Sweet Truths & Silent Lies ✔️

CHAPTER 13 - ❝holding hands with the devil himself❞

Giovanni felt bad for shooting someone. Again.

He looks at me briefly before his gaze flickers back to the empty road in front of him. "Are you okay?"

I was now staring out of the window trying to control my breathing, but I was still a shaking mess.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking-I clenched and unclenched my hands, started to fiddle with the hem of my shirt, started to drum my fingers-but nothing worked.

I avoid his gaze when I shake my head. "No, Giovanni." I tell him, shaking my head. "I am not okay right now." I swallow hard, the drumming of my fingers on my thigh getting worse and worse. "I just witnessed a murder."

I feel him taking my hand in his. The cool metal of his ringed finger brushing over the knuckles of my right hand, over and over again.

I wanted to pull away but after a few seconds of him holding and caressing my hand, the traitors stopped shaking. They actually stopped shaking.

"I'm sorry." Giovanni says in a low voice. "But I warned you. There are a lot of bad things out there. Bad people too. Vincent was one of the bad ones. He deserved getting shot." He says with no remorse whatsoever.

I look at his finger running over my knuckles. He was caressing the same hand I used to punch him in the week. The purple bruising was still there, but it started to fade away with time.

"I will never understand the things you do..." I trail off. "But killing people? Have you never heard of the word karma before? Or 'the wheel turns'?"

"It's my job, Scarlett." He says. "He targeted one of our places. He had to pay for his actions. Actions have consequences. Vincent and his gang learned that the hard way."

Giovanni lets go of my hand only to take out the packet of cigarettes from his sweatpants.

He lets go of the steering wheel for a good three seconds to open the packet, to take out a cigarette and to place a death-stick between his teeth, and lights it.

I was still looking at him when we drove through the mansion's gates.

He parks the car and turns to look at me, the cigarette resting between his lips as he inhaled the smoke. "I'm sorry that you had to witness all that, Scarlett. I really am sorry. But I am not apologizing for who I am." He takes the cigarette from his lips and holds it in between his fingers.

"What if your parents were sitting in that bakery and they just massacred them all like that? Would you have let it slide without any revenge whatsoever? Would you have gotten coffee with Vincent if you knew that he was the one who pulled the trigger on those people?"

The coward I was shook my head at him.

"No, I wouldn't have let it slide," I sigh loudly, "but that isn't the point, Giovanni. You could've ruffled him up a bit, not kill him."

I get out of the car when he said nothing in return and I make my way to the front door of the mansion before entering it.

Vito was standing by the staircase, his arms folded across his chest. "You didn't answer your phone." He says.

He wasn't angry, just worried.

"I am not in the mood right now." I tell him before I move past him on the staircase.

I hear Giovanni entering the house too but I ignore both of the brothers as I made my way up the staircase. Not even the smell of blueberries was able to make me regain my appetite. I don't think I can stomach anything right now.

"What happened?" Vito asks the same time Giovanni speaks. "Don't even ask, little brother."

"Don't tell me not to ask." Vito says, sounding angry all of a sudden. "Scarlett looks like she just saw a ghost. What happened while you were gone?"