Page 5 of Something New

I giggle, loving the adventurous undertones of his pact. But he isn’t laughing, and actually, he seems upset when I do.

I stop myself, clamping my mouth shut. He is older than me. He knows better than I do what love is. Maybe I will understandmore when I turn twenty-five, and what harm can it do to say yes now? By the time I’m twenty-five, he’ll be married and have forgotten about me.

“I promise.” I say.

“You will marry me when you are twenty-five - no matter where you are?” He doesn’t sound convinced.

“Yes.” I grin, my heart fluttering at the daring prospect of marrying this man.

The smile that spreads across his face is worth every word I just said. Even if it was a lie.

I’m alight with the fire he ignites in me, but I can’t shake the unsettling fear that I’ve just sold my soul to a devil.

Tuomo wraps his hand around my jaw and pulls me towards him to kiss me again.

I am young, falling in love, and filled with hope and romantic delusions. I allow him to sweep me away on a magic carpet ride of passion.

CHAPTER THREE

Tuomo

No. This can’t be happening. I shake my head. My hands are shaking.

“What do you mean? Her mother isdead. How? What happened?” I snap, furious.

“They found her on the floor of the main bathroom. She was throwing up blood.” Masaccio says, shrugging his shoulders. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t have a clue I am in love with the dead woman’s daughter.

“People don’t just throw up blood for no reason. What the fuck happened to her? Did someone do something to her?” My jaw drops open. “Did someone poison her?”

My eyes immediately go to my father, who is standing there, stoic, cold, with zero expression on his face.

I run at him, my fists clenched, ready to beat the truth out of him - but Rufino grabs me and holds me back. “Did you poison her mother?” I scream at my father.

My father brushes imaginary dust off his sleeve and looks at me as though I mean nothing. “Don’t be so dramatic, Tuomo.What reason could I have to poison the housekeeper? She was probably sick. These people don’t look after themselves.” These people, he thinks they are less human than he is. His blood is just as red as hers. The only difference is he has the money to look after himself while he kept her so poor she couldn’t.

Masaccio, my twin brother, pushes me back and stands between my father and me. “What has gotten into you, Tuomo? Why the hell do you care so much about the housekeeper?” He’s confused. I’m angry over a situation that on any other day I wouldn’t even notice.

“Don’t you know - he’s been fucking her daughter.” Rufino chuckles. “His little plaything, they have been sneaking around fucking in broom closets. Now, with her mother dead, I suppose she won’t be around here anymore.”

My blood boils hotter, faster, angrier.

My fists are clenched so tight that my shoulders ache. I narrow my eyes at my father. “Are you going to send Nerissa away?” I ask, my heart already knowing the answer, but my mind refusing to accept the truth. He won’t keep her here. This is what he wanted all along, a reason to get rid of her.

“Of course, I am. Why would she stay here? Her mother is dead. I don’t employ her, she’s a school-girl. There’s no free lodging here.”

“But Nerissa’s brother’s - they are still staying here, right?” I snarl. Those two assholes wouldn’t take on the responsibility of caring for her, but I’ll care for her. I just need her to stay.

“Well, they do work for me. So, yes.” Then she can stay.

I want to kill him.

I want to kill my father so badly that I’m envisioning it, like a waking dream. I don’t understand how he can do this to me. Why? Why would he take away the one thing that I have ever loved in this world?

Because he can. That’s why.

I have to change his mind.

But right now, I am so angry that all I see is red, irrational rage, fueled by hatred. My world is spinning in and out of focus and I can’t get my thoughts in line. If I stay here, I’ll kill him.

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