Leo narrowed his eyes at his grandfather in the car for a while then spun on his heel and started walking away, deliberately ignoring his grandfather's calls.
" Leonardo, get back here!" Leo's grandfather, Salvador Kane, ordered but Leo kept walking the other way, not stopping or turning even once. He watched Leo walk further away then out of anger, got out of the car.
His grandson could be such a brat.
Salvador got out of his car and stood to full length. Despite his old age, Salvador could still walk well on his feet, still had thick muscles, and didn't even look as old as he really was. He wasn't as tall as Leo though but could still be considered a very tall man. His hair was grey and his eyes were as blue as Leo's.
He looked at the disappearing figure of his grandson and sighed frustratedly.
' That boy also made me use harsh methods for no good reason.' Salvador complained in his head and decided against following Leo. It wasn't worth it, besides there were more effective ways to get Leo to come to him.
Salvador shook his head and got back into his car. He looked at the building that Leo retreated into for a while then ordered his driver to start the car.
Leo waited until his grandfather's car left then walked to his car and accelerated his car away from the vicinity.
He knew what his grandfather was going to tell him, it was about his mafia, it was never anything else. It was about the last prank Lazzerro pulled on him and how he should have taken the old fucker out of the picture a long time ago. Leo's grandfather never talk about anything thing else with Leo except tell him how to run his own mafia and Leo was sick of it.
Even after Leo took over the family business in America and his grandparents moved to Italy for retirement, Salvador still kept tabs on his business, as if implying that Leo couldn't run it just fine without him.
Leo knew he wasn't his grandfather's favorite grandson, even if he was, Salvador never showed it. And despite being the first grandchild, Leo knew that his grandfather had no intentions of giving him the family business, it was always Damian from the start and it wasn't for the fact that Leo clawed it out of Salvador's fingers, Leo wouldn't have gotten a single thing. He didn't know if his grandfather was still against his rule but knew that he always found something wrong with it.
Leo inhaled and exhaled short audible breaths, the muscles of his arms clenched as he fisted the steering wheel hard as drove on the highway. Frustration was eating him up and the annoyance he felt before tripled. Leo hated that after his father's death, all his grandfather did was try to shape him, the disappointment of a grandson, into the perfect one he also wanted. Fucking trained him to be cruel and heartless, eligible to be a member of his mafia but never the leader.
He turned him into a killing machine and wanted to leave him as just that, a machine, a tool, but Leo had something else in mind. He wanted to become the king and he did
Leo decided to go for a long drive to clear his head and luckily it worked. By the time he got back to his mansion, it was already dark so he went straight to his bedroom, took a long shower, then laid his back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Alone as he had always been. His mansion was huge and grand but didn't feel like home. He had everything that he had always wanted, money and power, what all men ever wanted, but it wasn't enough.
It was never enough.
Even with his house filled with all the money in the world, it still felt empty. There was a void that no amount of money could fill, a sadness that lingered around him, around his house. It was fucking depressing.
Life was indeed strange, despite Leo having everything, he still felt like he had nothing. All the happiness he thought his money would bring couldn't be compared to the true sadness he felt inside.
The same sadness that drove him crazy.
After being deep in thought for a while, Leo eventually drifted off to sleep in the cold, dark, lonely room that he was used to. It was where he grew up, in the loneliness. He spent so much time there that the sadness became his oldest friend.
This was what Leo and Becca had in common, both looked happy and okay with their lives but deep inside, they were slowly being eaten up by the sadness that consumed them. The only thing different was while the tall walls in Becca's heart were to keep people out, Leo's walls were to keep his true emotions in. Both were cheerful children when they were young but somehow grew up with sadness being their most loyal companion.
The next day, Becca woke up surprisingly early despite it being a Sunday morning and technically still the weekend when she usually slept in. She couldn't get herself to sleep anymore because her brain was too busy running like a motorcycle engine to even let her shut her eyes. Her brain kept replaying Leo's words over and over and over again in her head.
I love you, Becca.
I will wait for you, Becca.
She gripped her sheets and pushed herself to sit up on the bed. she tried to keep her mind to herself but the traitor kept wandering off to Leo, reliving every moment she had with him in her head. Filling her with thoughts of him and though it had been hours since she had been with him last, his touch still lingered on her skin, the soothing warmth from his embrace that made her feel different.
Becca picked up her phone from the nightstand and scrolled through her contact list till she reached the number that had Leo's name written boldly on top of it. She leaned the back of her phone on her chin and contemplated whether to dial the number or not but at the end decided not to. He might still be asleep and she didn't want to disturb him.
Sighing, she got off the bed and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth then got a text from her sister, saying that she just landed in New York and wanted them to have coffee together.
Becca immediately replied an 'okay' to her sister and got ready to leave the apartment. She drove to the coffee shop Kristina said she would be at and walked into it. Her eyes searched the place for where Kristina sat and eventually found her but saw that she had company. As Becca approached the table from behind, she saw that Kristina sat beside a man and both of them seemed to a having a pleasant conversation. Becca came behind Kristina and tapped her on the shoulder.
" Becca, there you are! I missed you so much." Kristina squealed as she turned around and hugged her sister.
" Don't be such a drama queen, we saw each other a week ago." Becca playfully rolled her eyes at her. Just as she was about to ask Kristina who the man she was sitting with was, the man turned around and smiled at her.
" Liam, what are you doing here?" Becca asked in surprise and turned to her sister. " I thought you said it was going to be just the two of us," Becca said to her sister.
" Well technically it is, it's the two of us and him," Kristina said and wrapped her hands around Liam's forearm, causing Becca to blink at what she just saw but decided to shake it off.
perhaps it was just a trick of the light.
She sat on the other side of the table while Kristina sat close with Liam and Becca watched them exchange looks with each other with a confused expression on her face. Her eyes trailed to Kristina's hand on the table and the huge diamond ring on her sister's finger caught her attention. Becca mindlessly stared at the ring before Kristina's voice brought her back to the present.
" Becca, I have something to tell you." Kristina broke the short moment of silence between them.
" You guys are together now, aren't you?" Becca took the words out of her sister's mouth and both Kristina and Liam looked at each other before turning to Becca.
" How did you know that was what Kristina was going to say?" Liam asked and Becca folded her arms over her chest.
" I'm not blind, but I will be if that giant diamond keeps reflecting light into my eyes." Becca sassed, pointing at the diamond ring on Kristina's finger. Kristina giggled on hearing Becca's response and leaned her head on Liam's shoulder. " When did you guy even start dating?"
" To be honest with you, it has been over two years now," Kristina answered, causing Becca's eyes to pop out of their sockets.
" Two what?!" Becca looked at her cousin and sister in disbelief.
'Two years! They had been together for two fucking years and I had no idea about it!' Becca yelled in her head. She turned to Liam and shot him a glare, feeling the urge to strangle the living daylights out of him.
" It's almost three years now," Kristina said with a smile and Becca redirected her glared at her.
" And you didn't tell me? You didn't see me fit to know!" Becca said with her voice slightly rising. How could her own sister and cousin do that to her? How could they keep her in the dark like that and deliberately lie to her?
" well, I'm telling you now, aren't I? It's mostly a long-distance relationship but Liam is such a sweetheart, he visits so much that he practically lives with me. And besides, it was fun having him pull your leg like that." Kristina giggled while Becca kept shooting dagger glares at her head.
If killing wasn't a crime.
" Yeah, it was a heck of fun," Becca said sarcastically. " Next thing you're going to tell me is that you're pregnant." Becca joked and started laughing but her laughter died down when she saw Kristina giving her a sheepish smile and nervously playing with the ring on her finger. Deep lines formed on Becca's forehead as she stared at the couple in front of her
" Well...." Kristina started and Becca instantly stood up from her seat. She went closer to Liam and gave him a hard jab on his shoulder, already knowing what Kristina was going to say.
" You bastard, how dare you knock up my sister?!" Becca scolded but lowered her voice when she saw she was attracting the attention of other people their way. She sat back on her seat, still glaring heavily at Liam. " I should cut off your dick for this." She grumbled and Kristina laughed.
' Leo was right, Becca does act like a grumpy kitten when she's pissed.' Kristina said in her head with a smile.
" Hey, don't break my fiancee. He needs his prized possession if we are going to have more kids in the future." Kristina giggled and Becca smiled brightly at her. She wasn't angry at Kristina for keeping her relationship with Liam a secret, it sounded exactly like something Kristina would do, in fact, she was very happy for them. At least now Liam would finally give her nieces and nephews to play with, plus the two look happy with each other, so who was she to be angry.
" Have you told mother yet? Damn, when she finds out, she's going to throw a fit and probably hang Liam in the process." Becca said to Kristina and Liam let out a hearty laughter.
" Love, why is everyone in your family out for my head?" Liam asked jokingly and caressed Kristina's cheeks. The sight of Liam touching Kristina like that made Becca remember Leo, how he used to touch her. So tenderly.
Becca's smile faltered a little but she fixed it right up. She was spending time with her sister and Liam and didn't want to think about Leo at that time.
" So when did you find out that you were pregnant?" Becca asked, forcing her mind to stay put so it wouldn't start wandering elsewhere.
" Two days ago," Kristina answered and Becca nodded, her eyes occasionally trailing to Kristina's stomach as if trying to see through it. They ordered some coffee and muffins and spoke some more until Kristina thought it would be a good idea to tease Becca a little.
" So where is your boy toy that you love to kiss when you're drunk? I don't see him anywhere or does he only appear when you get drunk?" Kristina teased and Becca shot her a glare.
" His name is Leo and he's not my boy toy." Becca retorted.
" Oh, it's Leo now. Not Mr. Kane or Leonardo Kane, but Leo? This must be interesting, what did I miss?"
' And most especially, what did Leo do to my sister?' Kristina asked herself.
" Nothing happened, we just talked and became friends that's all." Becca shrugged and Kristina pursed her lips, wanting to hear more juicy gossip.
" Friends? And how many bottles of alcohol did you drink while talking?" Kristina asked, making air quotes when she said the word 'talking', which made Becca blush.
' Damnit! Why do I have to blush at a time like this?' Becca used her hands to cover up her cheeks.
" I don't know what you are talking about." Becca denied and Kristina shot her a skeptical look.
" Really now. Okay, if you say so." Kristina said and gulped down the juice she ordered since the worrywart called Liam wouldn't let her have coffee.
After spending the morning together, Liam walked Kristina to their car, holding her like a fragile artifact and though Kristina didn't like being treated so delicately, she just rolled with it because she knew that the pregnancy thing was still new to Liam and he was trying his best not to mess up. She even found his behavior kinda cute.
But while they were about to reach their car, Kristina noticed a familiar-looking Maybach that parked a few feet away from their car and it looked exactly like the one Leo owned.
" Sweetie, please wait for me in the car, I will be right back." Kristina excused herself and walked to the Maybach. She knocked on the tinted window of the car and the person inside wined it down.
" I knew it was you. what are you even doing here, Leo?" She asked, peeking inside the car.
" What does it look like? Of course, I'm here to pick up my woman." Leo answered her, his voice sounding annoyed as if she was asking a stupid question.
" How did you even know she was here? You know what, never mind, I already know the answer." She said. Kristina know Leo, she knew he could do anything to get what he wanted, and apparently, her sister was no exception.
" What took you guys so long?" Leo asked in a complaining tone and Kristina rolled her eyes at him.
" I wasn't the one who asked you to wait for her, so don't complain. And news flash lover boy, Becca only sees you as a friend, she just said it inside." Kristina said curtly and Leo's mood turned grave.
" She said what?" Leo's eyes burnt with fury. How could she term them with the wrong relationship status again?
Becca was really going to drive him insane one day.
Just then, Becca stepped out of the cafe and saw Kristina standing next to a Maybach that she could have sworn she had seen before.
Leo's car didn't only seem to be special but unique as well.
Becca walked towards where her sister stood and called out to her.
" Kris? Who are you talking to?" Becca asked as she walked closer to her sister and like a curious child, she peeked into the car but froze when her eyes met Leo's blue ones.
" Leo, what are you doing here?" Becca asked in surprise but bit her lip when she saw Leo glaring at her.
'Was he mad at me? Fuck! How could he look so hot and so scary at the same time?' Becca asked herself, blinking innocently at him.
" I came to pick you up, why? Don't friends pick each other up?" Leo snapped at her and his jaw clenched in annoyance, feeling frustrated that she still chose to leave him in the friend zone.
" Looks like you two have to work out whatever this is amongst yourselves, I have to go," Kristina said, seeing as Leo probably wanted Becca alone to himself, then turned to Becca and hugged her. " Bye sis, I'll see you soon." She added and walked back to Liam's car, leaving Becca with Leo.