Page 48 of The Casella King

Why did I bother to come here? I knew how he would be. Why would he change in the short amount of time since I left? I guess part of me hoped that he could change for such a long time that I still wanted to believe it. It’s hard to give up on people you love, even if they may have not helped you much in life. Especially if they are related to you.

“Why is there a man in my home?” he grumbles as he stands up from the sofa, looking over my shoulder, and I notice Henry had followed me in.

“He’s my bodyguard.” I admit.

“Why wouldyouneed a bodyguard?”

I sigh, not wanting to tell him about my marriage to the city’s most notorious gangster. I don’t have to tell him anything. I canjust walk out of this fucking house and be done with it, but like an idiot, I stay.

“I’m married to someone who needs bodyguards,” I say and watch his eyes practically light up.

“Who?”

“Ezra Casella.”

His demeanour immediately changes from hope to disgust.

“A fucking mobster?” he questions, the beer still in his hand. “You married the city’s most dangerous mobster?”

My brows pull in, wondering if I was the only one who didn’t know who Ezra was before I met him. Was I truly that naïve?

“Tell me you’re in it for the money at least.” His words send a sting to my chest. Technically I did marry Ezra initially because he agreed to pay me, but now, all I want is to prove to him that I belong in his world.

“No, I love him,” I say the words to convince him, but it’s the truth.

He scoffs, “What do you know of love?”

I clench my jaw at his response. Is he truly that blind to not see how much his absence affected both mine and Giselle’s lives?

“More than you,” I counter, and he steps toward me.

Henry immediately steps in front of me, his tall, jacked build hovering over my father, and he backs off.

“Miss, we should leave now,” Henry says, and without another word, I’m out the door.

Fuck him.

The amount of time I spent trying to mend the relationship between us throughout my teenage years will forever be wasted on him. I will never get that time back, and nothing he ever does will be enough for me to ever forgive him. I can’t pretend like it doesn’t hurt me because it does. Every girl deserves a father who sets a bar so high that no other male in their life could ever possibly reach it, but the bar is set so stupidly low for me that it’sno wonder I fell for Ray. The sad reality of life is the fact that we accept the love we think we deserve, even if we deserve so much more.

I ask Henry to take me home, and as I walk through the door, the only thing I have on my mind is Ezra. Walking up the stairs, I search for him, only to find each room empty.

“Where’s Ezra?” I ask Henry.

“He’s out, Mrs Casella. He will be back shortly.”

I pick up my phone and dial Nicholas’s number.

“Aries!” he yells my name into the phone with a tone that makes me sense he has a smile on his face.

“Can you talk?”

“What did he do now?” His tone turns serious.

“No, nothing, I just…I need help with something, and I think you’d be the best person to help me with it. Can you come over?”

“Yeah, of course, just give me about twenty minutes.”

I hang up and pace back and forth, plotting. An uneasy feeling settles in my stomach as I realise what I am about to ask of Nico, but it’s my only option. It’s the only way I can think of earning my place as a Casella.

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