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"She hated her life, Leo."


Maria helplessly shook his arm. Her desperate voice cracked as she continued, "She was suffering every single day. You know what your father was like with her—Sienna was on the verge of death." The tears streamed down her cheeks as she stared at his broken face, falling apart the more she spoke.

Leonardo's eyes were filled with tears, silently rolling down his cheeks as he looked at her in such betrayal and sadness. Maria could hardly meet his eyes. Leonardo had been shattered to pieces that evening; his hard exterior had fully broken, and he was vulnerable, right in front of Maria.

"She wanted out," Maria told him, her voice shaking again. "She wanted to be free, which is why Sisi left with me and told me not to tell anyone the truth. I vowed to keep it a secret until she was ready." Maria and Sienna had spoken about telling the family many times, but she wasn't prepared to meet them.

He closed his eyes as his legs became weak. Leonardo forced himself to stand, his large hands covering his face as he began to let out the pain through silent sobs, releasing all the emotions flooding him inside as the rain heavily fell over the two of them, soaking them completely.

Still shivering, Maria continued, "She doesn't regret it. Sienna is so happy, Leo. She is. She knew how much I..." Maria hesitated, her words caught in her throat again before she took a short intake of breath. "How much I love you and miss you. She was okay with me seeing you again. But she's not ready to meet her family yet. She needs more time."

"I'll find her."

Maria shook her head at his determined words, her body trembling from the despair and cold winds. "No, you can't. She doesn't want to be found."

"You're lying!" He suddenly exclaimed, an unrecognisable look towards Maria. She couldn't bear the coldness coming from him.

"I'm not!" She cried as she gazed up at him with her unwavering grey eyes. Leonardo had been completely fragmented. The love of his life was standing right before him, telling him a truth he never expected to hear. A truth that would ruin the two of them. "Leo, I'm not. I know this is a mess, but you have to believe what I'm saying."

"I love you—you said that you loved me, so how could you?" Leonardo questioned in agony, his heart aching at the sight of her beautiful face sobbing before him.

All Maria could let out was, "I'm sorry." She sniffed. "But I vowed to Sienna. I vowed to keep this a secret until she gave me her word."

"And what about me?" Leonardo questioned again, his eyes filled with anguish. "What about me?" He repeated, standing close to her again. He moved her wet hair away from her tear-stained face, his hand shaking as he did so. "What about me, Maria? I love you. I love you so fucking much. Did you ever think about me? How much this would impact me?" Maria choked on a sob, taking his cold hand and holding onto it tightly, unable to stop crying.

"I wanted to tell you. I wanted to do it right, Leo, I'm sorry it took me so long. I'm sorry you had to find out the way that you did, mi amore—"

The heavy rain slammed down on the two of them. "Don't call me that!" His deep voice managed to raise through the thunder, but it was so broken and cracked. Leonardo was unable to continue to listen to her sweet voice, her sincere apologies. He was so hurt and overwhelmed by strong emotions of pain and sadness. The one person in the world he loved had shattered his heart. Her deep regret coursed down her cheeks; she was battling to breathe properly.

"Why would you find me again knowing all of this? Knowing what you were keeping from me all this fucking time!" He freed himself from her hand, his hand wiping his wet face, the rain pelting down heavily. He was still overtaken by fury; resentment was festering in him like a burning fire.

"Leo, please." She was falling apart, with each word and the longer they prolonged. Her voice was cracking and breaking the more that she spoke, the more she realised how much she'd kept inside all this time, how much it would hurt him, how much it would hurt her.

"Did you ever think about me? Vincenzo? Dante? What about Cris? You knew and hid all of this knowing Cris took the blame? I cast him out of my life, Maria—I never believed him!" He was raging; his deep voice was dark and rough towards her as he harshly spoke. Maria's grief overtook her, her heart feeling for the family, torn between her loyalty to Sienna and her loyalty to Leonardo.

His rage had boiled enough and blinded him. Leonardo's hand took out the gun tucked into his waistband. Maria's eyes were wide and filled with terror as the gun was placed against her temple; she could feel the click against her head.

She froze.

She was weary from all her crying, closing her eyes for a few seconds. Her breath hitched as she shivered, her tear-filled eyes slowly reaching his infuriated ones, dark and terrifyingly intense.

"What about the omertà? What about your loyalty to us? You're a part of this life too; you know that this means—you know shit like this has consequences. This fucking shit would have you killed without a soul to save you," Leonardo fumed, outraged and exasperated. "You would be fucking dead—I could pull this trigger. I should be pulling this trigger and fucking ending you!" The gun pressed against her head as she sobbed.

She didn't say anything, only letting the tears fall. Maria knew what world she had always lived in, where death was only a door away. The rules and beliefs of the mafia have always extended to her too. He was right; as a Don, her life should've been taken right then and right there.

His hand was shaking; he couldn't believe he was holding a gun to the face of the woman he loved. The same woman who had also betrayed him. He could never shoot her, never regardless of his position. Maria let out a heavy breath, her heart thundering against her ribcage.

He was staring; a deathly and silent moment was held between them as his intense eyes stayed on hers. They had lost all warmth and love inside of them. The gun was pressing into her skin, and Leonardo's hand was shaking, but the terrifying glower on his face wouldn't cease. Maria didn't know what he was thinking; she couldn't ignore the chance that he'd actually shoot. She couldn't allow for him to do that; she backhanded the gun away from her face, the weapon falling into the ground and splashed into a puddle. No matter how angry Leonardo got, she couldn't and wouldn't let him hold a gun to her face.

"Don't," she could only whisper, her hand shaking by her side.

He scoffed, seething with vexation. "Was it fun?" He jibed, his tone hard and livid. "Messing with me? Pretending to love me?"

"I do love you, Leo, I—" Maria weakly tried, in a quiet voice.

"If you fucking loved me," he strongly interrupted, his face scowling at her. His hand pointed towards her as he snapped, "You wouldn't do this. You wouldn't intentionally hurt me!"

She greatly sobbed, her tears pouring out pain down her cheeks as her heart twisted in her. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

He was smoking with anger, his eyebrows narrowed and his eyes filled with hatred. "You came into my house and purposely made me weak. You changed everything—you made me soft; you made me vulnerable. You wanted to see me broken and tormented, didn't you?" He chillingly laughed, making Maria shiver in fear at his dark tone. "What? Was it satisfying seeing me cry? Seeing me pathetic? Suffering every night to sleep, waking up covered in sweat and crying for forgiveness? Wishing I wasn't responsible for her death, wishing I could've saved her, wanting to fucking kill myself every single fucking day?"

She heaved with sadness, recognising her great mistake. "It wasn't like that, Leo!"

He scoffed, shaking his head as he looked afar. The more his mind, filled with turmoil, spun, the more angry he grew. "You must've liked seeing me so fragile?" He provoked again as she continuously shook her head, crying endlessly. Her body shivered before him. "Seeing me lose my fucking mind! You pretended to care about me! You knew she was alive even after I opened up to you about her death! I had therapy; I was on so many fucking meds; I lost my daughter; I abandoned my brother; I fucking ruined everything because you hid this from me! You betrayed me! You lied to me! You ruined me!" Maria was loudly crying and whimpering as her heart gave out, unable to take the pain from his agony.

Her nose was stuffed, and her eyes were bulging with tears, her body aching with despair. "No, Leo, please—" The thunder clapped, and the rain fell harder; the two of them were standing alone outside, surrounded by nobody and nothing. She was overwhelmed with sadness; her head was spinning and throbbed with pain.

"It was a mistake to love you, a mistake to fall for your tricks!" Leonardo shouted, having sympathy or understanding for her. The pain and endurance he had gone through all those years, fighting to stay alive, battling his depression, his dark thoughts, his insomnia, struggling to accept himself. All of that could've been avoided if the truth had come out before. "I was better off without you. You made me fall in love like an idiot! You knew the truth, and I blindly followed you. I knew there was no such thing. I knew it was impossible for someone like me to have love. I never should've fallen for you!"

She was wobbling, hyperventilating from his deep and brutal words that were thrown at her. Maria sobbed harder than she had ever cried before in her life. She had lost Leonardo right then and there. He was so consumed by anger that he could no longer see her as his woman but a stranger to his heart. Her revelation had broken him; a new hard exterior had entered him, and he would never allow anyone to break it down ever again. He had gone back to the Leonardo he once was but worse; no one could ever dare influence him again. He would never allow it.

"I trusted you! I never lied to you; I never hurt you! I cherished you!" Leonardo, loudly exasperated, struck with tears. He cried out, groaning in despair. His hands covered his face for a few seconds as he loudly howled in distress. His hands shook in the air as his voice grew stronger and harsher, yelling, "I was yours! You were my soulmate, Maria! You were going to be my wife! I would spend the rest of my life loving you. I was dreaming of marrying you! How could you do this to me!" Her heart ached as she cried, his heartbroken words killing her. She was helpless; he was breaking away from her bit by bit.

Maria struggled to look at him; the pain of seeing his misery was too much. "I love you," Maria deeply cried, "Leo, please, I am so sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Leo."

He couldn't speak anymore; he broke down as he sobbed, the two of them crying before each other. Their sorrow was immense. Maria longed for him; she wished for his love, for his kindness. She would never receive it again. Telling him was worse than she could've ever imagined, more painful than she ever thought. She had so many chances to tell him and broke every single one. Her heart felt like it had ripped and shredded into millions of pieces.

His energy had gone; Leonardo's chest pained him. He was so warped with anger but broken down by his love for her. His never-ending love for Maria. Etched with sadness, he could no longer think clearly. Leonardo had lost himself in his fury. What trouble he had once experienced mentally had come back once more to torment him.

His feet began to lead him away from Maria after he'd picked up the gun. His large body shook as he walked, an unsteady and shaky way of moving as the storm brewed in his unfocused mind filled with raging thoughts.

Maria sniffed with a whimper, her eyes filled with worry as they followed his moving figure. "Leonardo," she croakily called out, flinching with a whimper at the thunder clapping once more. Her sore feet followed him; she grew apprehensive at his distracted and strange way of walking. He looked like he could pass out; his large frame moved with the harsh wind, swaying as he walked slowly.

"Leo, where are you going?" Maria tugged on his limp arm as she roughly coughed. His shoulders were low and defeated, and his glossy eyes looked so distant. She tried to stop him, "Leo, come home, please, let's talk. It's dark and rainy out here. Let's go back, please!" She kept pulling on his heavy arm, useless as she struggled to convince him.

He kept moving, and her cries grew louder as she became more desperate. "Leo, please! Mia amorino, I know I'm the last person you want to listen to, but I need you to come back with me! You're not wearing any shoes, mi amore. Come back with me!" She shook his arm, unable to get through his dazed state. He kept looking ahead, unable to hear her properly.

"Mi amore, please! You'll catch a cold! We need to go back home." She could see it; he was losing his consciousness, consumed by  strong emotions and unable to separate reality from his overcrowding thoughts building in his head. She needed to force him back.

He pushed her hands off him, monotonously saying, "Let me go. I'm done talking to you."

She let out another sob, "I promise I won't talk. But come with me. I'll leave! I'll do anything you want! Just don't stay out here, Leo! It's not safe—you're not safe!"

Leonardo then stopped. His full body turned to clearly look at her, an unfamiliar and uncomfortable gaze cast on her. His eyes were empty, bloodshot, and completely void of his love. Leonardo's shaking arm slowly rose. He held the gun against his temple with a look of willingness to pull the trigger without a doubt. Maria gasped, her eyes expanded at the sight. Then, Leonardo darkly said, "If you don't stop following me, you'll never see me again."

She shakily gasped, intimidated by his daunting and serious tone. His eyes grew enraged; frightening to gaze at. Her hands shook by her sides as she curled them into fists, attempting to stop their trembles. His words hit her to the core; she couldn't take them lightly. Maria's eyes never left the gun that he was holding so close to his head, his finger on the trigger, the terrifying thought of the bullet piercing through his skull. She knew he was capable of it; he was a loose cannon. Anything could go wrong with his impulsive mind like that. She couldn't risk it.

Maria was too scared to even speak. She watched with a crumpled face as Leonardo continued to walk away in a slow and unsteady manner. She was weak; Maria lost all strength and fell to her knees on the wet ground, her whole body soaked by the rain and her own tears.

A series of gut-wrenching sobs left her as she watched Leonardo leave with only socks on his feet. She was angry at herself and at the world. Regret poured into her heart as she heavily cried, her tears welled up in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably.

She had lost Leonardo.

Her freezing cold hand shook as she searched for the contact; her phone reached her ear as the number rang. Maria knew she had to do something—anything—to protect him and could only think of one person that could rescue him.

Marco.

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~ Author's Note ~

A lot of hurtful things have been shared in Leonardo and Maria's explosive talk in the rain...does this mark a change in their relationship?

Is there a side to be taken from this?

How will the two of them progress from here?

Keep reading to find out!

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