𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐓 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝟏𝟖+

Chapter 20

MILA

"Heaven is a place on Earth with you"

***

When Mateo and I arrived back at the house after a silent ride, I quickly ran inside to drown myself in my own tears.

How dare he be condescending toward me? I'm an adult who can easily handle myself.

My father made sure I learned to defend myself by the age of 12.

I swirled my red wine inside of my glass, and took a big sip before reading Odessa's text.

Odessa: Are you okay? Mateo was grilling me about why you were crying today. Do I need to come over? What did Theodore do to you?

Great. She's bombarding me with questions I don't have the energy to answer.

After my hot bath, I needed something stronger than wine, so I snuck into my papa's office to grab some of the strong stuff. The stuff he reserved for closing huge business deals.

All I could think about was seeing a different, more nasty side of Theo.

My phone vibrated repeatedly with texts from him.

I didn't bother to read them because I knew I would lose my common sense and reply.

My thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell, but I ignored it, hoping someone else would magically appear and get it for me.

The doorbell rang once more, and the sound annoyed me, so I opened it myself.

There I was greeted with a short, dark haired man, dressed in a uniform holding a bouquet of Carnations. "Miss Creed?" I nod. "Sign here please."

I eagerly took the flowers from the man, and wiped my tears. I walked them to the kitchen counter and smelled the fresh flowers.

I then noticed a folded note, which I began to read.

"Stop overreacting. Come back to me, Mila."

Overreacting? He's fucking joking.

If you pissed a woman off, don't piss her off even more by feeding the fire.

"Principessa, I missed you." My father walked inside of the house with his briefcase, dressed in an Armani suit. I was barely in the mood to speak back.

"Ooh, are these from Elijah? Or a secret admirer?" He tried to lean it to read the note, but I frustratingly brushed him off.

"No, papa," I said, crumbling the note and throwing it away. "Aw, come on, M. Who's it from? Do you have some secret boyfriend that I don't know about?" My father pressured, moving closer toward me.

"Please just leave me alone!" I yelled, stomping off to my room. If he'd just stop asking me about the note, then I wouldn't have had to raise my voice.

I shut my bedroom door before getting a knock.

Fuck, what's with everyone bothering me today?

I sighed. "Come in!"

"Mila?" Mateo's voice almost echoed through the room. "Are you alright?"

"Why do you care?" Mateo walked to my bed, and sat next to me, wiping my tears away from my face. "Because I hate seeing my usually cheerful sister cry. What's wrong? You can tell me. Unless it's about Elijah because I'll beat that hijo de puta up again."

A faint smile came across my face. "There she is," Mateo laughed. "It's the guy I'm dating, he's acting like an ass."

"Well, from a guys perspective, you need to get even, M. Show him you can play the same game as him. Guys love women who stand their ground."