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So, yeah…fuck her.
Unfortunately for me, she was still as beautiful as ever. At only five-foot-three, she still packed one hell of a punch. Savina had dark brown hair that had natural highlights that turned her tresses into a multi-colored waterfall of chocolate in the sun. She also had a pair of dark blue eyes that pulled you in with how large they were. Savina looked like a fucking doll, and her petite body fit that image perfectly. She looked as innocent as a farmgirl, but I knew that she was anything but.
Even though I’d always known who she was, we hadn’t run in the same circles until Nero had started taking over the family more. The more responsibility that Nero had taken on, the more meetings he had attended, the more Capos he had commanded, etc. While my position had shifted years ago, only Nero and I had known it, so I had still followed him everywhere, posing as only his bodyguard. In turn, I’d found myself meeting more people that I hadn’t ever cared to meet, and Paolo Valentine had been one of those people; him, his wife, Carla, and their daughter, Savina Valentine.
The first time that I’d ever met her, I had romantically likened her to the sun, which had been a shock in itself since I didn’t have a romantic bone in my body. Nonetheless, she had outshone everyone in the room without even having to try. In a world full of face fillers, layers of makeup, and liposuction, Savina had been a natural breath of fresh air. The woman had also proven that she could hold an intelligent conversation with the best of them.
So, after a few months of running into her, I had finally asked her out, and to my surprise, she’d said yes. Of course, the cynical part of me had wondered if it’d been because of my position in the family, but at the time, I hadn’t cared enough to examine her motives too closely. However, it’d only taken a few dates to realize that Savina acknowledged how much life there was outside the Mafia world, so she really hadn’t been impressed by who I was or what my ties to the family had been. She’d been only twenty-eight at the time, but you’d never guess it with how cultured she’d been.
The first time that we’d slept together, I hadn’t been surprised that she hadn’t been a virgin because what twenty-eight-year-old was? However, it’d been her passion that had sent me to places that I’d never been before. Savina hadn’t pretended to be coy, modest, or inexperienced. She had given as good as she’d gotten, and I could still remember how my hands would shake if I’d gone too long without having her. I’d lost count of how many times that I had accused her of sorcery, and she’d always laugh it off, claiming that love had a way of making people feel that way.
For three years, she’d been my entire life. Had it not been for the start of Nero’s unofficial reign, I would have married her, and we’d have a couple of kids by now. Of course, that’d all been before the rose-colored glasses had come off. Had I asked her to marry me, she would have said no. She would have said no, because while I’d been busy making future family plans for us in my head, she’d been busy making it possible for her to leave this life, including what we’d had together. Yeah, she had asked me to go with her, but she had asked the question already knowing the answer.
As for these past three years, while I had no idea what she’d done during the first year apart, the media had been quick to sensationalize how Ashton Oliver, son of Congressman Stewart Oliver, had met the love of his life, Savina Valentine, and every picture, every post, every article was of how happy they were, and how the Stewarts were going to become the next Kennedys.
So, what in the fuck was she doing here now?
Savina was wringing her hands, but I didn’t know why because Savina had never been the type to act meek. She’d always been a spitfire, the proof in how she had defied her family to carve out a life of her own. Granted, I was reflecting on the Savina that I’d known three years ago, so I really had no clue who this woman that was standing in front of me was.
“I…I was looking for you,” she answered.
“Why?”
Her blue eyes slid towards the doorman, and something must have happened between them because it was obvious that he was laughing at her.
Once upon a time, I would have shot him in the face for such a slight.
Nowadays, I couldn’t care less.
When she looked back my way, she said, “I was…I was hoping that we could talk.”
I cocked my head. “I can’t see where we’d have anything to talk about.”
Savina did her best to remain demure, but her eyes had always been a window into her soul, and though I could swear that there was some desperation swirling around in those blue orbs, bravery was in the spotlight at the moment. No one appreciated being humiliated, and that’s what I was doing to her; I was humiliating her in front of anyone that could hear our exchange.
“It’ll just take a second,” she said, trying again.
Even if I had a second to spare her, I had no desire to grant her an audience. Not only did she not deserve any of my time, but I really had somewhere to be. Plus, while she might view a conversation as nothing but a means to whatever end that she was trying to accomplish, I was barely managing to hang on to my fury with the little conversation that we were having now. When I’d told this woman that I was going to love her forever, I hadn’t been lying. Luckily for me, I’d spent every day of the past three years hating her, so whatever love that I still had for her, it wasn’t as strong as the hate that I felt for her.
I glanced at my watch, and not to be an asshole. Elio was having another marital issue with that fruitcake of his, so Nero had called me earlier, asking me if I could head to Ether, one of our newest clubs. Elio was supposed to meet with one of Declan O’Brien’s men, something about a small upstart gang that was trying to make a name for themselves. Though the meeting wasn’t an offer to get in bed together, the informational curtesy was simply because The O’Brien really did have a soft spot for Kasen, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if Nero shot him for it one day.
Looking back at the woman that I wasn’t too proud to say had obliterated my faith in love, I said, “I need to be somewhere, so I don’t have a second. Truth be told, even if I did, I can think of a million other things that I’d rather do with it than give it to you over shit that couldn’t possibly interest me.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important, Aurelio,” she said, and that was her second mistake of the night. Her first had been looking for me, this one had been using my name.
We weren’t on a first name basis anymore.
I stepped closer to her, which I could admit was a bad idea as soon as her scent hit my nostrils. “Important to who?” I asked. “Because I can tell you-for a fact-that you no longer hold any importance on this side of the tracks.”
Though barely noticeable, Savina flinched, but I didn’t care. It’d been one thing when she’d left me to chase her dreams, it’d been quite another when she’d chosen to start fucking a man that was high-prolife enough that I’d never be able to escape their fairytale. Talk about rubbing salt on the wound, and unfortunately for her, that wound was still a bloody, gaping mess.
Her eyes began to shine as she stared up at me, and if she started crying, nothing would stop me from killing her, damn the witnesses. She didn’t have the right to cry. She wasn’t entitled to be hurt. Savina had walked away from me, not the other way around. She’d also been the first of us to move on. Despite already being thirty-five, no one saw me with a fucking wife or kids.
Blessedly, my phone rang, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Elio. Most of the time, I cursed his phone calls because he was such a fucking pain in my ass, but not this time. This time, it felt like a lifeline, and I wasn’t too proud to grab onto it.
Shooting one last look her way, I put the phone to my ear, then started walking away from her, the petty side of me enjoying that it was me turning away from her this time, not the other way around.
“What?”
