Page 52 of Between Desire and Denial
“I’m with Dad out of town. Stop texting and calling.”
“But we should talk.” I hesitated for a moment. “Without Dad. And without Georgette. We need to talk, and you need to—”
“Stop bothering me, Olive. It’s for the best.” He hung up and I was left wondering what to do. Did I text him and push him further? How involved was he? And if he wasn’t, I didn’t want to ask and get him involved.
That left me with the book I’d schmoozed Esme into giving me before I left the library. She’d given me her number and said I should call her with questions—only her, no one else. It was old and leatherbound and held secrets not even I was certain I could keep.
I told Dimitri I was going to work on my thesis and he nodded, waving me off in the living room. He was busy working and I would be busy reading the rest of the night in the primary suite where I closed the door behind me. I started to read about how this society was men and women walking among us with much more pull than I could ever have imagined.
They were entangled with the government, law enforcement, investors, and such influential people that they could sway decisions on every aspect of the community. I read how they went from implementing small changes in a school a hundred years ago to influencing how and where drug cartels land within the state.
I took notes, mapped out relationships, figured out how embedded this society was in about everything I’d ever known. They were connected in the highest social circles of business tycoons around the world. An online search revealed they were also connected to a biker club. It was all hearsay, but it made sense.
No mafia.
The Diamond Syndicate was founded hundreds of years ago in Europe and the mastermind wanted a group of knights to protect the morals of society along with influencing power to do right. When they migrated to the United States, they kept those morals and brought extreme amounts of money over. Yet, they kept the syndicate as a sort of secret society where they could mold laws, increase power, and exercise influence. Supposedly in the last couple hundred years, in this region, they kept the mob from infiltrating communities that were near, kept men and women from paying for protection. They claimed that they would strive for an idyllic community around it.
Except power breeds greed, and some had fallen victim to giving up communities to the mafia. Some were corrupt. And exceptionally powerful.
It made sense that Paradise Grove would push back on Dimitri’s offices if the companies he were bringing in didn’t align with the Diamond Syndicate.
I knew that Dimitri’s sisters had married Armanellis, a powerful Italian mob family. That family wasn’t listed anywhere in this book. Could they be a direct threat to the Diamond Syndicate? Dimitri bringing that link to this community could potentially disrupt their harmony.
I noted how this society must have influenced our town. I started writing it into my thesis, although I wasn’t sure what I would end up using.
The excitement I felt being able to put it down on paper, to expand the history of this community, to tie in how it affected the greater society, it felt like a perfect thesis at first. Yet, when I came to the descendants of the Diamond Syndicate, the excitement was squelched.
I saw my mother’s parents pictured, a wedding photograph printed in there.
My mother had never told me she was a part of the syndicate, never once said a thing to me about them.
And I couldn’t figure out why. I racked my brain, but I knew I couldn’t tell Dimitri about this until I learned more, until I knew why my mother kept it a secret from even me.
I was so deep in my reading that I didn’t feel the migraine until I glanced up at the time. I found myself squinting away a visual aura and having to wobble to put away the book in a dresser drawer before I laid down for an hour-long cat nap.
I woke to Dimitri still in the living room on the phone like he was planning to be there all night.
And even though I was thankful my headache subsided, I was now irritated he hadn’t come to bed yet. Every night, I’d fall asleep to him lying on his side, his body heat warming mine. It was clear he didn’t care to do the same. I sighed as I looked over at myself in the mirror. I’d made sure to wear big, baggy clothes to bed more for my own sanity than anything else. Yet, I spent every night sweating in those long pants.
If he didn’t even come to bed early to talk with me before falling asleep, it was obvious he wasn’t thinking of me in the same way I’d been thinking of him. So, I stomped over to my dresser again and flung off my sweater. I was going to sleep in the crop top and shorts I normally did.
I’d be just as comfortable as him now, and I wouldn’t think about him one bit. Who thought about people that were just friends anyway? We were platonic, and I could keep things that way. I would deny any other feeling I had from now on. I ripped the sheet away from the pillow just as I heard his voice down the hall.
He walked into the bedroom in time for me to act like I was gently, without any rage, folding down the soft white silk duvet filled with down. I turned to say, “You finally decide to—”
But he held up his hand and then pointed to the phone. “No. The governor of Hawaii declared a climate emergency.” He laughed at the person on the other line. “You realize their water levels are less dangerous than Florida’s, right? We need to be diligent with this investment even if it comes at a loss.” One more pause to listen. “I’m sure it will. You shouldn’t have invested if you didn’t know the risk. Now, my girlfriend needs to talk with me. So, call my assistant in the morning if you need to discuss something further.” He hung up the phone and took a deep breath as he scanned my pajamas. “You’re going to bed?”
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Um, yes. It’s eleven.”
“You’ve been in here for hours.”
“Right. I was working on my thesis and then I napped after getting a migraine.”
He stopped walking mid step and looked up with concern. “You’re still getting migraines?”
“It’s fine.” I waved him off. “It’s just stress. I took a nap, and it went away.”
Still, he walked to my side of the bed and put his hand on my waist to look closely in my eyes. “Come get me if you have a headache next time.” Then he had me step back as he moved between me and the bed. “I can turn down the bed, Honeybee.”
