Leon Monzato's Obsession (Monzato Brothers 2)

Chapter Nineteen

Bella

I walked on the shore, gently letting my foot get under the white sand. The wind is cold as I watch the sun slowly rise. If I’m going to be honest, this is the best and calming part of staying here in this island. 

Sir Leon owned a private island on South Pacific with few staffs to help us. There’s little wooden cottage, where me and Sir Leon sleep every night. There’s a patio space where I spent most of afternoon, reading a book about a girl, who lost her lover. I found it on my room— Sir Leon lend to me when we first got here. 

The surroundings are filled with the sound waves of the blue ocean. 

Sunrise. I smiled when I saw the sun finally rises on the horizon beautifully. Sunrise makes me think that no matter how your day ended, how chaotic or messed up it is, you can always start brighter and better. There’s no such thing as zero chances on living this life. 

Sunrise is to begin again. 

I felt a pair of strong arms embraced me from behind. From the smell, I know Sir Leon is the one hugging me and for sure, he’s smirking. Sometimes he smiles genuinely but sometimes, he’s a smug smirker. There’s no in between. 

“Good morning, baby.” He planted a small kisses on my temple, tightening his hug around me. “Why are up so early, hmmm?” 

“I love watching the sunset along with the sounds of the calming waves. It’s soothing.” 

“We’ve been here for two weeks. You do this sunrise watching everyday?” 

I nodded. My eyes is still glues on the horizon. “It’s not everyday I witness this piece of nature. Rome is sure a beautiful city but nothing beats the positive energy and the calmness the nature can bring.” 

“You’re right.” 

We’ve been staying for two weeks and on that time, me and Sir Leon gotten so close. Piece by piece, he’s starting to unfold his true self to me and so am I. I’m getting comfortable around him. 

But I’m scared. Just like the fishes, I get scared when other people are trying to invade me. 

I grow to like Sir Leon, not just only a friend but as a man. He is mysterious in some ways but he’s sure a gentle person. The other day, he cried because the fish we caught died. We named him Moew because it was a catfish. Silly but we spent hours on trying to catch one of those. 

He gets happy on little things, I can say that he is the cutest man child. He gets annoyed when something is not right about his plan that day and he gets adorable around the grandparents, the couple who takes care of the little cottage when the Monzato brothers is not around. 

I found out that his mother is kindness person who brought the island years ago. She never made business out of this beautiful island, she bought it for her kids. 

“What do you want to do today?” I asked. I learned the reason why Sir Leon asked me to go on a vacation because he was having a hard time with work stuff, but I think that’s half true. 

I’m annoyed that he is lying but the frustrating thing is, I know that there’s other major reasons why he want to get away. For two weeks, he’s trying to avoid that subject whenever I bring that up. 

I wanted to know what’s on his mind and I want to comfort him if possible. 

“Let’s have a lazy day. How about we play 20 questions?” 

“Sounds about right.” 

He removed his arms around and turned me around to face him. I smiled at him when I met his eyes. His eyes is blending with the soft colour of the sun. It makes his eyes even brighter, like there’s a pool of honey on his eyes. 

His unwaxed soft morning hair is getting ruined by the wind. His facial features are my everything. His perfect in anyway he do. He’s a god gift to woman and I’m lucky to get his attention. 

He’s the reason of my poetry. He is the reason why my poetry and my sunrise turns out beautiful every single day, Without his knowledge, he makes me better. He makes me happy and wanted to live this life to see what’s next for the both of us. 

Leon confuses me but I’m gladly take the time to understand him. If I know better, that’s what he need, someone whom patient enough understand him. 

“I like you so much.” He says and leaned down to kissed me on my lips. His kisses felt magical— as always. The butterflies on my stomach went wild whenever he press his lips against mine. 

Helios tried to kiss me before but I didn’t let him. But for Leon? I always wanted his kisses. I always wanted to feel his soft lips against mine. Its like his kisses is both my sunrise and my sunset. 

Because at the end of the day, he is the man I will start my day with. I definitely don’t want to be his friend. 

He intertwined our fingers that fit perfectly towards each other. It’s like a puzzle that cannot be completed unless it was attached on either one of our hand. 

“So, we only have two weeks here. How’s your stay with me going, baby?” He asked. 

The fresh fruits are laid on the table. The well made Country fried steak and chicken and waffle with the side of biscuits and gravy completed our breakfast. The sound of the waves and the beautiful scenery that the island offers made our morning relaxing every single day. 

The crystals above the ocean reflects the white sand. That sand might be too hot for now. 

“It’s great. Thank you for bringing me here, Sir Leon.” 

“How many times do I have to ask you nicely to call me Leon? I mean I prefer getting called Love or baby or hubby by you but Leon would be good too.” 

I snorted when his face crumpled in complete annoyance. He’s been asking me to call him by his given name from the plane up to now. I’m kind of flushed from the idea, he’s my boss after all. I feel like I’m disrespecting him or something. 

“Okay then. Leon.” I muttered under my breath. His name came out naturally like it was a tradition of my own lips. 

“Thanks. That’s what am I talking about.” A smiled of victory is playing around his mouth. “So, do you wanna play 20 questions now or later?” 

“We should play now while enjoying our coffee. You first.” 

“For real. Okay, first question....” He paused to sip his coffee, “Favourite colour?” 

“Are we starting on basic questions?” I questioned, the smile of amusement is lingering on my lips. 

He showed me his famous drop dead gorgeous smirk while nodding his head. 

“Green. Any shade will do. How about yours?” 

If he is going to start on asking basic questions, I will do it too. I don’t want him to get creeped out with my future questions caused by being observant and curiosity. 

He’s got a lot of secrets like I do. And I intend to unfold then even if I reveal the real me in front of him. I have nothing to lose now, except him. 

I don’t want to lose the only guy who treated me differently since I graduated high school. 

Ten questions about ourselves went by like a wave. I learned that he’s favourite colour is pink, baby pink to be exact. He loves eating sushi and tempura with Miso soup. He will kill for a Japanese foods and snacks. He loves paintings and sculptures, which I find so fascinating. He plays golf and tennis with his friends whenever they have a time. He doesn’t want to read novels or any kind of books because he always fell asleep. And what made me look at him in complete confusion when he told me that he once bought a lion cub as a pet. He decided to give the cub up when it started to get fussy all the time. 

I found out a lot of funny things about him. Weird but fun. He is really an interesting person. 

“You know, I was dumbfounded when she jumped onto me and kissed me. I never liked her, she’s a bitch.” He ranted something about Trixy being an annoying stalker of his. 

“Your turn.” I announced. 

“Why I haven’t seen you in shorts? Always in jeans, leggings?” 

I saw this coming. I cannot help but to display a small smile. I saw this coming, therefore I’m not disappointed that he asked. I knew that this day will come that I have to answer him. 

But this time, no dodging the question. I will answer truthfully. 

“I used to hurt myself.” I started. 

He halted from his seat but never said anything. I used that as an opportunity to continue speaking,

“I used to harm myself like there’s no tomorrow. Suicidal thoughts are overpowering my whole system at that time.” I lied, because there’s still suicidal thoughts running through my mind but I don’t cut my thighs anymore like I used to do before. 

Something in me changed. There’s a glint of hope in me that saying; one day, I would be mentally healed completely. 

“Stuffs are happening and I cannot help myself to hurt me. Cutting my thighs felt heaven, because that time, others are not the one who’s hurting me.

The cutting went on for years until I got used to the pang of pain whenever I cut my thighs with a blade. The scars are ugly, years of worth of scars.” 

Silence. There’s no words came out from his lips. He’s just looking at me with sadness and pity. I cannot help him to feel sympathy towards me, even I feel sorry for myself whenever I remember what I’ve been through. 

“What happened?”He finally asked. 

“My papa happened. My mama happened. One moment, my family was the perfect definition of my happiness and then one moment, this happiness turned into complete chaos.” I turned my gaze to the beautiful ocean in front of us. “If you are going to ask me what really happened, I’m still not ready to tell you that.” 

Opening up about this part of my life is hard. Unfolding everything inch by inch slowly would help. 

“Would you tell me one day?” He asks, hope is visible in his low voice. 

“Would you tell me yours one day?” I asked back. “What really happened that night?” 

I tried to hide the smirk on lips when he halted again. He gulped and avoided my eyes immediately. 

“I think we should go inside? The sun is getting high. We don’t want to have a painful sunburn, don’t we?” Without uttering another word, I stood up. 

Leaving him there, silent at peace. If doesn’t want to say a thing, I will completely respect that. On that course, there’s a possibility of us going nowhere is high. 

The thought put me in a hard place but I knew I have to accept whatever will happen to the both of us. He experienced a lot of horrible things than me given the fact that he’s so much older than me. 

I came up to my bedroom and pick up the book that I was reading for the past two days. I left out a deep sigh. How will I know the real him when he won’t let me in? How will our relationship work when the both of us is scared on unfolding the real us? The logic makes my head hurt ten times. 

Is there really a relationship between us? Or it is just a plain friendship and his feelings were completely infatuation? 

“Baby...” I heard his voice, low and sad. 

“Hmm?” I hummed my answer, my eyes were still glued on the page I currently reading. 

“Something came up to the company weeks ago. Then, I found out that the one who sabotaged me is my very own father.” 

I stopped reading when I heard the first part of his story. His father? 

“He asked someone— no he threatened this guy to sabotage me causing me to lose million dollar worth of business. I was pissed and angry. I was pissed because I got fooled and angry because I never expected who will be the mastermind. He never flinched when I stormed in his office, yelled at him. He got the audacity to tell me that that’s only a test and why I’m fussing? I never break a character to anyone. Yes, I show affection to my friends but I don’t want my own brother to feel pity on me. He always thought me and my father get along, like we’re best of friends.” 

“And you wanted it to stay that way.” I interrupted him. “I’m sorry to hear that.” 

He flashed me a smile and shook his head. 

“Don’t be baby. Like you said, we should be open to each other if we want this to work out.” He kneeled down in front of my and held both of my hands, “And I’m willing to try.” 

So am I. I’m willing to try to unfold all the secrets we’ve been keeping from each other. This is time to open my heart and try trusting other people especially him. 

“Did he say sorry?” 

“Nope. I don’t want anything to do with that company anymore. I inherited that from him because Acey built his own empire. As trying hard good son that I am, he put the company and his money under my name. But that’s never enough for him. It’s Wallace. It’s always my older brother is the good one in everything. Damn, he can f*****g build his own aircraft.” 

My heart felt his sadness. All he wants is to be appreciated and loved by his own father. Not to be the shadow of his own brother. 

“I’m the worthless and the rebel.” He chuckled. 

I know the feeling of getting called worthless and stupid even though I’m trying all of my best. On this page of our chapter, we’re on the same side. We understand each other. 

“But no worries, baby. I quit. I’m not the CEO of that company anymore. I never liked that business anyway.” 

“What do you want to do then?” 

A genuine smile appeared on his lips. He tugged both of my hands signalling that I need to stand up and follow him. 

Without any word, I followed his footstep. I noticed that we are going down to the basement of the cottage. I haven’t explored this part of the cottage yet because I’m not really fan of basements because of too much reading of crime thriller fictions. 

My eyes brightened when we reached the basement. The basement is quite big and full of paintings. Different masterpieces are displayed on the floor of hanging up the wall. There’s untouched canvas on the other side and all of his paintings materials are displayed messily.

“Welcome to my heaven, baby.” 

“Wow.” 

“Yes. This is always what I wanted to do. If I didn’t worked on my father’s company, this will be my main priority.” 

All of the pieces are beautiful and mesmerising. If he decided to put this pieces on a gallery, he will surely get praised for it. 

“They are all beautiful. You’re a great painter.” 

“Thank you.”

“How will you interpret them?” 

“I don’t know. All of them represents my mood and what is currently happening on my mind.” He said quietly. 

“Chaos. Your mind is in chaos when you do most of this masterpieces.” I commented, staring at the chaotic group of colours, placed everywhere in the large canvas. 

If his mind is in peace, he could do a painting that made in a good essence of different colours. But most of them are on abstract but he is able to make shape out of black paint. A human. A black human figure with the head is down low. 

He’s in chaos and he is sad. 

“You’re an observant woman, baby. I give you that.” He chuckled, kissing my neck gently. 

“But they are all beautiful. Chaotic but beautiful.” I faced him and gave him a soft smile. I held his right hand and gave it a little squeezed. “From now on, do whatever you want. You’re your own person and you have all the right to do something that makes you happy. Not just because that was your responsibility but because you enjoy what you were doing.” 

“Are you going to support?” 

I nodded. “Always.” 

If I need to support him for the rest of my life, I will. 

“Sorry if I have trouble sharing this to you. I love to tell you everything but I got scared. You always see me as the happy go lucky Leon. But when in reality, I’m broken in here.” He pointed on his chest. 

I gently kissed his chest. “You’re still the happy go lucky Leon. You have to understand that each individual have a different traits and personality. We are not perfect, it is okay to be broken and be happy as a coping mechanism. It is okay to show emotion, Leon. I will never judge you.” 

“I want to try to be honest with you. I want us to be more open to each other.” 

“I wanted the same thing too but it will never easy. We have to unfold everything inch by inch.” 

We are both fragile. We are broken and trying to heal, pick up our own pieces and heal this pieces by ourselves. We struggle to ask for help because that’s what we used to do. We solve our own problem by ourselves and smile to other people to look strong. 

What a great in pretender we are. 

“I really like you so much.” 

I gave him a smile and cupped his face. I stared his face and studied every single detail I can catch. 

“I like you too.” 

I said and he fainted.