Chapter 16

Amelia's POV.

I didn't say a word the whole ride back.

Anna held my hand tight before we parted and looked me straight in the eye.

"Everything is going to be fine," she said, "I mean it Amelia."

I looked at her and tried to find something to say back but nothing came.

"Hey." She squeezed harder, "Look at me. You have handled worse than this and you are still standing. This is not going to break you."

"Anna –"

"It's not," she said firmly, cutting me off before I could argue, "Whatever you decide, however this goes, I am right here. You hear me? I'm not going anywhere."

I nodded slowly, "I hear you."

She pulled me into a quick hug and held on for a second longer than usual and I let her, breathing her in, before she stepped back and looked at my face one more time. 

"Call me tonight," she said.

"I will."

She didn't look completely convinced but she let me go.

Her words provided me little comfort at that moment, but it all disappeared the moment I got into the car. 

Now I was just sitting there with my hands in my lap and the city moving past the window and one thought sitting in the middle of everything else. 

I was carrying Mateo's child.

I pressed my fingers together in my lap and stared at a fixed point on the glass.

Mateo.

 The man I had signed a contract with in a hotel room because I had no other choice. 

The man who had sat in his study and told me calmly that he had watched Raymond use me as collateral and let it continue because it served what he was building.

 The man who had somehow known my tea preference and stocked my skincare and filled a wardrobe with clothes in my exact size before I ever walked through his door.

That man's child.

My hand moved to my stomach and I pulled it away the second I noticed.

I looked back out the window and bit my lip against the tears that were threatening to fall.

When I walked through the door I could hear Mateo's voice before I saw him.

"I want the shipment moved before Thursday, not after," he was saying, low and firm, "If Reyes can't guarantee that then find someone who can."

"Yes Don," one of the men said.

"And the situation on the east side –" he stopped.

I had walked into the main room and his eyes found me immediately, that quiet sweep that took everything in without making anything of it. 

It lasted less than a second and then he was looking back at his men like it hadn't happened.

"The situation on the east side needs to be handled quietly," he continued, his voice the same as before, "No noise, no loose ends. Understood?"

"Understood Don."

"Go."

Both men nodded and moved past me toward the door and I stood where I was for a moment, not sure whether to say something or just keep walking. 

Mateo looked over at me again, just briefly, with an expression I couldn't read. 

His eyes took a full sweep of my body, 

“You look lovely,”

I gave him nothing and went straight upstairs.I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the floor.

I wanted to be angry but no matter how hard I tried, what I didn't feel was anger. 

I didn't know what to do with a man like that.

Raymond had always been easy to read because Raymond only ever thought about Raymond. 

But Mateo was something else entirely and I didn't have the right language for him yet.

I was still sitting there thinking about it when a knock came on the door. 

I didn't answer straight away but it came again.

So I pushed myself off the bed and opened the door.

Matteo was standing there with two cups of tea.

I looked at him and then at the cups and then back at him and he just held one out toward me without saying a word. 

I took the cup slowly. 

He didn't try to come in, just stayed in the doorway and leaned against the frame and drank from his own cup. 

I leaned against my side of the frame and drank from mine and for a while neither of us said anything at all.

"Long day," he said finally. 

"Something like that," I said, pushing a few stray hairs back so I didn't have to talk to him. 

He nodded and drank and said nothing else and I was grateful for that because I didn't have anything I was ready to give him yet.

We stood there until both cups were empty and it was the closest thing to peace I had felt in longer than I could remember. 

He reached over and took my empty cup from my hand and his fingers brushed mine as he did, just barely, and neither of us moved for a second.

I looked up at him.

He was already looking at me and the air between us shifted the way it always did when we got too close to each other, that slow change in pressure that my body recognised before my head caught up with it. 

My heart picked up without my permission and I hated it and I couldn't stop it.

He reached up slowly and pushed a loose strand of hair away from my face, his fingers barely grazing my cheek as he did, and I forgot to breathe for a moment. 

Then at that moment, his phone rang.

The sound cut straight through everything and he held my gaze for one more second before he stepped back and answered it. 

“Speak,” He said in a low tone, the Don sliding back into place over the man who had just been standing at my door with two cups of tea like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

He turned and walked down the corridor without looking back. 

I stood in my doorway and watched him go until he turned the corner and disappeared.

Then I closed the door.

I pressed my back against it and stood there in the quiet of my room with my hand flat against my chest, feeling my own heartbeat going fast.

I stayed like that for a while.