CHAPTER 75

Sharon woke up with the realisation that the warmth that cradled her was gone. She touched the spot where Luca had laid, It was cold, he had been gone for a while

Sharon felt a burning sensation in her throat. She looked around her room, hoping he was somewhere nearby, hoping to hear his footsteps a room away. God forbid he woke up and left her after she entrusted him with her deepest secret.

He wasn't in her room

There was a silence, that convinced her that he wasn't inside her house either

“Luca”

She called, her voice filled with uncertainty. Somehow , she hoped that he was close enough to hear her call his name. But all she could hear in return was silence.

She could still feel his breath against her neck, his hands prodding the fabric of her clothing, merely seeking her validation. She could still feel the ghost of his presence

She walked out of her room, went downstairs, searched her house. But he wasn't there.

That was when it occurred to her that the conversation she had that morning wasn't in her dream. He really left her

“No, it's impossible”

She said as she scrambled out of her house, to his. She ran past a couple of people, they probably worked in the orphanage. Their eyes were fixed on her, like they had never seen an adult in oversize children's pyjamas

She couldn't care less. Her hair was practically a bird's nest. Her eyes were filled with tears. and her heart raced in fear. Because a part of her couldn't stand the idea of him leaving. Especially after she just spilled the most important secret of her life to him

Luca wasn't in his house.

She could tell, because it was locked. And Luca never locked his door, not when she was around.

A single tear slipped down her cheek

And her mind struggled to piece together why he left her. All she could come up with, was the fact that she was scarred, broken. He probably imagined her with a normal childhood, a happy one, he probably loved her because he thought she was perfect. And she managed to expose all her imperfections to him

And all of a sudden, he didn't want her anymore—

*******************

“You realise what you're asking me to do right?”

There was a long silence that followed.

Luca placed his glass on a table. His eyes were bitter, and filled with contempt. He drew in a long breath

“Yes”

“Fuck! Luca did you even think this through?”

Luca grabbed a bottle of liquor and threw it across the room, missing Arman's television by a few inches. The liquid tainted his crisp white walls, and shards of glass were scattered across th place

“How the fuck do you expect me to think?”

“How the fuck do you expect yourself not to?”

Arman fired back with the same level of aggression.

“I will clean up all your secrets, carry out all of your orders, do your fucking bidding—

Only when I'm sure that you're in your right senses

And right now you're not”

“I pay you not to ask questions Arman! I pay you to act on my command without giving it a second thought”

“And if I was doing this for the pay, I would've been working for your maniac grandfather”

Arman's eyes were full of fury, a sharp contrast to Luca's cold ones. In all their years of friendship, they had never had a serious fight

“Tell me Luca

What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Luca ran his hands through his hair

“I'm in love with Sharon”

“I know that”

“Hillary Gray hurt Sharon”

There was silence once more, and it was Arman's turn turn to be bitter

“When do you want it done?”

Luca sat depressingly on Arman's couch

“What happened to thinking it through?”

“You don't pay me to think, remember?”

Luca and Arman locked eyes. In all their years of friendship, there had never been that much tension between them

“You want my fucking advice?

Sharon doesn't need to know that you're the reason her father becomes crippled in the next few hours. She's learned to live with him, whether you want to accept it or not

She doesn't need you to avenge her, she just needs you

And I'm sorry that you're too ridden with guilt that you made her life miserable for a time, to realise all that—”

“So—, now what?”

“You're gonna fly back to Italy, before Rufus Pavilochenki realises you ever came back here. You're going to crawl up in Sharon's bed, and act like you were never even gone

Because she fucking deserves better”

“Or?”

“Or I cripple her father, like you asked. Because I'm just your hitman, the one that doesn't ask questions”

“No Arman, I m gonna fly back to Italy, and you're going to cripple her father, like I asked”

“Why?”

“Because I'm a Pavilochenki”

He walked closer to Arman

“And Pavilochenkis always get what they want”

“Well you never really behaved like one. You're so fucking different from the rest of them. What a hell of a time to accept your generational madness”

“I guess blood does run thicker than water”

That was it. Luca had been closer to Arman than he had been with Donald for a really long time. They were practically brothers. It sucked for Donald, infuriated Rufus Pavilochenki, created a rift between Donald and Arman—

But for the first time, Luca reminded Arman of who they really were. And Arman was just his bodyguard, his pawn—

“Yes, I guess so too—”