Chapter 133

Layla

“Isn’t it?”

Aldo responded by merely shooting me a glare.

For a long time, I truly wondered who I was speaking to...

The man that was instant on having this pointless conversation—was this Vasco Conti, the warm, kind-hearted man who stole my heart all those years ago? Or was I speaking to Aldo Marcello, the ruthless don of the Marcello family? Or was I, perhaps, talking to my husband?

It was hard to tell, honestly. Aldo’s movements and words were hesitant, yet I could tell that he was pushing to have a real conversation. He wanted answers that only I had, which made me seriously take into consideration the identity of the man in front of me.

“You can lie to everyone else, but not me,” I said coldly. “You want to know what Agent Carter said to me during that bullshit interrogation. Fine.”

I would have had better control over the tone of my voice had I actually slept. I just felt so empty and numb from everything that I could hardly register the words that were falling off of my tongue.

At first, I wasn’t even sure if what I was seeing was real. Watching Aldo tramp around the room, could have easily been a hallucination.

However, I knew the moment that I felt the bed slightly dip from him sitting down that it wasn’t all in my mind and was very much real. I really didn’t have it in me to talk. But it was obvious that Aldo was looking for answers.

He hadn’t bothered to hide his interest as he waited patiently for me to speak.

“Every question he asked revolved around you,” I said grimly.

He raised his brows. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, Agent Danny Carter was rather intrigued to know a bit about you,” I explained. “I called him out on the notion, claiming that he was wasting both of our time. Yet he was adamant on the fact that it was me he was interested in.”

Aldo clenched his jaw. For once, I couldn’t pinpoint why. There was no way that he was getting jealous over the idea of someone like Agent Carter. For Christ’s sake, the man had single-handedly destroyed the only livelihood I’d ever had.

He was literally at the very top of my shit-list at the moment.

“Anything else?” Aldo asked.

“No,” I muttered.

God. All I wanted was to sink back into my mountain of blankets and fade out the rest of the world. Yet Aldo hadn’t budged from his spot. A contemplative look crossed his eyes, making me fully aware that we were far from being finished.

“Are you certain?” he pressed.

His excessive bugging was leading the two of us into dangerous territory. I narrowed my eyes and let out a dry scoff.

“Oh, wow, you know what? You’re right,” I slithered. “I almost forgot to tell you that after he revoked my medical license, he asked me out to dinner.”

A dangerous look passed over his face. Aldo let out a snarling sound from his chest and sneered.

“That’s not funny,” he snapped.

I rolled my eyes and pressed back into the pillow I’d wrapped myself around.

“I’ve dealt with enough interrogations to last me a good while. Perhaps, we can cut this one short and you can proceed to go on leaving me alone now,” I bit out.

Aldo furrowed his brows and let out a long defeated breath through his nose.

“Layla, please. I didn’t come in here to specifically harass you,” he pleaded. “Alright, yes. I wanted to know what that asshole said to you during your talk with him. But everyone else in this house is very concerned for you.”

“I’m sure that will pass.”

He let out a huff and shook his head. “No, it will not. For Christ’s sake! I hate to break it to you but you can’t spend the rest of your life in this bed locked away in this room.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes for a second time. “You’re wrong,” I said evenly. “I have all the time in the world to do exactly that. Now, please. Do us both a favor and leave before I decide to say something that’s going to hurt us both.”

Aldo was steamed yet he got up from the bed and made it over toward the door. “This isn’t over, Layla.”

“Yes, it is,” I whispered back.

I don’t know what he was expecting to get out of this conversation. Did he really think that I was going to just magically forgive and forget the matter of me losing my career for the sake of protecting the Marcello family?

For everything that I’d done—everything that I ended up sacrificing—was I really just supposed to stand by and act like nothing happened?

Fuck that.

I’d reached my breaking point. For the sake of the Marcello name, I’d come face to face with some of the most dangerous people and had gone against my own code as a surgeon. I gave and I gave...What more could I do?

Aldo

What the hell was that?

I cursed myself all the way back to my office. Goddamnit! The whole point of checking in on her was to ensure she was okay and try to ease her into wanting to come out. But somewhere along the lines, I’d let my curiosity get the better of me.

No. Worse.

I’d let my Marcello come out. I’d pressed and dug Layla for information that I wanted to have. She was supposed to feel secure and loved, not pressured and interrogated.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?”

My mind had switched from dealing with Vanessa to now dealing with this Agent Carter. I was determined to find out all there was about him. But I’d let my alter disposition take over.

When I made it back to the kitchen, I was glad to see that Eli had finished his breakfast and was now off, probably, working on one of his projects. I didn’t have it in, nor did I want to lie to him about the current state of his mother.

“So, I take it that things didn’t go too well,” my mother said while handing me another cup of coffee.

“I fucked up—again. If you can believe it,” I grumbled.

“Oh, I can,” she said simply.

“What the hell am I going to do?” I asked. “I feel like I’m on the literal cusp of losing her.”

“Layla is hurting, you know that much. Her losing her job is still far too fresh in her mind right now.”

I gently shook my head. “I think it’s so much more than just that. Her losing her career was just the literal cataclysmic event that set everything into motion. It feels like we’ve been slowly inching toward this peak for a long time coming.”

She lifted her hand to rest on my shoulder. “Aldo, perhaps what Layla needs is a break,” she said. “Now that things are quiet, why not take some time and leave town for a little while?”

“I don’t think she’ll go for it.”

“Then my only other suggestion is that you reach out to the other side of Layla's family and let them know about her current situation,” she informed me. “There’s always a good chance that they may know how to help.”

I don’t have a choice. I’m going to do whatever it takes to help Layla.