LONELY HEARTS (COMPLETE)

Chapter 11: The Hard Truth

"I'm accept your chaos if you accept mine", she says. And with that, she grabs Matteo by the neck and pulls him into a long, deep kiss. The water was cold, but their lips burned with passion and in that moment, Matteo accepted her chaos as well.

—————————————————-

The next morning, Gemma woke up exhilarated. Matteo was still asleep in her bed as she closed the bedroom door behind her. She grabs her coffee mug and steps out into the balcony. She chuckles at the sight of their clothes hung over the railing trying to dry. After finishing her coffee, Gemma opens the bedroom door to see Matteo stirring awake.

"I'm sorry if I woke you, I have to get ready for work", she whispers, kissing him softly on the cheek.

"It's alright, I have to get to work myself". Matteo gets out of bed and calls his guard.

"Bring me my black suit, the Tom Ford", he orders through his phone and quickly hangs up.

"Must be nice to have everyone at your beck and call", Gemma smirks playfully.

"I could have a couple guys come out here for you if you want, they can take care of you".

"Oh, no," she states,"That's not necessary, I can do everything myself". Matteo still can't over how this woman constantly denies his gifts and help.

"Is there anything you'll accept?", he quips.

"You, remember?", Gemma corrects him as she sticks her head out of the closet. She quickly gets dressed and grabs her bag. "I'll call you when I get out, just lock up before you leave". She gives Matteo a quick kiss and heads out the door.

———————————————————-

Gemma strides into the firm, second coffee in hand. She says her her good mornings and heads into Sage's office.

"Ah, perfect, you're here", Sage says,"Sit down, we have a lot do business to cover". He shuffles his papers around as he waits for Gemma to get situated.

"I'm heading out to lunch today with our client, Mr. Russo, so I need you to run some errands for me down at the courthouse today".

Now knowing that Russo was a big part of Matteo's life, she suddenly grew interest in what Sage doing with Russo.

"You've had three meetings with him already this week, seems like a tough client", she mentions.

"Well, you know how it is, not all clients are sunshine and rainbows. Some are just harder to work with", Sage says nonchalantly, looking at his computer screen.

"What's this particular client need from us? Maybe I can help, I'm your only intern and could really use the experience. I haven't been on any fun cases in a while", she pushes. Sage looks up at Gemma over his glasses, his chin propped on his elbow.

"Not all cases are going to be fun, Miss Hunter", he snaps,"You're job as an intern is to do what I ask of you in hopes that you'll be good enough to be hired into this firm. But if you're looking for just fun cases then I suggest you start looking for a position elsewhere. Now if you excuse me, I'm heading to lunch, I expect all the courthouse errands to be done by the end of the day". Sage briskly gets up from his desk, leaving Gemma sitting alone in the office.

"Something's off", she thought. Sure, Sage was stern but just now he was obviously agitated by something... or someone. Curious, Gemma carefully and quietly locks the door. She tiptoes to Sage's desk, trying to open his file cabinets.

"Damn it, they're locked", she whispers to herself. She looks around his desk, hoping to find a key. She turns to the bookshelf behind her, touching anything and everything that could possibly hold a key. Finally, she feels a small wooden box behind an old law book. She pulls it out and opens it.

"Bingo".

She pushes the key into the first cabinet with no luck. "What the- is this not the right key? She tries a couple other ones with no luck. She's down to the last cabinet and she prays that it opens.

"Yes!"

The cabinet is full of papers and files, not organized like Sage normally keeps his things. They looked like they'd been stuffed there in a hurry. Gemma pulls out as much as her hands can hold. Flipping through the files, she first finds an informational file detailing Emanuele Russo and his organization:

Full Name: Emanuele Gianni Russo
DOB: 11/14/1961
Place of Birth: Caronia, Sicily, Italy
Occupation: Russo & Sons Contracting
Criminal Record: Yes

Gemma reads on and notices a list of all the charges Russo's been cleared of with Sage's help: racketeering, extortion, etc. the list goes on. She continues through the rest the folders, skimming each one and hoping to find answers. Nothing special seems to come up, until finds a black folder at the bottom of the cabinet. It's weirdly tied in twine, so Gemma knew it had to be important. This had to contain all her answers", she thought.

She carefully removes the string and opens the folder. She pours through the papers, shocked at what she finds. In it contained Sage's offshore accounts where Russo was paying him and candid photos of Matteo, they were spying on him. Behind the photos, there it was: A case file for Matteo Ciccone. Gemma stared at it for while, going back and forth as to whether or not she should open it. She was scared of what she would find, but her curiosity got the best of her.

Full Name: Matteo Enzo Ciccone
DOB: 02/25/1988
Place is Birth: Bronx, New York
Occupation: Landlord
Criminal Record: Yes

Reading that last line gave Gemma a lump in her throat. She knew what he was, but seeing it printed on paper made it feel like that's all he was, a glorified criminal. Against her better judgement, she continued on. There she found it, the holy grail of all things wrong Matteo has ever been accused, things he was notorious for, and things he had made go away:

Extortion, money laundering, racketeering, illegal possession of firearms, illegal gambling rings, murder...

The list looked long and it made Gemma sick. She closes the file and throws it back in the cabinet wondering if she could even go on. "Do I even want to help Matteo?", she thought. He was just as bad as Russo, and even after knowing all that, the feelings she had for him didn't seem to go away. "I know I told him that I accepted the chaos, but this seems all too much".

She cleaned up her mess and replaced the key back in it's box. She opens the door to let herself out and spent the rest of the day in a daze. Gemma sat at her desk, going back and forth in her mind. She was trying to justify his actions, to keep her promise to him that she accepted the good and bad. She cursed herself because she knew she had opened Pandora's Box and she couldn't turn back now. 5 o' clock hit and Gemma grabbed her things in a haste. She sprinted to her into her car, her heels clicking hard on the pavement. She needed to confront Matteo about what she knew.