedroom door open.

When you come to a place after a long time, the scent there is stronger, so walking into her room was like burying my face into her neck.

I can smell her coconut hair products, the vanilla lotion she always wore and even a hint of the powder she covered her face in every morning.

I stop in in the middle of her room, at the centre of the darkness. Standing in a dull ray of moonlight shining through the open curtains and once I catch the moon, a shot of rage comes through me.

Chiaro fucking de luna, moonlight I called her, only for her to screw me over for another man. The thought of them spending my money sipping cocktails in Costa Rica makes heat burn my chest. What man could she choose better than me?

Before I know what I'm doing, I storm to her wardrobe, pull out her few outfits in there and throw them to ground. I grab all her junk from the dressers, her hair brush, bedding, even her toothbrush from the bathroom and throw it. She needs to leave my fucking head, and now.

Pulling out my lighter, I lower myself to the ground and watch the flame spread over all of her things. As it a warm glow forms around the pile of junk, I stand and listen to the crackling of her memories burning away.

Try and faze me now.

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~Catalina POV~

"Liar!" My hand flies across the girls face. She gasps, grabbing her cheek and staring at me with shock. I walk past her before stopping. "Don't touch me again chica. I won't be this gentle next time."

Kathy's nostrils flare with annoyance, her cheeks red with either anger or embarrassment, maybe both. Before she can fight back I walk away from her.

"What happened?" One of the girls ask her.

"She's getting too free with her hands!" She replies, and I roll my eyes, heading to my cell with a guard who grabs my arms and cuffs them.

When I return to my cell, I lay under the toilet paper thin blanket on my bottom bunk.

It's been six weeks since Leone visited me.

Six weeks of vigorous decision making, of me fighting back the urge to depend on yet another Cavallaro.

I could for the sake of my freedom, but my pride has turned into a stone wall. I'll never lean on another man again no matter how bad this place is, and this place is really bad.

I never sit with the crowd. Wherever I'm forced to go, I sit alone in the bathroom and just listen to the noise outside the doors, wishing I knew what was going on outside these walls.

They forgot about me, but I don't forget so easily.
I always think of my Mama, and my Papa. Has he heard from me yet? Does he even care? And what about cousin Bruno? Did he-

The cell door opens with a loud creak, footsteps echoing with the too familiar clank of handcuffs coming my way.

"Somebody's here to see you." A guard says.

"Heard that before. Tell him to leave me alone."

"Its a woman."

A woman?

———

Mama's brows rise as she scans me from behind the glass screen. "Wow, you look...Do they really not do manicures here?"

"Where were you? I wrote to you months ago."

"Oh, you didn't hear mija? I had to get my implants changed." She shrugs like its a legitimate excuse for abandoning her daughter.

"You were busy for the past six months because...because she you were getting your implants changed?!"

"Ay calm down and stop complaining, I had to sleep on my back for weeks." She purses her lips and sets her purse on the counter behind her side of the glass screen.

It's a good thing they made these meeting booths with divisions, so people like me can't strangle their own mothers.

"Anyway, how's life?" She asks.

"No sé (I don't know,) how is life living with murderers who try to kill you in your sleep? How is it not being able to breathe without ten guards looking your way? Or being locked in here knowing everyone outside who once loved you has moved on and left you to rot?! It's death, Mama. Not life."

Mama lowers her eyes, and in that second I see more emotion in her than ever. Her next words are quiet and low.

"Vengo a decirte que te saco de aqui. (I'm here to tell you that I'm getting you out of here)."

I blink, look away from the clear screen separating us and towards my arms on the table.

"I got bail money." She continues, and before she can speak again I interrupt.

"From Papa?" I ask, sitting forward. "Did he hear about me? I'm sure he sent the bail once he did right?"

"Right." Mama says with a dull tone I know is obvious lying. Before I can ask her anything more about it, she stands. "I'll be here to pick you up tomorrow."