Pieces of Truth

Chapter 24

Uncovered

~ ~ ~

My Dad closed the door, leaving me and Samuel staring uncomfortably at one another. Actually I was the uncomfortable one. Samuel looked calm, even happy. How could he even dare show his face right now, like this? This was beyond surreal. Samuel Voltaggio was in my father’s building, with his permission, in a room, waiting for me, with my Dad’s help. Am I dead and I just don’t know it? This felt like some alternate universe, but it was real and it was happening and I didn’t know where to begin.

Samuel suddenly looked nervous. Maybe it was his surroundings, or the fact my Dad was in the next room or that we were finally able to see each other with no fear lurking in the background. All our past encounters were always filled with worry, and now that was gone, and here we were. The past meeting in the present, with no potential danger forcing us apart.

He was wearing black slacks and a white T-shirt like a fifties greaser. On anyone else, the look would have been stupid, but with Samuel, it suited him down to a tee. His black hair was combed back and his naturally tanned olive skin looked even darker. I couldn’t escape that dark look in his eyes he had always reserved for me, and he made sure I couldn’t miss it. It surprised me that he could look so relaxed and sexy with those eyes, when he had caused me great heartache and pain. He had started this all by putting a hit on Clint first, and yet, he stood there, smiling softly, his eyes lingering on mine with want and need, and without a care in the world. He started a series of events that brought my world crashing down.

“Lenorah Rossi. I am so happy to see you.” He said it like we were just meeting for the first time, and perhaps that’s what it felt like for him. Maybe if this had been our beginning we would have had a much different ending, but we couldn’t go back in time. We couldn’t change what had been done, what he had set in motion. I had not forgotten Morewell and his manipulation there, as well as the contract he put on Clint; the gifts, the gala and the truth and dare party. He had tried to split us up in a really underhanded way, causing so much anguish, hurt and pain. Everything was different for me now. I did not see Samuel the same way anymore.

“I wish I could say the same Samuel, but I can’t.” I stayed where I was, keeping my distance from him. I wasn’t completely unaffected by his looks, but I knew where my head and my heart now was, and it was not here.

Samuel, seeing my distaste towards him, walked right up to me, closing the distance he didn’t want between us any more. He gripped my shoulders. “Why? Why would you say that? Is it about the gifts? Were they too much? Oh Len, they were just to show you how much I still love...”

I punched him hard in the gut, sending him wheezing to the ground. I couldn’t help it. It was a reflex to him just brushing aside the ghastly things he had done. How he could push them aside like that just made my head snap and my hand react. The nerve of him to think it was just about the gifts.

“Are you f*cking serious Samuel? You think this is about the gifts? What the hell is wrong with you? I should hit you again for what you did.” I thought about it again, my hand twitching to connect with his face this time, but I held it with my other hand, restraining my anger from getting out of control.

Samuel was on all fours on the ground, trying to catch his breath. He looked up at me from the floor, his face strained and eyes glazed. “I take it, you didn’t like the gifts.” He looked genuinely confused by my attack. His eyes became doe-eyed as they stared up at me in pure bewilderment, and for a second, I doubted what I knew. Could I be wrong right now? As he continued to stare at me, my anger softened.

Damn my beating heart!

I helped him up from off the ground. “Get the f*ck up Samuel!”

Samuel coughed some more as he got to his feet, still holding his stomach like it hurt. “What the hell Len? You beat me up because of some diamonds and my car. Oh come on. Fine. I’ll keep the car. I just thought you’d love Cherry, I...”

I pushed his chest, hard, sending him flying backwards on his feet. What the hell was going on? Why wasn’t Samuel acknowledging the other terrible things he did? Was he hoping I would just look past them, forget about them, turn a blind eye? Was this guy crazy?

Samuel regained his footing, now standing up straight, a different look on his face. He knew I wasn’t fooling around. I was dead serious.

“Are you really trying to push aside what you did? I can’t believe you would do that. Do you have any idea how much pain it caused me? How can you even look at me right now?” I was throwing my pain and confusion at him. I needed to get my head around his dismissal of everything else. Why would he do this? How could he act this way?

Samuel’s face looked like he was thinking deeply, trying to process my words and reaction, but not coming up with any kind of reasonable explanation. “Len, you are going to have to tell me why you are so angry, because I don’t understand what is going on.”

I wanted to push him again, but instead I just wound my fists up into balls as I tried to keep myself from going on a full-blown violent rampage. “Fine Samuel. I will give you the list of reasons I am acting like this right now. How about the fact you put a contract on Clint first, starting this whole f*cked-up situation? Why would you do that? Did you do it on purpose so Clint would do the same back and hope I didn’t find out about it? I swear you two are as thick as each other. Both f*cking insane!”

Samuel’s nostrils flared and his face crinkled, changing to one of pure anger. “Wait just a God damn minute Len. Did Weston tell you that? I never put a cont…”

I cut him off. “And then you play these games. Sending me gifts to get under Clint’s skin, turning up at the Gala like that, and then my birthday. Sending me that truth card with the contract that Clint signed against you. ON MY BIRTHDAY! Who the f*ck does all this? Did you think I would jump into your arms for all that!”

Samuel looked at his fists, his breathing getting faster. He looked side to side and then behind him. He then walked to the wall at the back of the room and punched it, very hard, causing the plaster to crack and his knuckles to get torn up, blood quickly spilling over his hand.

What the f*ck is happening? This was crazy! How could Samuel be so angry right now? Why was he acting like this was brand new information?

When he pulled his fist from the wall, and I saw it was covered in blood, I had to admit, I felt sorry for him. Why he felt the need to do that, I don’t know. My anger subsided and I looked at my hurt ex-fiancé with compassion. “You need to wrap that up,” I said, looking at the blood now dripping onto the floor.

Why was I so soft sometimes?

I walked over to him, placing my hand on his shoulder very gently. “Take off your shirt and I’ll wrap it up.” He didn’t move, and I knew I would have to do it for him.

Samuel was still breathing raggedly as he let me lift his shirt up and over his head. My eyes swept over his tanned and muscular physique, reminding me of all the times I had my hands all over him in the most intimate places. But this was no time for reminiscing. This was the time for truth.

I folded up the T-shirt and placed his bloody hand inside it. Samuel winced as I folded the T-shirt over his injury. There was something nice that passed between us then. Our silent touch. So many memories of late night touches in the middle of the night. I knew why I had fallen in love with Samuel. We always felt familiar, like we fit, like we breathed the same, felt the same; like we were each other’s missing puzzle piece. But even if a part of me wanted to go back to him, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t; not after all this.

After I finished tending to his injury, I stepped back from him. He met my eyes, trying hard to see into them and to what was deep inside me, like Samuel always would. “Did Weston tell you that? Did he tell you I put a contract on him first?”

His question threw me off. Why was Samuel asking me this when he already knew the answer?

“Of course he did. He told me he only put a contract on you because you put one on him.”

Samuel looked at me seriously. “He is lying to you Len. I never put a contract on Clint. He made that up.”

I did not expect this. Did Clint lie to me about Samuel? Did he do it so I would be more understanding about what he did? I knew when Samuel lied and right now, I couldn’t hear any lies in his voice, not one hint of a change in tone. Nothing. Why hadn’t I picked up on that earlier? I was now extremely confused. Who was lying to me - Samuel or Clint? I couldn’t pick it.

I searched my heart for what I believed, and what I trusted with my own two eyes. I thought about Clint and his desperation in the car, the way his eyes pleaded and begged for me. Would Clint have really jeopardized our relationship with this contract if he thought he had no other choice?

Then I looked at Samuel. Would he really put a contract on Clint, knowing how I would react? He took a beating for me and put his fist through a wall, all because this was all news to him, and when I asked him, I could tell he wasn’t lying.

Who the hell was lying! Clint or Samuel?

Samuel watched me debate the information in my head. He knew I was conflicted about who to believe.

“Weston lied. I never put a hit on him, and he must have set that birthday thing up to make me look like a terrible person. Probably because he had to come clean with you, and that’s the f*cked-up way he chose to do it. I didn’t do any of that. You have to believe me. Yes, I sent you the gifts because I wanted to ruffle some feathers. The bastard had put a hit on me. I wanted to get under his skin. That’s why I turned up the gala too. But I also sent you the gifts and went to the gala because of you. I wanted you to see I can fight for you. I would never do those other things you are accusing me of.”

I turned my head away from Samuel, and he grabbed onto my chin, turning me back to face him, making sure he had my attention. “I stopped everything when this deal started to be put into motion because I knew I wouldn’t have to go behind anyone’s back to see you. When your Dad invited me here and I asked him about you, he told me you weren’t with Weston any more. I assumed Clint came clean with you about what he did to me, and you finally knew what kind of guy he was. I had no idea about anything else. Oh Len, you must be thinking...”

I pushed Samuel’s hand off my chin and shook my head. I know what I saw in Clint’s face when I found out. At the truth and dare party, the way his lips hit mine in such fear, his pleas in the car. No, Samuel was lying. We had spent a long time apart, and by now, he would have become good at it. I had to trust what I saw in Clint and in his words. Clint lost me because of what he did. I believed he would have never done that without the same threat first. My mind was made up.

“You don’t believe me, do you Len?” Samuel was desperately searching my face for something, anything that may have looked like belief, but he found nothing.

I went over and held his free hand with both of mine. My head was where it should be and now, and it was time for me to say good-bye.

“Samuel, you will always hold a place in my heart as my first love, but I don’t love you any more. You are my friend, and that is all you are ever going to be. I could never love someone who acts like my father, putting hits out on people I care about, causing me to hurt like this. I really thought you knew me better, but clearly you don’t. And neither does Clint.”

I moved back but he held me, not accepting this good-bye.

“Len, I’m not lying to you, I’ve never lied to you.”

I wanted to believe him, I really did, but it wasn’t true. He had lied before.

“Really Samuel, you’ve never lied to me? Well, let me ask you this. Did you know who I was when we first met?”

Samuel’s eyes expanded, a sign I knew as shock. He didn’t expect me to ask that.

“Really... Never?” I questioned him.

He looked stunned.

“Fuuuuuuuuck! You knew I knew you? Shit Len, it was one lie. I was going to tell you eventually. It never had anything to do with how I feel. I never lied to you after that, I...” But Samuel saw my disbelief, he saw I no longer trusted him. “It doesn’t matter if Weston lied does it? You don’t believe me now do you?”

I just shook my head at him. “Good-bye Samuel,” I said and I leaned over to him to give him a peck on the cheek as a final farewell, but he turned to capture my mouth with his, dipping me and giving me one more long deep kiss.

When we finished, he lifted me back up. I think he knew I couldn’t forgive him now because I didn’t believe him. I was grateful for that kiss. It felt like he accepted my good-bye and he understood why. I gave Samuel one final look, out of respect for the love we once shared, and left the room, not stopping to look back.

My Dad was milling near a filing cabinet as I came through the door and closed it behind me. He looked me over and then asked, “You done in there?”

I smiled and nodded back. “Yeah Dad. I’m done.” I sighed deeply and walked over to my Dad, throwing my arms around him for a hug. He seemed surprised and flinched before embracing me back. “You knew it would always be Josh didn’t you?” I whispered into his ear.

We stopped hugging and my Dad tried not to look choked up, stepping back and looking serious once again. “I knew you two would eventually figure it out, when you were old enough to do so, of course.” I half laughed at his over-protective side showing again.

“I need to...” I tried to tell him, but it felt odd opening up to my Dad like this. We loved each other but it was more unspoken love, and not so laid out and open.

“Go,” he said, smiling and shaking his head, “And take the spare cell on my desk. You might need it.” I grabbed the cell and took off out of the room to go and try to recapture my future.