SURRENDER - Mafia Romance

• CHAPTER 50 •

As the days turned into weeks, I was starting to feel normal again but the guilt in me never died. Every time Joe would cross my mind my tears would fight me to be freed. Ace was always in contact with me but having work everyday helped me have a routine to never be able to sit alone with my thoughts. But that day, for the first time in two months, Ace told me to come to the house.

"I need you to be here before the sun sets, Talia," he firmly said when I asked for reasons.

"I told you I don't want to come,"

"I wasn't asking. You better be here because if you don't I will come out there and bring you myself."

I huffed, knowing that he wasn't just saying that, he would do it.

"Fine. But can I at least know why?"

"You will know when you come. Be here before 6."

Then he hung up. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

When I parked in front the house, my chest tightened. My heart raced like a wild stallion, its hooves pounding in my ears with a frantic urgency. I got out of the car, my eyes focused on the house full of painful memories. Every breath I took felt shallow and unsteady, as if the air itself had grown thin and elusive. My hands trembled. My thoughts were a chaotic whirlwind, a cacophony of doubts and fears that threatened to drown out reason. Coming here brough back what I spent months trying to forget.

Ace was standing at the edge of the upper stair, staring at me with a slight smile on his lips, hands in his pockets and firm eyes. He was well dressed. He looked good. He was wearing a button up white shirt leaving his chest revealed. With black suit pants and black loafer shoes. When I looked back up at his face, I saw his smile had grew, realizing that I was checking him out. I looked down, pushing my hair behind my ear and walked up the stairs.

"Hey Lia."

His voice was soft but steady, matching the cold breeze of the night that felt nice making my skin shiver.

"Hey Ace," I returned his smile. His eyes, once a window to a familiar soul that I worked hard to crack open, were then veiled with a hint of mystery. "I, uh, I will stay in my room–I mean dad's room." Yet, as our gazes intermingled, I glimpsed the flicker of recognition, a spark that spoke of shared secrets and moments of intimacy long past.

"Still yours and will always be yours, Lia."

I let out a small laugh and nodded, "I-uh," I pointed behind him, wanting to walk past him but his eyes were holding me down there, tieing me up in place, unable to move, unable to talk. "I am going to go."

He nodded but didn't move. I carefully walked past him with Yuna's words echoing in the back of my mind.

I closed the room door behind me and looked at my dad's portrait. I didn't know if I should thank him that he didn't reveal this life to me and tried to keep it hidden or blame him for making me live all of this unprepared. I sighed and dropped my body in bed.

A few hours passed and I was just reading a book that was on the desk. I was barely concentrated. Music throbbed in the air, a pulsating rhythm that moved the house walls.

The door knocked and for a second, I felt like it was going to be Joe, checking up on me like he always used to do.

"How are you doing?" Nico asked me.

I nodded, "good."

"You don't want to join us?" he asked, pointing behind him. "You will have a little bit of fun."

"No," I tilted my head, "I'd rather stay here."

"Don't worry, Ace won't mind." He laughed.

"No, no," I giggled, "it's not that. I just–" How do I tell him that I didn't want to be in a party after everything that happened?