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"I said, no explanations. I don't care anymore. For years I wanted to know why - but that time is long past. You could've contacted me to try and explain any time during the last six years and you chose not to. So, let's leave the explanations in the past, shall we. You know, I've been searching for you for a very long time. Six years to be exact."
He is talking calmly, but I can see the micro-movements of his body language giving away his real anger.
He spins the mug slowly in his hand, staring at it as though it was a work of art.
I wait for as long as I can, but the tension building inside me is getting worse by the second.
"If you don't want an explanation about why I left then tell me why you are here Stefano?"
"I want you." He says simply. As though it was obvious.
"What?" I stammer, not understanding him.
"I drove past your parents' house the other day. It hasn't changed in all these years. It's funny how so many things in the world change constantly. But some things just stay the same, as though that is how they will always be. A constant in a storm."
I bite my lip.
"You are going to come and live with me, Amelia."
"No." I blurt out immediately and the look he shoots at me is full of threat.
He laughs and that same darkness spills across the table towards me.
"Yes." He tilts his head. "Because if you don't - I will drive to your father's house again. But this time, I won't go past it, I'll stop outside. I'll get out of my car and knock on the door. And then when he opens it, I'll invite myself in. I'll stay a few days, taking my time, making sure he suffers in the most beautiful ways. All the while, I'll make your mother watch his pain."
"What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you say such things?" Heated anger mixes with my fear and speaks too loudly. I glance around me, hoping I didn't catch the attention of anyone nearby. No one seems to have noticed a thing.
"I'm just letting you know what your options are. So, you can come and stay with me, or I will visit your parents. You can choose. I'm not a monster. I understand that people have the right to choose. So, tell me - what do you choose?"
I understand very clearly that this isn't really a choice. If I chose not to go with him, he would kill my parents and then he would come and find me anyway.
My breathing is tight, and my lungs feel empty. I know I am fighting off a panic attack because I've had them in the past, just after I left Stefano, living in constant fear for those first years. It faded to the background after a while, but now I can feel it resurfacing.
The panic.
The fear.
"I can't come and live with you. My daughter is sick. She needs constant medical care. I have to be with her." I don't want to give him this information, but I have to at this point.
"That's not a problem. I will ensure she gets all the care she needs. I will have her room set up in my house with everything required to take care of her."
"Stefano, she needs very specialized care. What she has is serious."
"Like I said. Whatever she needs."
I sigh heavily.
"So, what do you choose Amelia?" he asks again with more force.
"Why would you care enough to provide whatever my daughter needs? Why would you do that for her?"
He chuckles and shakes his head.
"I don't care. I don't care about you or your child. But you owe me for what you did, and I plan to take payment in whatever way I see fit."
"So, you expect me to just pack up my things and move into your house?"
"Exactly."
