I shook my head while I moved back. “I told you last night, it’s not what you think.”
“Then what did he do?”
“Please, Antonio. Stop.” Fresh tears stung my eyes, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep them from falling.
Then something happened. Something I never anticipated. Antonio crouched with his face in his palms and screamed. He screamed at the top of his lungs, like a howling wolf crying out in pain. That sound tore right through my chest, and I was no longer able to hold back the tears. I started crying uncontrollably as I joined him on the floor. Antonio wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer.
“Let me make it right for you, Karina.”
“Antonio…”
“Please, whatever he did, I want to make it right. Ineedto make it right.”
I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and leaned back, but I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I couldn’t look at him with what I was about to tell him.
I glanced around the garage, up at the ceiling, basically everywhere, trying to come up with the right way of telling him. But there was no right way. I just had to let the words come out.
“Four years ago,” I started, and Antonio stared at me, “I was out with a few friends, and there was this guy who took interest in me.”
Antonio cursed like he already knew where this story was headed. But he had no clue.
“I took interest in this guy too. The whole night, we kept sneaking glances at each other until he finally approached me and introduced himself only as Enzio.” I looked at Antonio questioningly. I was waiting for him to explode or lose his shit, but he didn’t. He just continued to stare at me, giving me the opportunity to tell my story.
“We hit it off right away. That entire night, we sat at the table talking and laughing like we had known each other our whole lives. By the end of the night when we said goodbye, he didn’t kiss me. He was a complete gentleman. He just asked for my number, and I gave it to him.”
I pulled my legs out from beneath me and sat flat on the floor. “He called me the next day, and we went on our first date. When we arrived at the restaurant, he told the waiter the reservation was for Enzio Mancuso. I immediately recognized the surname.” I smiled half-heartedly, thinking how stupid I was. “But I didn’t care. I didn’t give a crap about him being a Mancuso. The way I saw it, this war was between his father and mine. Enzio and I had nothing to do with this stupid war.” I looked down at my hands as I twirled my thumbs. “But I was wrong. So fucking wrong.”
“Why?” Antonio straightened.
I shrugged. “Turns out Enzio and I had everything to do with this war between our two families.”
Antonio pinched his nose with his thumb and forefinger, squeezing his eyes closed. He already knew how my story was going to end.
I wiped a tear off my cheek. “I continued to see him in secret. We managed to be together every chance we got. Enzio was romantic, and gentle, and everything I thought I wanted. I didn’t understand why you and Dad hated him and his family so much, because surely if he was so nice, how could his family not be?”
“Karina…”
“Two months went by until I finally…” I choked up, my heartache lodged inside my throat. “After two months of dating, we finally…Ifinally made the decision to sleep with him.”
“Goddammit!” Antonio slammed his fist into Dante’s car, leaving a large dent on the back passenger side door. More tears streamed down my face as I witnessed the anger that consumed my big brother.
I placed my hand in front of my mouth and wept as memories of betrayal and deceit came rushing back. “I didn’t know. I had no idea he had planned it all along.”
“What did that fucker do?”
“After…after it happened—”
“After you had sex with him?” He didn’t even try to hide the disgust in his voice.
I nodded, wiping more tears off my face. “We were at his family’s beach house the night it happened. He was so romantic. Dinner, candles, music—think of every cliché in the book, that’s how perfectly he planned that evening.” I snorted, thinking about how blind I was back then. But Enzio played the role of a soft, gentle lover so damn well. Every girl I ever spoke to about their first time had told me how horrible it was. That wasn’t the case with me and Enzio. He took it slow while he gradually coaxed me to relax and let him take the lead. While he took my virginity, claiming me, it was the best experience of my life…until it all crashed and burned.
“Karina?” Antonio placed his hand on mine, pulling me back from my thoughts.
I inhaled deeply. “After it was all over, it was like he flipped a switch and became someone completely different from the Enzio I had just given myself to. He was still between my legs when he looked down at me and said, ‘You’re such a pathetic little lamb.’” The pain slammed against my chest as I said the words—the words that had haunted me for so long. I was reliving that godawful night all over again, and it still hurt like a bitch.
“What happened then?”
“He got up and started laughing. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. He just laughed like a damn psychopath. And then his father came walking into the room with a victorious grin on his face.”