Under the Mistletoe... with the Mafia King.

Chapter 10 - What should we do?

R H E A

The moment the door Micheal and Alex leave the room, the silence in the room becomes magnified as Cassie and I try to process everything that's happened to us.

I turn to Cassie with a tremble in my voice that I cannot hide, no matter how hard I try. "Cassie, this is f*****g nuts!" I whisper sharply, the words slipping out in a strained rush that almost sounds like a plea for sanity in a world that has stopped making any sense at all.

"I know, I know!" she breathes out, running both hands through her blonde hair in a frantic motion before letting them drop to her sides, her shoulders shaking. "I can't believe all of this is happening at once," she continues, and her voice cracks just slightly at the end, the reality hitting her again with the same force it hits me.

"Those men that took us... T-they killed that man," I say, fear slipping through my voice as if naming it too loudly will make the memory stronger and more vivid.

"And they burned down our house." Her voice trembles, and I see her eyes grow glassy, the pain of it settling into her expression in a way that makes my heart ache.

"And now the man I kissed at the club is working for the man you kissed, and they are both in the Mafia?" she whispers, her voice rising just enough for disbelief to bleed into it.

I let out a shaky breath as the surreal truth presses down on me, the heaviness almost laughable if it were not so terrifying. "What should we do?" she mumbles, her voice so small that I suddenly feel like we are children lost in the wrong part of the world, stranded with no guide except the instincts we barely trust.

"D-do you think we should go to the police..." I begin, even though I already know the answer, already feel the wrongness of it in my gut, but desperation makes me grasp for any possibility, any shred of logic.

Cassie instantly whips her head toward me, her eyes widening with a mixture of panic and reprimand as she snaps, "Are you crazy? Do not even say the word!" Her voice cuts through the air, and I fall silent immediately, startled by the intensity of her reaction.

"We can't do that," she says firmly, stepping closer as if she needs to make me understand it with her entire presence. "Remember what I told you. The Mafia most likely controls the police as well." Her warning settles on my shoulders like a cold weight, and the memory of her earlier suspicion echoes back in my mind with frightening clarity.

"You're right," I whisper, nodding slowly as the truth sinks deeper into my bones. "Besides, Micheal and Alexander...they seem like reasonable people. I mean, they saved us." I try to say it confidently, but even as the words leave my mouth, my mind wrestles with all the contradictions, all the danger, all the sharp edges hiding beneath their quiet charm.

"They did," Cassie agrees, though her voice carries the same conflicted tremor as mine, both of us balancing gratitude and fear on a thin line we barely understand.

"So what do you think?" she finally asks, searching my face for an answer I do not yet have, her eyes wide and vulnerable as she waits for something solid to hold on to.

I take in a slow breath and let my gaze drift over the massive room around us, the vaulted ceiling, the polished floors, the soft hum of distant echoes in this enormous mansion we know nothing about, this place that feels too luxurious and too cold, too dangerous to be real. The truth is that everything inside me is conflicted. Micheal terrifies me, but he also feels like the only safe place we have left, which scares me even more. Alexander is kind, but behind that kindness is the face of someone who has survived violence and deals with bloodshed as part of his everyday reality. These men are not normal. This place is not normal. Our lives are not normal anymore.

But the alternative is worse. The memory of the abductors dragging us from our apartment, the sound of the gun fired into that innocent man’s skull, the flames consuming everything we owned, the knowledge that the people who want us dead will not stop. We cannot fight them. We cannot run from them. We cannot go to the authorities. We cannot go back home. There is nowhere left for us to go.

So I look at Cassie again and find strength in her expression, strength in the way she still looks to me despite the fear swimming in her eyes, and I nod slowly, the decision forming itself before I even realise I have made it.

"I think," I begin softly, feeling the weight of every word, "that we need to accept the help they are offering us. At least for now. Until we know what we are dealing with. Until we are safe."

Cassie breathes out shakily and nods, relief and fear mingling together on her face like two sides of the same impossible coin. "Okay," she murmurs, her voice barely holding together.

Together, we leave the room, stepping into the long hallway with its high ceilings and quiet marble floors. The atmosphere feels unreal, the kind of silence that only exists in places built by people with money and power, and every footstep echoes as if reminding us how out of place we truly are.

At the end of the hall, we see Micheal and Alex standing together, speaking in low voices. Micheal’s posture is relaxed, a quiet authority that fills the space around him, while Alex stands with that subtle alertness he cannot seem to turn off, making it obvious that he is always assessing the room, always anticipating threats, always ready to act. They look up at the same moment, their eyes locking onto us as we approach, and the shift in their attention sends a strange ripple of tension through my body.

"We have thought about what you said," I begin, my voice surprisingly calm even though I feel like every nerve in my body is trembling, "and we will take you up on your offer."

A silence falls for a moment, short but heavy, before I add, "We can stay here for the time being. Just until we figure out what to do."

The words feel momentous, as if I am agreeing to step into a world I cannot yet fully comprehend, a world that both frightens and fascinates me.

I watch as Micheal’s eyes light up with something subtle yet unmistakable, as if he has been waiting for this answer, as if he has already prepared for the moment we would say yes. His expression softens slightly, though the strength of his presence remains intact, and he nods once, slow and assured. "Of course," he says, the single word delivered with a calm certainty that seems to settle the room, as though something has shifted, as though a door we cannot yet see has opened and closed behind us...

In that moment, I feel it, the shift in my reality, the quiet understanding that our lives have just taken a turn from which there is no easy return. We are stepping into Micheal Vescari’s world, a world built on shadows and power, on danger and loyalty, on rules we do not understand and risks we cannot yet see. And whether I want to admit it or not, part of me already knows that this decision will change everything.