Page 87 of Bittersweet Endings
My chest heaved, and my mind raced. It wasn’t easy to give her back before. And it was even harder to think about leaving without her. Matteo told me it didn’t make me weak, claiming her, so it was time she learned the truth.
I pounded on the door. She hurled some interesting curses at me, but didn’t budge. It wasn’t until I heard a soft sob coming from the other side that I finally decided to force my way in. I threw the full weight of my shoulder against the wood and felt it splinter.
“Goddamn it!” I pulled a piece of wood out of my skin and tossed it aside. “Fuck, you always make me bleed.”
“Physical pain is better than emotional agony.” She glowered at me, a satin robe hanging off her shoulders.
“I came back for you. I was never going to leave you… forever. You’re mine. Nothing is the same without you. No one fights me the way you do. No one… Fuck! You’re mine, okay, Octavia?” I shouted.
She didn’t flinch. “As I was saying before, I didn’t do this to be reckless, Carmine. I did it because...” She paused. “Because I loved you. I wanted nothing else in your way so you could decide what you wanted.”
She fucking loved me.And she said it like it was nothing, but the impact was deadly. This goddamn woman had broken medown and shredded my insides. She made me want to strangle her while I fucked her. Indenting her for the world to see how damaged she truly was and who she belonged to.
“Fuck, little doll.” I exhaled sharply, pressing my forehead against hers.
My fingers dug into her skin like I could hold her there forever. An overwhelming urge to protect and murderforher came over me. It was final. She was mine.
“You’re coming back to California with me.”
She opened her mouth, and I covered it with a hand.
“No arguments. I have a lot going on, and I can’t protect you on the other side of the country.”
She smirked, the fire not dwindling in her eyes. “I wasn’t going to fight you. I was going to ask what your family andil famigliawould have to say.”
“Well,il famigliacan get fucked. I’m already making a show of killing JP and announcing I’m his new replacement. They’ll do whatever the fuck I tell them to do.”
I held her tight against me, feeling her warmth seep into my chest like it could melt away everything. It also felt like I could breathe for the first time in a long while.
But it wasn’t enough. Tension gnawed at me, happiness coiled with something darker. Something I didn’t have the answers to. Matteo was right. It didn’t feel like a death sentence. I didn’t feel weak. Not with her.
When we returned to California, Octavia would make sure people respected her. Mario didn’t shy away from her growing up in the life. And she was a hell of a lot harder to crack than her siblings.
“Do you remember what you said to me? That day you let me go?” Octavia asked, her voice just above a whisper.
I didn’t answer her, unsure of which part she was talking about.
“How you’d hoped you’d disgraced Mario’s daughter by filling me with a bastard?”
I tightened my grip on her hair, holding her there just a little longer. “And?”
She pulled away slightly, enough to look me in the eye. “Now suddenly you want me in Cali at your side? What’s the real you, Carmine? Who do you want to be?”
“The fuck are you…?” I frowned, confused for a moment, but then I noticed something. Something small but so fucking obvious that it hit me like a punch to the gut. My eyes snapped towards the sink, and in that moment, I knew.
There, shoved behind the moisturizers, was a pregnancy test. Everything inside me stopped. I looked at her once, but her face was unreadable. All I could see was the test. I leaned over the counter to grab it, and when I held it in my hands, the words on the stick were clear.Positive.
For a second, I couldn’t move. I just stared at the piece of plastic in my hand, my heart pounding in my ears. She was watching me carefully, waiting for me to process it, and I could feel the world shift under my feet.
“Carmine,” she said again, softer this time. “You got what you wanted. You broke me in every way that counts. Left me to carry your child with nothing but your silence. Even now, when I tell you that I love you… you give me nothing in return.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I always knew I’d have to pass down the family name. But so much shit had gone down. None of it seemed real.
Octavia stepped closer, her eyes locked on mine like a challenge. “So now I need to know… what part of this was ever real? AmI going to California with you, or am I staying here and doing this without you?” Her voice didn’t shake. “Because either way, Carmine… Iwillbe fine. Don’t mistake heartbreak for weakness.”
I’d barely even registered moving. But before I knew it, I was walking away. She was pregnant. And for a man like me, that meant something.
She didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to. I could feel it. The weight of it all, the way everything had changed in the span of a single moment.
