TWO

  OLIVER MONERO

  Five years later...

   With my shoulders hung, I walked down the large, brightly lit corridors of my father's mansion. It was a few days after Sara's funeral, and my father had me fly from New York to Italy because he wanted to say something to me, something that could not be said over the phone. I stopped in front of the door to his study, knocked once, and went in, he was hunched over some documents that I didn't care to know about. My heart was hurting, I had just buried my wife, the love of my life, just a few days ago.

   Sara was my life. She was everything to me, losing her was like losing my life and sanity because she kept me sane and brightened my life. It hurt me most because she died with our baby; that feeling can't seem to leave me, no matter how I try to shake it off. My father didn't look up from the papers he was looking at, even when he knew someone had joined him. I walked up to the table and stood there. He never treated me like his son, he treated me like one of his soldiers.

    "You sent for me," I said without any formalities. If he was treating me as if I wasn't his son, I should treat him like a stranger I only work for. My father and I had never had a lovely relationship. We were more like business partners or more like a boss and staff. My mother loved me so much, but she passed a few years ago. I wonder why the good ones will always pass on time.

   He peeked at me, his tiny glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. "Ah, you are here. How was your flight?"

    "As it should be," I replied, wondering what he had called me to Italy for. 

  He nodded and looked back at the documents, ignoring me and letting me stand there. He always did that to remind me that he was still the boss and in charge.  

    "How was your wife's funeral?" he asked, closing the document and looking straight at me. 

    "If you wanted to know, you should have been there." He didn't even attend Sara's funeral. He was the one that wanted me to marry Sara because of some business trust with her father, but he didn't like that I fell in love with Sara, he wanted her to remain a baby-making machine that would only produce an heir to our empire, just like my mom was. And it infuriates me that he never calls her by her name, he always uses the term "your wife" to address Sara.

    "Oliver, I know you are hurt, but you are a man and shouldn't hurt much. You know who you are. Forget the dead and focus on the living."

    My hands tightened into fists, and I restrained myself from climbing that table, reaching across him, wrapping my fingers around his neck, and strangling him to death, so that he would be dead and forgotten too, but he was still my father and was still in charge.

     "Anthony Romano has been arrested," he said casually.

 Was this why he called me here? To tell me that Anthony Romano was arrested. Anthony Romano was the son of our rival family. He was my age mate, and we had met a few times. Apart from that, we knew nothing about each other, only that our fathers were enemies and rivals. But even before the news of his arrest got to the press, we heard about it in New York. Dante had a way of getting information from that family or anywhere else.

    "Is this why you called me here? To tell me that Anthony Romano has been arrested?"

    "No, you should move to California and lie low for now until everything dies down. The company in California is lagging anyway, and I need someone to brush them up. Take Dante and a few of your close men and go to California."

   No matter how much I hated his decision, I knew he was right. The police will be watching us closely now. They will feel that since they were able to arrest Anthony Romano, they could also get something on us. It was also a good thing for me because the mansion in New York was filled with Sara's memories, her laughter, and her scent, I still hear her giggles in the hallway, and my bedsheets still smell like her, no matter how much I dry-clean them.

    "And you have to get another wife."

  I arched an eyebrow at him, my hands clenched. "What did you just say?"

    "A businessman with a wife and kid won't make the police suspicious. Your wife is dead and is never coming back, you have to move on."

    "Never!" I barked and banged my hands on the table, leaning closer to my father. "I am not getting married again!"

    "Are you not?" he asked. I straightened up and started to leave the room, ignoring his question. "Then get ready to lose everything."

   I stopped in my tracks. He was threatening me. I wasn't going to fall for that threat anymore, not that it was empty, but because of Sara. Before, I would have stopped and tried to talk things out with him, but I wasn't going to insult Sara's memory. I couldn't even see myself with another woman, I was never going to be committed to another woman. He always threatened me with that; he said he would give everything to Dante, my cousin. It was that threat that had made me marry Sara, but it wasn't going to make me insult her memory.

    "Do whatever you wish, old man," I said and left his office without looking back.

 ELLEN

    "Momma!" Sophie yelled and came bounding down towards me, giggling. I squatted and spread my arms open, and she flew into them. I was glad I made that decision to keep her five years ago. It wasn't an easy decision, but I did it after all. After finding out I was pregnant, I dropped out because I couldn't juggle school with work and pregnancy. I looked for the stranger I slept with that day, but it seemed he had dropped off the earth's surface. 

   I went back to the club where I had met him, but the staff were being evasive about his identity, which frustrated me the more. I carried Sophie and bore all the burden alone with my family. My mother was disappointed that I had made a mistake, but she loved Sophie so much and would give her the world if she could. Kennedy, my younger brother, had to work for two years after high school to gather enough money to go to college. He was also very fond of Sophie. The support from my family and friends kept me going during that period, and Sophie was like the bond that united us all.

   I straightened up and held Sophie's hand. "How was your first day at school, baby?" I asked.

    "It was splendid!" she answered enthusiastically, hopping up and down. "I made friends."

  I smiled to myself. We have been in California for a few weeks now, and Sophie just started school today. My life has been perfect with only Sophie, my family, and my friends, but after my mother's death, I couldn't keep up with the bills anymore. Sophie was diagnosed with asthma, and I knew I had to get a better job. Lily took the opportunity and got me a job in one of the five-star restaurants in California.

  Lily graduated college and worked in our dream company, Monero Empire. It was the company we all dreamt of working for after school. That dream didn't come true for me, but I had a better life with Sophie. I knew that if I wanted to provide a better life for Sophie, I had to get a better job. So, I moved to California. We would stay with Lily until we got our own apartment, even though Lily won't mind me living with her, I didn't want to be a liability, to her, I wasn't her responsibility. It was enough that she was doing a lot for us. She offered to take care of Sophie's school expenses while I took care of the medical bills.

   I know she might feel she owed me because she felt guilty that my life turned out the way it was. But it was never her fault, she didn't ask me to sleep with a stranger, I could have declined to go out with them that night as I always did, and I was over twenty then and was responsible for my actions. 

     "I'm glad you made friends, baby." We started walking towards Lily's old car she had let me use.

     "Yes, momma. All my friends talked about the interesting places they went to with their daddies during the holiday. Momma, where is my daddy? Mia said he might have gone to heaven."

  I cringed. This was the question I dreaded so much, but I will have to keep lying to keep her at bay.