Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 726 : Face the Music

*Caterina*

Daggers could’ve been thrown across the simple wooden table we were sitting at, and it would’ve looked less hostile than Anna’s piercing glare. I sat uncomfortably at the booth we had been directed to, trying to pretend I didn’t notice her eyes on me as I looked over the menu.

The menu was useless though, and we both knew it since I had it memorized.

Langers was my favorite restaurant in the whole city, and Anna knew that. Elio still insisted on taking me out to fancy restaurants, which was good, but give me a good pastrami on rye from Langers any day and I would take it.

This wasn’t really his scene but for Anna and me, it was heaven.

“What can I get for....” The waitress appeared and then her voice trailed off, her smile falling as she glanced between my sweating figure tucked in the corner of the booth and Anna, who had blocked all entrances, arms crossed so tightly it looked like she might never get them unstuck again.

I was sure she could feel the tension between us.

I sighed, grabbing the menu Anna hadn’t touched on her side and handing them to the waitress with a strained smile. She took them, still looking a bit freaked out.

“Do you need me to call the police?” she whispered slowly.

I shook my head. “No. She’s my best friend and she’s mad at me.”

“Oh.” Like a lightbulb went off in her head, her tense figure immediately relaxed, and she sent me a smile. “So, what would you two like to drink? Soft drinks, coffee, juice—”

“I’d like a cream soda, please,” I said calmly, meeting Anna’s eyes and not looking away.

“Oh! Good choice—”

“She’d like a hard version of the same.”

“Oh.” The waitress glanced at me, shocked, and then slowly nodded, backing away at the speed of a snail.

Anna raised an eyebrow. “So, this is that kind of conversation, is it?”

“That’s right,” I said casually, sorting the salt and sugar packets the party before us had mixed up.

The waitress took off like we were a pack of hyenas ready to tear into her and to be honest, I didn’t blame her.

This was that kind of conversation.

Once our drinks came, the waitress nervously took our order and then rushed off again. I took a sip of the cream soda, relishing the foamy delicious taste. I could have used a stronger beverage, but one of us had to be fit to drive.

Finally, though, Anna’s patience wore thin. She slammed her empty glass of on the table, ignoring the looks of the customers nearby, and gave me a glare. “So, were those guys hit men?” she blurted out. “Is that why you were so secretive about it?”

The absurdity caught me off guard, and the laugh spilled from my lips before I could stop it.

“No.” I waved my hand. “You’ve got it all wrong. There’s a lot you don’t know.”

“Then tell me already,” Anna pouted. “I’m tired of you keeping secrets from me!”

That statement hit me hard because I had yelled the exact same words at Elio, demanding to know what was going on when the people around me only wanted to protect me. I had blamed them, but here I was doing the exact same thing.

I sighed and lowered my voice. Luckily, the other people in the restaurant had gone back to their own conversations. “They’re not hit men, and they’re not doing anything illegal.”

I paused, faltering at that point. I was pretty sure they did do a lot of illegal things but following me wasn’t one of them. I shook my head to get back on topic. “Anyway, they’re not hit men but they’re... close?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Anna demanded.

Luckily, she had lowered her voice in response to mine.

“It’s complicated, but here, hold on a minute,” I pulled out my phone, opened up my messages, and began to write out absolutely everything in a text... from the beginning to the end, everything that I knew and had figured out.

I explained about my father and who he’d been involved with, Elio’s true identity, and the ongoing feud with Antonio and Junior—and how that was Paul’s real identity. I practically wrote an essay with everything I crammed in there and I bit my bottom lip, deciding to leave out the part about my own involvement and how much I had wanted revenge personally.

If she didn’t leave because my boyfriend was the head of the American branch of the Italian mob, then she would because of what I had done to get my revenge. Mom hadn’t even accepted that part of me. I didn’t want to guarantee my best friend leaving by including it.

We had to start slowly.

I included how Junior’s men may still be after us and that was the reason Elio had assigned bodyguards to me, that if she got involved with me further, she would be in danger as well. I hadn’t worded it like that, not wanting to seem like I was chasing her away, but I needed her to know what she was getting into.

I didn’t want her to get hurt because I had been keeping her in the dark.

Nervous but satisfied with the text, I finally sent it just in time for the waitress to come back with refills on our drinks and our food. I wasn’t really hungry, but I anxiously watched Anna’s face as she pulled out her phone and frowned as she opened up the text.

I could see her eyes moving back and forth, reading intently. They widened the further she scrolled. Her mouth dropped open at some point, and I nervously stuffed fries into my mouth to avoid talking.

Meanwhile, Anna finally hit the end of the text, staring silently as her shocked expression morphed into a blank one. She slowly and carefully slid her phone face-down onto the table and then glanced at the sandwich she had ordered in front of her.

She ignored it entirely, moving sluggishly as she grabbed her refilled alcoholic cream soda and drank. And she didn’t stop, glugging it down like she had been in a desert without water for seven days.

It wasn’t until the last bit of foam was down her throat that she finally slammed the mug onto the table, startling the few people near us as they automatically stared at us and with very haunted eyes, looked at me and said roughly and quietly, “So you guys are like a mob family that murders people?”

I reared back in shock.

Elio’s family, who had been nothing but kind and caring toward me, being a bunch of murderers....

I paused, staring down at my hands as I really truly thought about it. Murderers—but wasn’t that exactly what they were sometimes?

For all of his kindness and harmless appearance now, Elio’s father had once been just as terrifying as any other mobster, hadn’t he? They dealt with shipping illegal substances across the world, did deals with less than reputable people, and most of all, they killed.

From Tallon’s father, James, to Giovani to Tallon to Alessandro and now Elio, they all had their hands stained in blood. Despite each one’s attempt to get out of the family, the next generation was always pulled back.

No matter how kind they were to the ones they loved, they ran a business, a cold, cut-throat business, and it was now Elio’s responsibility to keep that going, to carry on the legacy that each Don before him had carried to him.

I swallowed, realizing this truth like an oversized pill going down my throat. I didn’t want to admit it, but Anna was right. What made Elio any better than the other crime families?

“It’s different but sort of on the right track,” I said solemnly. “Elio... they call themselves a family for a reason.”

“Uh, huh.” Anna nodded, twirling with her now useless straw. “Well, that explains a lot, why you’ve been so weird for the past year and why I always got a bad feeling about that asshole, Paul or Junior or whatever his name is. But... why didn’t you tell me this before? I could’ve been there for you and for your mom. You guys are family to me. Do you not trust me?”

“No, that’s not it!” I leaned forward, horrified by the thought. “I trust you more than anybody else in the world, I swear. But you didn’t ask for this, Anna. You shouldn’t have to be involved just because you chose the wrong friend. I didn’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

“Bullshit,” Anna said harshly.

“Excuse me?” I was taken aback for a second.

“You’re not excused,” she hit back sassily. “You really think I’m going to believe that bullshit? That you didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to involve me, that you didn’t want me to get in trouble? That’s what being a best friend is about! Your trouble is my trouble and furthermore, I chose you to be my best friend and the only one who can tell me I chose wrong is me. Got it?”

She slammed her palm on the table, glaring at me like I’d insulted her very being.

“Anna, I—”

“No,” Anna said firmly. “I don’t want to hear it, because I know you and you’re going to do the hero complex thing, which apparently runs in your family. But I’m telling you right here, right now, I’m not going to listen. You are my best friend, and I am not going to run away because of this. How could you even think—”

She paused, realization dawning on her face, and then she pierced me with an even nastier glare if that was possible. I sank lower into my seat, shame hitting me hard as my face lit up like a freshly picked tomato.

“Caterina Alexandra Leone.” She scowled.

“Not my middle name,” I interjected quietly, but I fell silent once she dug her fingernails into the wooden table.

“Did you really think I’d just abandon you after everything... over this? A little family dysfunction and you suddenly want to go all noble hero on me? Do you really think I would run away? Am I a coward in your eyes? Am I so low that I would abandon my best friend over one little convenience? What the fuck, Cat?”

“Should I come back?”

We both glanced at the waitress holding refills of our drinks, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else as she stared at us, baffled and distressed.

“Yes!” Anna snapped at the same time that I said, “No.”

And the waitress’ face fell even more in dismay.

“Thank you for the drinks.” I gave her an attempt at a smile.

She winced, nodding as she set down the drinks, turned, and zoomed off before I could say another word.

Anna huffed, rolling her eyes as she settled down in her seat, sipping on her third drink.

“Let’s make this clear, Caterina,” Anna sneered. “I am going nowhere, and there is nothing you can say or do to drive me away. Understand?”

My eyes watered as my fears were firmly crushed under Anna’s declaration, her anger feeling like a warm crackling fire on a winter night—cozy and kind.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” I gave her a watery smile.

“You did nothing,” she snorted. “I chose you... end of story.”

Then her lips split into a grin, both of us sharing the same bubbling happiness. Despite all my worries, our friendship was still strong and intact.

We finished lunch, and the relief on the waitress’s face once we asked for the bill made me feel like a horrible person. I threw a hundred dollar bill on the table as a tip, one of the few times I didn’t mind taking Elio’s offer of money. This was kind of his fault in a roundabout way.

Anna talked to me more about Elijah as I took her home and I was happy to listen, just content that there were no more secrets between us.

We planned to meet for class tomorrow before I watched her go into her apartment, then I began to pull away. As I did, my phone began to ring.

The Bluetooth connected to the car lit up showing Elio’s number, and I hit the button on the card to answer it as the radio cut off and Elio’s voice came on.

“I finally got a report on Elijah.”