My Italian Lover (Teacher x Student) [ON HOLD]

Chapter Three

“…Me and the boys, we’d go out, get smashed and have fun” he chuckled. “Then one day, we all needed a bit of cash, we had part time jobs from time to time, but they never lasted. I remember the day so vividly now, it was night and we had left a bar, drunk of course, walking back to my apartment. A group of men had come up to us, knowing us by name, though we’d never seen or met them before. We were all too drunk to know we should’ve ran. They told us that they could get us easy cash. All we had to do was deliver some parcels the next morning. We were twenty, we were broke and we were drunk idiots, so we took the offer without hesitation. The next day came and neither of us remembered fully what had happened the night before. But the guys, they found us, banging on my door, the parcels we needed to deliver in their hands. We were all protesting, saying we couldn’t do it, but they said we couldn’t go back on our word or we would regret it. So we had to go, and deliver the parcels and that’s how my involvement with gangs in Italy, more specifically the mafia, started. They realised I would be a good fighter and said they needed me to join them. They told us that they had been following us for months, waiting for the right time to take us in. So I started fighting, getting into drugs, and became the ‘manager’, so to speak, of drug dealing within our little gang. Looking back I hate myself for it, I was the cause of people ending up in hospital, seriously injured…” a soft gasp escaped me and he looked up at me, smiling reassuringly “… don’t worry, I never killed anyone. That was there job. I ended up in the mafia for 3 years. But then I wanted out, yes; it got me all the money I needed, but I’d had enough of hurting people, of nearly getting caught and lying to my parents, they were Italian, they weren’t stupid, they knew about gangs, everyone did. But then one day, my father found out that I was involved with the mafia, and tried to help get me out, they didn’t let me go as easily as we’d hope. The ‘Big Boss’ as they called him, had a daughter and he was going to get a million pounds, in English money, if she got married, why? I never found out, he didn’t tell me. He decided that if I wanted to leave so badly I had to marry his daughter. It was my only chance I had to leave them, so I married her. She didn’t love me, I didn’t love her” I picked up on the fact he said ‘didn’t’ as in past tense, and tears came in my eyes and I held my breath to hold in my sob. Anthony looked to me, and saw my distraught face.

“Emily? What’s wrong?” he asked with urgency in his voice, grabbing onto my shoulders.

“You said you didn’t love her, does that mean you love her now?”

“Oh, Emily, baby, I care for her, but I love you. I really love you. She never wanted to get married, she was young just like me and she hated her dad for it, last year we moved here. Bought separate houses, but we’re still married, we have to be.”

“Why? You married her, her dad got his money right? Why can’t you get divorced?” I asked

“I…he’ll kill me, Emily. I don’t know what deal he made or who he made it with it. But he’ll kill me if I try to leave her. And at the time I wasn’t really bothered, we moved here to England and we both decided we could date other people. I thought I’d never find anyone I really wanted to be with, but then you came along and f-ck…” his hands were running through his hair, tugging at it slightly. “…I want to be with you, I need to be with you, I know you’re the one, Em. I love you” it was then that I realised his voice was starting to crack and quiet sobs were coming from his throat. I budged closer to him on the couch and whispered for him to look at me. I saw tears in his eyes, it obvious he was holding them back.

“I love you too, Anthony” I whispered and leant forward to kiss him on the corner of his lips. “I understand” I grabbed his head and pulled him into a hug, letting him sob quietly into my neck. A couple of minutes past and he pulled out of the hug and pressed his lips against mine. The kissed we shared was nothing like the last; that one was sloppy and urgent, full of lust. This one was passionate, slow and lovingly.  He leant his forehead against mine, breathing deeply.