Page 35 of Did My Heart Love Till Now?

My father examined my face before he cleared his throat and folded his hands together. “Gavino, I want to start by asking how you feel the family is doing?”

“I mean, mom went to stay with zia—”

“No, I mean thefamily.” He arched his brow.

I shrugged. “Yeah, I haven't really needed them lately because this shit just happened, you know?” I gnawed the inside of my cheek and I slouched over, folding my arms and leaning on the table.

“Fucking sit up straight right now, son.”

Adjusting my posture, I sat up and placed my hands on the table in front of me, lacing my fingers together. “As I said, I haven't needed them at all yet.”

He nodded and leaned forward. “But you will.” He growled barely above a whisper.

“Too close!” One of the guards shouted from several feet away.

My father sat back, a malevolent smirk painted his expression.

“I think the family just wants you out of here.” I shrugged. “Shit, I want you out of here so I can get back to my life.”

He chuckled. “Oh Gavino, I am never getting out of here.” He shrugged one of his shoulders. “If I go anywhere, I will be transferred to another cage.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well the Barone family hasn't done anything yet.”

He nodded and leaned forward once again. “But they will.” Without warning he balled both of his fists and slammed them down hard on the table, shouting. “Because you are threatening them all on national TV, you fucking idiot!”

“Last warning!” The guard shouted.

My father's attorney reached between us waving his hand at my father. He shifted his body angrily as he glared at me, but he sat as he was told.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I scoffed. “I didn’t do shit.”

He grinned sarcastically. “Oh, don't you sit there and act like I didn't see you threatening the entire Barone family on the camera!”

Sofia. I mumbled under my breath.

“What did you say to me?” He jumped to his feet.

The guards rushed over and grabbed my father. The attorney stood, clenching a stack of papers. Reluctantly, I stood as well. Rolling my tongue across my bottom lip, I crossed my arms over my chest glaring at my father.

“Listen, I didn't ask for any of this!”

“We don't choose who our family is!” My father sneered, shaking his now bound hands.

“And some of us don't even get to choose who our real enemies are either, do we dad?” I cocked an eyebrow and spun to leave.

“Gavino!” He called after me. “Get back here!”

Pausing, I whirled around. “No dad, and for the record, I didn't threaten anyone. I was sending a message to someone else.”

“Oh?” He tilted his head, squinting his eyes as if he were trying to understand.

I nodded. “But none of that matters anymore.” I took a few steps toward him. “Listen, I will do what I am supposed to, but you need to find someone else to take over for me after your sentencing.” Without another word, I turned to leave.

On my way out, I heard him murmur to his attorney. “I need him protected every hour of the day at any cost.” In reality, it was not protection he cared about. I knew what he wanted was mefollowed all the time.

As instructed, I closed the windows. I was alone and them being open made me feel rather exposed. After I lowered the last one, I placed my hands on my hips and rotated in a slow circle. The entire building was magnificent. I wanted to look around the beautiful place that Gavino had turned into a luxury apartment, but I did not want to invade his privacy and look through all his things.

He left me here, trusting me, and I did not want to betray that. We had already been through enough and we were barely together. As I thought about everything that we had dealt with, I decided I wanted to just watch television and ignore everything else for a moment.As much as I always tried my best to remain positive, it was extremely stressful to be stuck between two families at war.

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