Creed of the Leviathan I

28 | E + M

Emmanuelle

"Nuelle. Nuelle."

I was sitting by the pool when I heard a familiar voice shouting my name. When I turned to look into the direction that the shouting was coming from, I saw Marco speed walking, almost running towards me.

He held his jacket and tie in his left hand almost dragging them across the floor. His hair was disheveled and the sleeves of his shirt were unevenly rolled up.

The closer he got to me, the slower he walked and the more his face relaxed. When he was about less than a meter from me, he stopped and stood completely still.

My eyebrows pinned together out of confusion as I awaited his words, but all I got instead was an audible exhale. His tense shoulders dropped as he exhaled. Then he took his bottom lip in between his teeth, all whilst still looking at me.

Without saying a word he then turned halfway around, away from me. His left hand was still clutching the clothing items whilst his right hand was tangled up in his hair. His shoulders slouched even more and I could hear him breathing heavily.

"Marco, what's happening?" I asked, still confused about what was going on.

He lowered his right hand until both hands were hanging on the sides of his body when he turned to face me again. "I don't like it." he said.

"What?"

He sighed, taking a few steps forward. With every step forward I took one backwards until I was standing at the edge of the pool.

"I said, I don't like it. I don't like you helping him." He stated with a straight face.

To say that I was in absolute shock is an understatement.

I shook my head as I struggled to find the right words to express the shock that I was in. I had so many questions.

"Wh- why?" I put my arms up in front my chest when he tried to come closer. "Stop—" He ignored my words and wrapped his right hand around my arm. "STOP." I pulled my arm from his grip and pushed against his chest, automatically making him step back.

He seemed surprised at my reaction.

"You need to stop doing this. Drunk or sober, I don't give a shit, Marco. You don't get to touch me and you don't get to tell me what to do. If I want to help Dimi-"

"THAT'S NOT HIS FUCKING NAME." He shouted like a mad man.

I flinched. I wanted to shout back at him but all words had left my mind, that is how stunned I was.

"Nuelle?" Tia called out to me from the kitchen window. From the corner of my eyes I could see her looking at us, though Marco did not seem to notice her.

"After everything he's done, you still want to please him?" His face was full of disappointment.

I swallowed. "What is your problem?" I asked in a shaky voice.

He ignored my question and kept quiet. I honestly do not think that he himself knew the answer to this question.

"Whatever you're dealing with, I will no longer be there for you if you continue acting like an asshole." I bravely waved my pointer finger in his face before I stormed off.

His eyes grew large and for a moment I thought that he was going to grab me by the arm again to keep me from walking away, but he did not. He did not even turn around to watch me storm off.

Tears prickled my eyes as I ran up the stairs to my room, but only after I had pushed the door shut and locked it, did the tears sprung free. I was not dramatically crying, instead my eyes were just watering whilst I held a straight face. It was the result of not being able to kick Marco in the balls. That is the emotion that I was feeling— rage.

I was in desperate need to talk to someone, anyone. As long as it was someone outside of the family. But who could it be? The person I would usually talk to was Anthony, but had more of a connection with these people than I did. And the other person I thought I could confine in, Tobias.

Well, he might be the sole reason why we are currently dealing with this Dimitri situation.

I was constantly surrounded by these people and it was starting to bother me. But what could I do?

Should I text Tobias? But that is only going to upset Marco even more. Why was he even upset in the first place?

-------------------------------------------------------------- //

Mattia

"If he does come by again you can tell him that I won't be coming in for a while. Yes, that— You can come in." I gestured at Anthony who was standing in the door opening. "Lana, that will be all for now. Yes, have a good one." I quickly said before I hung up the phone, though I had many more things to go over with her.

Anthony waved the brown envelope at me as he walked in, making me even more nervous than I already was. He stopped at the edge of the bed and drew in a long breath as he handed it to me. I nervously swallowed as I accepted it.

As I carefully ripped it open, Anthony moved one of the chairs to face me. When the envelope was open I turned to him, he had leaned forward, his elbows rested on his knees as his fingers were intertwined in front of his mouth.

"Ready?" I asked though I myself was not ready.

"Yeah." He answered under his breath.

Without thinking about anything else I reached into the envelope and pulled out everything it contained. Anthony immediately rose from his chair to look at the four pictures that were inside. All four of them were taken from a distance, yet we could clearly see their faces. Rafael and to my surprise, Tobias.

"Fuck, Marco might be onto something after all." Anthony grabbed one of the pictures to take a better look.

The longer he studied the pictures, the harder his face got. His eyebrows pinned together, at this point he was angrier than I was. Me, I was disappointed. As much as Tobias was someone that could not be trusted, I never expected him to work with Rafael. How did they even meet?

"Does he know—" Anthony paused. "About Rafael."

"No, he doesn't know about our business-"

"That's not what I mean. Does he know that Rafael is your brother?"

"He can't know–"

"Mattia, he's dangerous. Think about their safety."

"NO." I firmly stated. "The less they know, the better."

"And if Rafael approaches them? He's already been to the office. How long before he runs into one of them?"

"Rafael will hold up his end of the bargain. He won't tell them anything."

Anthony sighed. "You have too much trust in someone that is clearly trying to get you killed. You do realize that he's going to learn about Nuelle soon, right?"

My eyes shot up at his.

"Things have changed. How do you think he's going to feel when he learns that a stranger is inheriting his father's riches?"

My heart started racing even more. Was I still being rational? I did not know. I was quickly starting to doubt myself.

"We need to do something." Anthony stated.

"Look after her, let Christoph and Emillio know. I'll try to figure something out."

Anthony bowed his head down. "I'll see what I can do." I could see that the issue was bothering him.

"Good. Also, I need a new phone and a new number."

When Anthony left, I finally had the chance to gather my thoughts. Though Nuelle's safety was also a priority, it was not my main concern. My main concern was Marco.