UNBREAKABLE BONDS (Diff’rent Strokes #1)

"Stop there, Dante D'Angelo!" I scream on top of my lungs but even that was barely enough to get him to halt his steps so I walked up to him and grabbed his arm in a tight grip. I growl at him angrily. "I told you to stop!"

"I have already made my decision, Marcella!" He ripped his arm away from me but didn't take another step as both of us stare at each other, our harsh breaths mingling together in silence as tension sizzled between us. 

I struggle not to cry because of this cursed day. Because that's what it is. The lights suddenly went off in our penthouse so we were covered in darkness right now but what's the plan worst is the series of unlucky events that had been happening today before this moment. I try to voice my strength into my voice as I look at him but all we both hear is the pleading in my heart. "Don't do this, Dante. Please."

Dante's hard gaze falters with conflict when he tries his best not to pull me into his arms. He always does that when I am distressed but this time he doesn't. He clenches his fists instead and tells me. "Stop making this any harder than it is. You know we don't have a choice."

Theoretically, we shouldn't have a choice. We both received a phone call from our respective Consiglieres that the twenty years alliance between our mafia families had just been broken. The reason? I couldn't even fucking concentrate on hearing the details after I was told that my marriage, along with every person who had intermarital relationship with the other mafia had to sever ties immediately. 

This night was the worst nightmare of my life. 

Dante mistakes my silence as resignation as he started moving his bags again to leave but I stop him immediately. "Yes, we do!" I tell him with desperation. I tell him the thoughts that had passed through my mind. "We could run away. The both of us. We could take board a fight tonight and disappear like the wind. No one would even bother to find us with both our status. We could live a normal life together."

Dante arches his eyebrows into a frown and shoots the idea down immediately. "Just because you are the bastard daughter of the Boss and I am the worthless, unwanted son of my father doesn't mean they would let us go easily, Marce. The only way we can ever escape from them is in death."

Death. That was the one thing I couldn't afford, couldn't dare to do at the moment. 

"So that's it?" His departing back fills me with anger and resentment as I look at him. Why was I the only one fighting for us? Our roles here should have been reversed. It should be me walking at that door and him begging me to stay. Why was it so easy for him to give up on us?

I pick up our wedding photo on the table beside me near the couch and I aim it on the door in front of him, watching the glass frame shatter into tiny pieces around him on the floor. I yell him angrily. "Go then! I won't beg you to stay anymore, Dante. Just know that if you walk through that door, your baby and I will die this night."

I watch Dante tense in shock as he turns around very slowly and sees me holding a pocket knife pointed at my jugluar vein. His eyes are filled with slight panic at the scene but he approaches me slowly. "What are you talking about? Are you..."

I take a step back when he comes closer because I know that he will try to disarm me. When he also halts, I pull out a tiny piece of paper with my other hand I folded in the back pocket of my jeans and I throw it to him. The paper lands squarely on his palms as he catches it. "Those are the test results from the hospital. Look at it yourself."

His eyes scan through the papers in a rush and then he looks up at me with pain and happiness mixed in one emotion. His fingers around the paper tremble uncontrollably when he asks me. "You are carrying our child. Why didn't you tell me?"

"None of that matters anymore, does it? You are still going to leave us." I laugh sardonically as I tighten my grip on the knife near my neck and give him an unforgiving gaze. Tears start to leak down my face and I let it flow unrestrained. I am so disappointed and hurt about his actions, the fact that he would have been out of that door if I had not mentioned our baby.  

"Sei fottutamente pazzo, Marcella?" I like the panic and regret that flickers across his face when he sees that I am not joking. He commands me in a steady voice. "Put the knife down."

"No." My voice reeks of my defiance and I don't bother hiding it. He is the one who pushed me to this corner, he chose his Cosa Nostra over us. The more I look into his pained eyes, the more I feel my angry resolve fading away as I shake my head sadly. My teary eyes blocks my vision for a moment before they fall on my cheeks again.  "I am not crazy, Dante. I just don't want to live in this world anymore without you. I and this child can't live without you..."

"You will. You are a strong person, Marcella." He tells me with part regret and part resolve. "Perdonami..."

The knife around my neck leaves my hand due to shock and pain that sliced thorough my chest as I watch the door open and close as a figure passes through in disbelief. Everywhere falls into dead silence.

He is gone. My husband just abandoned me and our baby.