Free Minds Chained Hearts | ✔

Part 3 | Chapter 6

I swallow my smile and looked at Danica who evidently noticed my sudden surge. Her eyes glimmered for a second with a look of suspicion but I disregard it.

"N—no, I'm having a snack with—"

"Will you be able to come over now? Or soon?" He cuts me off and I gulped as many ideas swirled around my head of what has happened.

Could he have destroyed the place like he did the frat house? Did he invite Jocelyn over again? His brother, did he hurt him?

"Yeah, I can come over now, what's wrong?" I was fazed by panic and my words were laced with it as I grabbed my things faster than a robber.

Danica stood in shock too knowing that what has happened must be serious. I gave her a look of apology and she nods in understanding. 

"Just come over quickly. We need to talk." He hung up leaving me with my heart in my throat and my gut twisting into knots. I sighed throwing my phone back into my bag and turning to Danica with sudden fear.

"What happened?"

"I need to go, Dani, it's something about talking and he doesn't sound so good," I tell her in the lightest way probable not to comfort her but to comfort me. Suddenly all the things I said seemed like a lie and I hated that.

"Ok, ok, call me and let me know," she said as we both rushed outside the cafe. I heading to my car and her watching me walk away before the front door.

My heart pumped like the beat of the drum in a quiet room. I didn't know what else to think but everything that could've gone wrong. He's never sounded like that before and the last time he ever did was after that frat house incident. All of it came rushing back the moment I sped out into the highway with nothing but my hopes of it being better than what my mind comprehended.

As I passed by what seemed like a few hundred cars, images of Matteo as guilty as he was climbed into my mind like a vine in a derelict home. Like the love, I suddenly forgot. Fear is what replaced it. I fight the tears that threatened to come and repeated a mantra that it isn't that bad and it will all be alright just to let me down slowly but all of that disperse into thin air.

I arrived outside the estate as frazzled as I can be. There I stood outside the front door and suddenly I stopped by the window of the office. I found three members of the house staff sweeping the floors and a stack of glass on the corner. The epiphany for the worst of the worst came to fruition and my heart drops. He did again, he broke things again after so long.

My fears only continued when I opened the door and a whiff of tobacco entered my system. I could've gasped if it weren't for the sight I saw next.

In the lounge were the brothers. They sat opposite, one had an ankle over a leg and the other was smoking with a bottle of whiskey in front of him. I scowled at the savage state I found these two. When they turned, Matteo's eyes were blank but the little freckles of tears on the corner of his eyes tell me almost all the things I need to know; almost.

I take a cautious step as Matteo turned to his brother before uttering lifelessly, "can you give us a second?"

Alejandro looks between Matteo and eye and his death stare turned sympathetic and that way it's almost scarier. He nods anyway and straightens himself out before heading into the backyard where he stood by the pool.

I reverted my attention to Matteo who squashed his cigarette into the ashtray as he stood. He was too close to me and as if a sign of betrayal I sensed, I took a step back.

He notices and his jaw clenched. Looking away as though he tried to forget what I just did.

"What is going on Matteo? You almost gave me a heart attack," I tried not to tell but it came out as croaks from my tight throat.