I had a song that went with this but of course I forgot :)
Also, can you let me know if I forgot to censor any words, I didn't really check.
Thankfully, I didn't see Enzo the rest of the night. He spent the majority of it in his office, taking care of what had happened earlier that evening.
So I snuck past the closed doors and ran up the stairs to our bedroom. After a long, hot shower I crawled under the covers and closed my eyes, trying desperately to remove the images and voices that flooded my conscience.
"I wish you could stay." Lucas had said to me, running his fingers through my disheveled, brown hair.
"So do I. Home is the last place I want to be right now."
"Why?"
"You're too curious. You ask too many questions." I hated the way my mind worked, I hated how each day I sounded more and more like him.
"Only because you're so interesting." Lucas snaked his hand around my waist as he spoke. "You just look so-" he stopped talking.
"So what?" I asked.
"Like you're on the verge of completely losing your sh*t." He chuckled nervously.
His blue eyes were filled with something that I had never really seen before, but it made me feel almost like I could trust him. They were so inviting, so sincere and genuine. I was so close to telling him everything. Every detail of not only that night, but my entire life.
I buried my face deeper into the pillow, hoping that I would be able to force him out of my mind. But all that replaced those memories were the ones of Enzo's blood-soaked hands, so I allowed my mind to wander back to Lucas. I ignored the guilt and focused on how completely free I felt while I was with him.
***
"Svegliati, bella."
"Mmm." I groaned, rolling over, bumping into something hard but warm.
"I'm very sorry about last night, please don't be upset with me." He begged, kissing me gently on the cheek.
"Now why on Earth would I be upset?" I asked sarcastically, trying to ignore my throbbing head. Thankfully, the thick red curtains which concealed every window in the mansion, blocked out the blinding sunlight, so I was able to open my eyes and look at the bastard.
"I lost my temper, amore. I was only trying to protect you." I loved how Enzo feared me.
"Bullshit."
"Evelyn." He said, softly.
"Bullsh*t. You did it to protect you and your stupid reputation. I told you I didn't want to go through that again, but you didn't care. You did it anyway."
"Don't say that. Everything I do is to better us. When are you going to understand that in this world it's either eat or be eaten?" He pulled me closer to him while he spoke, gently stroking my hair.
"You care about others opinions too much, Enzo."
"I do care about how they view me. I want them to fear me."
"In the same way that you fear me?" I asked, innocently.
He let out a deep laugh. "I do not fear you, Evelyn."
"I have never, in the five and a half years that I've known you, heard you apologize to anyone but me."
He closed his eyes and smiled, maybe too embarrassed. "Will you be willing to accompany me to a party later this evening?"
"What a gentleman. You kill a man in front of me and then you ask me out on a date. Real classy."
"Well, what do you say?"
"I suppose."
"Good." His smile grew even wider. Before standing up, Enzo planted one last kiss on my cheek and said, "No fighting tonight. I promise."
He didn't ask me where I went after the murder. Maybe he didn't realize I had left, or he knew better, but either way, I felt absolutely horrible.
***
"You. Are. Stunning." Enzo's eyes nearly popped out of his head as I walked down the grand staircase that he stood at the bottom of. "Why don't we skip the party and just go back upstairs." He offered.
"You wish. My hair alone took an hour, the makeup another two, and my nails didn't match the red dress you picked out so I had to re-do them. So as much as I want to take off this uncomfortable gown, it's staying on until everyone at the party comments on how beautiful I look."
"And you had the audacity to accuse me of caring too much about what others think." He teased.
"I'm doing a public service by allowing the guests at that party to ogle me. I need to share my beauty with the world." I laughed.
"You're so vain, but you have every right to be."
He took my perfectly manicured hand in his calloused one and led me to the limo that was waiting for us right outside our home. Inside of the luxury vehicle were bottles of champagne, and a shit ton of expensive wines.
"My liver cries every time I go out with you." I said after taking a sip of my drink.
"I'm sure it sobs when you go to the bar in Anthony's hotel."
The Five Star Hotel... it housed so many secrets, and had recently got its sticky hands on one of mine...
About two hours after we arrived at the mansion that was hosting the party, all hell broke loose. Well, what I considered to be hell. Enzo got wasted.
We walked in and thanks to his perfectly timed, fashionably late entrance, were welcomed by hundred of faces filled with awe as they watched the golden couple walk down their version of the red carpet. The parties which we attended were always over the top, they must've taken months to plan.
There was always a scandal though. The drunks were a big one. Then you had the accidental walk ins on two, once five people engaging in... in things that I didn't think happened outside of the studios that adult films were recorded in. A few more of the common ones were secret deals being made between enemies, and friends stabbing each other in the back. There was one occasion where the stabbing happened in the literal sense of the word, but that's another story.
Secrets always clawed their way to the surface in settings such as those, and because of that, I was terrified.
I knew The Rat was supposed to attend, but I wasn't sure how to handle the situation. Would going up to him and saying hello be considered too bold? Would avoiding him make me appear guilty?
I decided to let fate guide me through the night. I didn't drink outside of the limo because I needed to remain clear headed, and, although I didn't know this at the time, take care of a drunk husband.
Eventually, out of chance, I did run into Anthony with a woman who wasn't his wife.
"Good evening, Mrs. Granucci." He gave me a roguish smile which made my heart sink down to my knees.
"Hello, Anthony." I smiled back. "Let me guess, you sent Susan on another trip to Cabo." Susan was his wife, the woman he had been cheating on since the day they got married. He believed she was some stupid American who didn't know what he was up to, when in reality she couldn't care less. She was in it for the money and he liked her role as a housewife.
"No, not Cabo. She's with Shawn," Their son. "Spending some quality time with Julian." Their grandson.
"Well, give her my regards." And apologies.
"Yes, and do the same to Enzo, will you? I'd say hello myself, but the last I heard he was seen running through the pool yard with his pants on his head. You have a real winner there, Evelyn."
I didn't doubt what he said about Enzo, and I was right not to, because aside from the part about his pants on his head, Enzo was in fact running through the pool yard, shirtless, fully engaged in a drinking game with a couple of other men.
It didn't seem to cause much of a disturbance though, because everyone else in the pool yard was also drunk, placing bets on who would win.
Knowing that I would never be able to drag Enzo away from the game alone, never mind the people whose money was riding on him, I found Matteo, his best friend, and the only man who helped him with the business after he was dumped by Silvio. There was a weird dynamic between the two of them. Sometimes Matteo acted like his father, and sometimes they seemed to be old college buddies... if you ignored the age gap. But because of that, his strength, and the power that radiated out of his pores thanks to his stoic expression and the scars that streaked his face, I knew he would be able to get Enzo out of there and into the limo.
"Matteo!" I called, grabbing onto his massive bicep.
He turned around the second my hand made contact with his arm, his face vacant of any kind of emotion. Once he realized that it was only me, his features softened and he asked, "What?"
"Enzo is running around, drunk off his ass. I need help getting him back in the car."
There were three different sides to Enzo Granucci. First, you had the normal, sober Enzo, who wasn't embarrassing in the least. That version of him was, in simple terms, the man that all men wanted to be and all women wanted to be with.
When he got drunk, however, things changed. There was a fifty-fifty chance of either the violent, murderous Enzo, or the sentimental, weak-willed Enzo.
Matteo and I were the only two people who really knew those less flattering sides of him, and in an effort to keep him controlled, and his vulnerability out of the hands of those who would use it to their advantage, we usually removed him from social settings the moment drugs or alcohol began to have any real effects on him.
Despite being fifty, Matteo swiftly ran over to his buddy. I hobbled behind, trying to ignore my throbbing feet. We tried to very casually coax him out of there and after a good fifteen minutes of convincing, managed to haul him out to the car.
Matteo tossed Enzo inside. I tried to climb in after him, but the giant boulder of a man roughly grabbed me by the arm and looked me straight in the eyes as he spoke. "You may have Enzo wrapped tightly around your pretty little finger, but not me. You've made a grave mistake, Evelyn."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't believe I am in any position to tell him." His icy stare sent shivers down my spine. "The others, however, may not feel the same."
"What others?" My voice was barely audible above the music that blasted through the speakers which surrounded the entire estate.
"Not to worry, I will take care of it. Just make sure you get him home safely and check his calls, deleting any that sound incriminating on your part. Don't allow him out of your sight until I tell you to, capire?"
"Why?" What was in it for him?
"He needs you and if he finds out what you did, if word gets out... we're all f*cked." Matteo closed the door behind me, hitting the hood of the car with his fist, signaling the driver to start driving.
The remainder of that night didn't make me feel any better than the beginning.
Since Matteo stayed at the party, taking care of my business, I was left alone with my husband. Sure, our driver, the men who guarded the door, even some of the maids and other employees tried to help, but he would not let them touch him.
Enzo swung sloppily at everyone who attempted to help, claiming to be perfectly capable of making it up the stairs on his own.
He was not.
I stood at the top of those steps for ten minutes, watching the big boss, clumsily crawl up them. "Come on, old man, I don't have all night. This dress is suffocating me." I called after he spent about five minutes on the same step.
Finally, he did make it up, and the threats stopped. They were replaced by whines. "You are so mean to me, Evelyn." Enzo accused. "All you did was make fun of me."
"What are you, five?" I asked, kicking off my heels.
"I am not five, I'm thirty three years old. And you see, there you go again! Are you ever not sarcastic? It's a very ugly quality."
"Yes, and so is being a murderer."
"I am not a murderer."
"Joseph-"
"Oh let it go already, would you! It's called bringing justice to the world." He slurred. "Justice. Justice. Justice..."
"Go to sleep." I tossed a pillow at his head.
"I am not tired, and you are not my mother, so stop telling me what to do."
I decided not to pay him any mind and walked over to the vanity that my jewelry box sat on. After removing all of the heavy diamonds and putting them away, I tried to undo the zipper on my dress.
"I want to help!" He cheered, excitedly.
I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of the contraption on my own so I walked back over to the king sized bed and let him unzip me.
"I'm impressed. You're very efficient considering the fact that you're really fucked up." I observed as I let the scratchy material fall to the floor.
"Because of you." He tried to sound seductive, but failed miserably.
"That makes no sense."
"You make no sense."
I was seconds away from slapping him when he suddenly yanked me down onto the bed with him. "F*ck." He groaned. "That goddamn ring is going to kill me one day."
"And it will have brought justice to the world!" I laughed, trying to escape from his grasp.
"You are such a b*tch." He tightened his grip. "But that's why I love you. You're so mean."
"You like it when I'm mean to you? Freak."
He laughed. "I love how you challenge me. We have fun together. You aren't as submissive as other women. I mean, at first that really bothered me, but I've grown to appreciate it."
"You're a d*ck, you know that?" I decided to stop fighting against his hold on me and allowed myself to relax.
"You see, I like the banter between us." Enzo closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I truly do love you, Evelyn. I spend each and every day trying to makes things perfect for you. I want to give you the world because that's what you deserve."
"Oh no, don't tell me you're going to get all deep and romantic." I gagged.
"No, no, hear me out." He insisted, shaking his head against mine. "You and I, our relationship was so phony when it began, but I have really fallen for you. I can't imagine my life without you. It would be so empty, so meaningless. You are exactly what I need, inside and out."
I wasn't sure how to respond. "I love you too, Enzo."
"I will never get tired of hearing you say that."
That was the end of our unusual conversation because after he said those words, he drifted off to sleep with his arms holding me close to him.
And it was then that I prayed to whoever would listen to me. I prayed that Enzo would never find out how I had betrayed him, I prayed for Matteo's success in sweeping my mistake under the rug, because in that moment, that's exactly what I believed it was. A mistake.
Was it a mistake???
Do you think Matteo will succeed???
Should she trust him???