Italian Psycho

Part)22 Yours Truly

He dropped me off at the airport the next morning. He didn't come to bed with me that night. Instead he stayed downstairs. I heard terrible whales all night but I didn't dare venture to see the horrors. I barely got a glance at the mess he'd made in the kitchen and the living room. Completely destroyed. But I didn't judge. I just tried not to think about it.

He kissed me gently on the lips one time before sending me on that plane. He was different again. The dark shadow was back covering his morality. I cried. I tried not to, but I did. It was the best week of my life. No one was ever going to love me like that again, even if it was Romeo himself.

That summer the first letter came.

Dear Cecilia,

You are still my wife. You always will be. I won't forget the time we shared back in Monaco. You were the first girl I ever loved. You have a heart that is truly pure. I hope you find the happiness your looking for. Don't worry about me. I'll be having plenty of fun committing countless crimes and murders back home. I will do my best to keep your family safe.

Stay kind,
Romeo.

So I replied,

My Romeo,

I miss you. I miss your cold stares and deceivingly warm and charming personality. America is everything I pictured it to be. You left me with enough money to pay for  rent the rest of the year. Will you visit me? Please say yes?

Yours truly,
Cecilia

My letter was more kind and open. I continued to write to Romeo although no more letters came for me.

I found myself working in a quite little hardware shop toward the bottom of New York. Our family had connections there. So naturally I sought out uncle Vinny and he hooked me up with a job.

I told him I wanted no part in his illegalities. He was okay with that. For a while things stayed quite and extremely normal.

I had dinner with Vinny and his family often. On one particular occasion a name was dropped that made my hearts sink like a weight in my stomach.

"How's Sicily?" Vinny asked a visiting friend.

"Don Montana died. Romeo's keeping things very quiet. He got into a quarrel with a Persian prince who's wanted him dead for a while. He's trying to portray a level headed image but really he's just keeping quite. Honestly he's doing quite well. The Russo's have complied but I think their empire is mostly dead."

My  eyes centered in and my jaw fell to the floor.

"I'm sorry about your brother Cecilia." Rocco suddenly mentioned.

"What happened to my brother?" I swung my head around alarmed.

"He never returned from Venezuela." Rocco shoveled more spaghetti into his mouth.

"Oh." I relaxed knowing how David liked to play games. He'd be back.

"Romeo's telling everyone you're dead." Rocco mentioned before changing the subject.

None of this should have been news to me as everyone continued on with dinner. Vinny could tell I was hurt as I excused myself early returning to my flat.

"Dead?" I screamed throwing a case to the floor the moment I got the door open. "Dead?!"

I slammed the door tearing through my apartment. What had my parents thought?! Romeo was ruthless! They know I would have suffered! How dare he! He has some fucking nerve.

I let out a suppressed angry growl smashing a small bird sculpture.

I dug through the couch for my phone.

"Put me through to Italy." I demanded.

"Long distance calls come at a large cost-"

"Jut do it!" I shout at the operator.

"Mama, I'm alive." I hang up as soon as it went through.

I was startled with a knock at my door.

"Yes?" I threw it open agitated.

A small smile curled at the right corner of his mouth.

"Hi, I'm your landlord. I just wanted to introduce myself." He held out a friendly hand.

I cursed myself harshly observing the nicely groomed young man. Closer to my age than Romeo had been.  He had sandy blond hair and  kind dark aqua blue eyes.

I brushed back a piece of auburn hair over my ear. "I'm CeCe." I stuck my hand out trying to adopt a more American accent.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Greyson."he grasped my hand wobbling it up it and down.

I laughed when he didn't let go.

"So how do you like it here?" He leaned against my door frame with an inviting smile.

It was hard to maintain my rage with such a friendly attitude.

"I like it. . .I like the architecture." My words drifted off taking in his alluring charisma and sexy pose.

He wore a black t-shirt with metal band on the front and ripped jeans. His dirty Adidas sneaker tredged on the threshold of my door.

"Aren't you too young to be a land lord?" I asked observing his younger persona.

He was growing a little facial hair and it was obviously new to him.

"I'm twenty-two. Which is probably too young to be a landlord. I inherited the place. Have you ate?" He ask randomly.

"What? Oh, no. But I have something-"

"Come on." He steeped in the door frame grabbing my jacket off the hook and pulling me out by the wrist.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I followed him down the old creaky stairs.

"You like Chinese?" He asked hailing a cab.

"Never had it." I followed him into the purple cab.

"Your gonna love this." He  gives the cab driver directions to the restaurant and a twenty.

Before I knew it Greyson was coming to my place to show me scary movies and French fries every Friday night.

He was sweet and interested in me. He took me to the park and out for ice cream. We rode roller and walked trails. Thanksgiving (an American holiday) came and Greyson demand I met his parents.

He knew nothing about my past, my accent, or my failed arranged marriage. I continued writing to Romeo for a while but stopped a month ago because it just got too hard. I was happy with Greyson but I was still in love with Romeo. I convinced myself that I just needed time and reminded myself how happy I was with Greyson.

"CeCe, you wanna go catch a movie." He kissed me quickly shutting off his game console.

"Sure." I replied grabbing my coat.

I nuzzled into his arm baring the cold from the open doors in the lobby.

"Ahhhh!" Greyson cries out tumbling down behind me.

I was only able to see a small space of skin between the mans complete black coverings. A tattoo on his wrist peaking out between the jacket and his glove. He quickly injected a needle into Greyson's neck.

"Romeo!" I dropped to my knees as the attacker pushed me to the ground and did the same to me.

It was the first time I'd thought about him in months.