Mateo

A phone goes off, startling us all.

"Fuck..." Liam whispers when he looks at the ID caller. He looks at us, especially Emily. "Sorry, didn't mean to curse" but she shakes her head, looking at her food; she still doesn't eat anything...I tried spaghetti yesterday after the doctor came, but no luck.

"Who is it?" I ask, eating the steak I made and I'm happy I still can cook after these 3 months; usually Emily makes the food and it's damn good if you asks me.

"Mom..." oh, that woman. Signing, I pull my hand out. "What?"

"Give me the fucking phone and I'll answer for you" his eyes glisters with hope and eagerly give it. "What do you want, Helena?"

"Mateo!?" Liam's mom answers, putting her seducing voice on; god, I hate her! She ones tried to flirt with at a dad's party. It's weird, I know, but she and I aren't much older. Helena is only 36 and a beautiful woman but a whore...I NEVER slept with her because I'm that kind of asshole; she's my little brother's mom. "How are you?"

"You're not asking what's wrong with Liam?" I look at him only to stare down his plate.

"Liam...?"

"You know? You're son?" Helena is silence for a moment before she replies.

"I know who he is-"

"-Just so you know, he's fine and his school grades also fine"

"That's good to hear" she says sarcastically; fuck, I hate her. How can you be like that to your own son? "But is that important? The El Ricci's are rich, you don't need to go to school" I chuckle, not believing she just said.

"Helena, I may not be like dad who doesn't give a fuck about school, but I know how important that it. I don't want your son to be in this kind of life and as head of the family, I kind of choose that-"

"-Right, you're Boss now...What do you think if we go somewhere, you know" I feel her winking though the phone.

"Helena, I'll make something really clear" I look at Liam then to Emily, holding her gaze. "I'm married which means I only have sex with one woman" Liam and Lucy both are blushing right now, feeling embarrassed; they know what I'm talking about so they don't need to deny it. "What do you really want?" she sighs.

"I'll be staying here a little longer than planed...I've met a guy here in London and he's really nice..."

"Wow, no shit" I say sarcastically as well now.

"I mean it, he's...different, you know what that feels" and I can't say anything to that; she's right. Now, I have someone who is different... "Could Liam stay with you a little longer?" looking at him, I ask the question.

"Your mother asks if you want to stay here longer?" hope glitters in his eyes and he nod repeatedly. "He wants to stay, but Helena" she hums. "You need to take care of him, he needs a mother figure, when was the last time you cooked for him?" she doesn't say anything. "He needs someone, now he's alone, yes he has me and Emily but we also have our own life..."

"I know, but I never thought Giovanni would leave me for Vanessa" she says bitterly about my parents.

"We still do things the traditional way and one of them is that the head of the family chooses one wife; my dad will never take care of other woman's children" I look at Liam who is looking sad now and I squeezes his shoulder, letting him know I'm here.

"I don't have the time-BEEP" she hangs up.

"Here" I give the phone back.

"Let me guess, she found the one?" I nod. "She's so pathetic, the one doesn't exist"

"Not even true love?" Lucy says; she's been awfully quite tonight. Liam stands up, looking Lucy disgusted down.

"Love doesn't exists, it's a some stupid feeling you get inside your head and the next thing you know the person you love is against you" he storms off, leaving us alone at the dining table.

"What was that about?" Emily asks me while drawing circles on my chest. Its late and we're lying in bed, cuddling; a routine we do now and I'm not going to lie...It's nice. Staring at the ceiling, I think over what she asked me.

"Who? Helena?" she nods. "Helena is Liam's, but you knew that" she nods again. "Helena is... always is gone, fucking rich man for their money or something...She needs to get the blink somewhere"

"I'm sorry Liam has that kind of mother..." she whispers and I stroke her back gently, loving the way she shivers underneath me; so fucking soft. What a shame she's wearing my t-shirt right now.

"I'm too..." there's an awkward silence somehow but Emily starts to talk.

"You know that he looks up to you, right?" now she got my attention. When she looks up, I arch a brow. "He never had Giovanni as a dad; he had you instead"

"But I never been there for him like Caleb or Olivia" I have no idea what she's talking about if I'm honest.

"You may not been there for him 24/7 but every time you did, it was something special" she grins a little. "He wished you were his dad, at least you been here" I know what he feels; yes, dad was with me but that didn't mean he was a dad to me. I was more his project, not a son but a successor and I hate it! I needed to be perfect and when I didn't than a punch or two was my punishment. My life wasn't always bad, just different. "You're frowning"

"What?" now she sits up and I miss her warm, soft body immediately. Touching my face, she looks tenderly to me...in an adoring way and my chest warms up; I don't like this feeling.

"I don't really know what your dad did but Liam needs someone to be with him and I think you're the perfect one"

"I'm trying...I know what he is going through and I want to avoid the he will be like me and Celeb"

"Being in this Mafia life?" now I sit up, leaning against the head bed.

"One of the reason..." I think over what I should do...I want to show her something but it's something I never show anyone at all.

"Mateo? What's wrong?" I stare her seep in her champagne brown eyes who's looking confused. Not thinking any further about it, I pull her up in my lap so she's straddling me.

"I need to show you something..." I point at my tattoos on my side. "Do you see this?"

"I see you're tattoos, yes" she looks confused, touching the skin there and then she gasps a little.

"Do feel those scars?" she nods and touches further. I've got a lot of scares on my side but I covered them with my tattoos long ago.

"How did you get those?" she asks confused, even a little mad.

"You don't want to know-"

"-I do! I want to know who did this and most importantly, why!?" signing, I touch her thighs, playing with the soft skin there. "Mateo!"

"Dad used to punish us when we were...bad...mostly when I wasn't perfect or made mistakes then..." I swallow hard. "Even though I was the oldest, Celeb was the one with the most punishments. I don't really know what happened when I was gone but Celeb was the one with the most scars...Liam is lucky, he never lived with dad; thank fuck" I whisper the last part.

"Why would you even do that?" Emily looks at me, tears forming in her eyes and I wipe them away.

"Don't cry...I hate it when you do that" then I remember how I treated her the first time she cried; I'm an asshole... "Stop...Please..."

"Why do you hate it?" she asks and I don't know why but I find myself answering every question she asks.

"My mom used to cry a lot...I hate it because you're hurt and I don't want to be that guy to put those tears there-Fuck!" she touches the one scare that still hurts like shit.

"Sorry!" her hands are off my body, holding them in front of her like she got caught by the police. I tenderly stroke the spot, cursing.

"That one didn't really heal somehow..." I replies and take her hands in mine, holding them against my chest.

"What are you doing?" she looks in my eyes and I can't help but kiss her; this kiss is tender, soft and I put all my feeling into this. She moves a little higher, her hips rolling on my dick and bingo; I'm hard as fuck.

"We can't..." I whisper and she arches a brow. "You're sick, you need to rest, how are you feeling?"

"Better, the puck is mostly in the morning somehow" I nod.

"Let just lie down and talk a little more...We never actually talk about, I have no idea" Emily chuckles and slides into my side, her arm wrapped around my chest.

"Can I ask the question?" do I really want that? Do I want to be open with her? Fuck it, I want her to get to know me because I'm not the asshole everyone thinks I am; I'm more than that. I nod.

"Why the tattoo? Why only you're right half and not you're left?" I smile at that; she's the only one who notice that.

"Why do you think?" I ask her, wanting to know if she knows the truth about that. She hums but replies quickly.

"Okay, so I got a theory...I think that you are like 2 person...one is cold, your right, and one is just you, the left. The cold one was you at the beginning and I notice that you shoot with your right hand which means that one is the Mateo everyone wants you to be but the left one is the real you, the one where your hearts lay..." I'm stunned.

"How did you-?"

"-I'm a psychologist, I'm trained to know someone by just a look" I feel a little uncomfortable by that but I ignore it.

"Okay...That was the truth...I'm just amazed you noticed it" I blink up the ceiling while she just laughs.

"Next question..." she thinks again. "Why did you do the diner? You were marrying me anyways, so why?" now I'm the one laughing and I can't stop. "What!?" a tear streams down my cheek before I answer.

"My life was kind of lonely...I wanted to have some fun and I though; why not?"

"So it was all fake?" her body tenses.

"The dinner part; yes...I wanted to see your reaction of I'm honest...and because my mom doesn't know this is a deal...she really thinks we're together for love" now I wait for her reaction but she doesn't say a word. "Emily?"

"Huh?" she whispers, her body is tenser than before. I need to ask her; it's something I've been dying to know.

"Do you feel that towards me? Love?"