Don Fontana looked into her lap at the personal items, then pulled out another cigar. He took his time lighting it, so much so that sweat started to trickle down her sides.
He took a long, luxurious puff, then looked back at her. The Don looked friendly, but his eyes glinted with cold light.
“That car you drove home, it wasn’t yours,” he said. She knew he wasn’t asking. Emma shook her head.
“And you certainly don’t need two sets of keys, wallet, and purse. Do you?”
She shook her head, looking at the floor because she couldn’t stand to look him in the eye anymore.
“I really wish you would just own up, Emma,” the Don snapped. “I don’t want this to get ugly. For the sake of your mother and father and the name Fontana, please don’t make me force you to talk.”
Emma started to cry. She couldn’t help it. Hot tears poured down her cheeks as she gasped for air. She really didn’t know what to say.
“Ace Moretti,” the Don said so abruptly that she looked up. His face was stern, as if he was talking to a child.
“What about him?” she whispered.
“That was his car you drove home. Those are his items in your lap. Might I ask where he is right now?”
“I … I don’t know,” Emma said, floundering. “He had to shift, so I brought his things home and …”
“Home,” Don Fontana muttered. “Interesting. This is his home too?”
“No. I mean … well. I don’t know.”
“Tell me, right now, what you are doing with a Moretti,” the Don said, leaning forward as if he might grab her by the throat.
Emma stared into his eyes, hot tears pouring down her cheeks. She couldn’t look away, and she hoped her terror wasn’t obvious. She was afraid all her lies were showing on her face.
“I … I fell in love with him,” she whispered. In her desire to not get caught lying, a simple truth rose from her heart. She denied it in her thoughts, telling herself that her words were a fear reaction and nothing more, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Love?” the Don exclaimed. “What the fuck?”
“It’s true!” she cried. “I didn’t know he was a Moretti. We started seeing each other and … I don’t know. It just kind of happened.”
Now that Emma was on a roll, her words didn’t want to stop. She actually smacked her teeth together to keep her mouth shut since she was prone to saying the stupidest things.
She didn’t want to tell the Don about Benny, Fritz, the tainted coke, or the fact that Ace had held her hostage for several days. She might survive this … and Ace might too … if she just kept quiet.
“This is a surprise,” the Don said, twirling his cigar a little. “Of all the things you might have said, I didn’t see this coming. It certainly makes things difficult.”
Emma waited. Holding in her words was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but she managed it. She even looked up and met the Don’s eyes head-on, praying that she looked sincere and honest.
Don Fontana sighed as he looked into her wide, tearful eyes. He puffed on the cigar, shaking his head in resignation.
“I’m a romantic at heart, my dear girl. I love love … it’s truly wonderful. But this can’t go on.”
“What?" she muttered. Emma was still caught in the moment like a rabbit in a trap, wondering if Marshall was going to sneak up behind her and snap her neck or if Ace would appear in the room and fight the Don to the death.
“I understand what it’s like when the heart has chosen,” Don Fontana said. “You can’t think about anything else. The idea of being without that person … or being with anyone else … becomes the most horrible nightmare you could ever imagine. Believe me, dear Emma, I do understand.”
Emma had the scary feeling that he really did. The pain and regret on his face made her wonder if he had loved with his whole heart and lost everything.
“But this Romeo and Juliet shit will not fly,” he said sternly. He stood, fury running through him that was barely controlled. Emma had a horrible vision of herself and Ace dying together, just like Romeo and Juliet, or in another hundred horrible ways that either of the families could devise.
His and mine … they’ll kill us. We won’t have time to kill ourselves.
“You don’t have long, my dear,” the Don said, putting out his cigar. “Break it off. If you want to save his life, you’ll stay away and keep to yourself.”