CHAPTER 22 : VENDETTA

Nat's POV

We sat there for a while and we just didn't speak for a while.

The silence was sickening and my insides were turning up and down.

I look at Leo. He's sitting with his arms folded and just staring right into the space. He lets out a heavy breath and looks towards the ground. I think he can feel my gaze upon him but he chooses not to look at me but at the ground. He rubs his eyes with his hands and I feel saddened by this sight of him.

I've never seen him so tired and maybe even broken.

We sit in silence and as the silence was making me want to puke, he looked at peace as if the silence wasn't slowly drowning him.

Seeing him look so serene made me calm and I let go of the tension I was holding.

After a while, Leo breaks the silence, "I'm sorry."

I look at him in shock.

He's sorry?

I was the one who kissed an ex-boyfriend on my current boyfriend-ish's porch and he's sorry?

I just look down at the ground feeling guiltier than ever and I choose to not say a word.

"You're sorry?" I ask him after a few moments.

"Yeah" he says with a sigh.

"For what? I am the one whose in the wrong"

"I am sorry for making assumptions and not letting you explain things first"

"Oh"

"I really am"

"Last time you said the same thing, Leo. I thought we were above this. No matter how many times I tried to reach you, you blew me up and shut me out," I tell him and he lowers his head.

"Why did he kiss you?" he asks me.

"To trigger you, Leo. To make you jealous and you fell right into his trap."

"I didn't"

"You did. I don't even know if Nina hadn't come today would we even be talking now or not"

"I can explain why I shut you out" he says.

"Explain then "

"I was doing some work. My uncle, the same one whom I wanted you to meet, came and we were just discussing about the details of the funeral of his son, Petro, who is also my cousin and the same person who died due to the heart disease," he explains

"Oh," I simply say and try to process what he just said.

"What's Marco's deal with you?" he asks me and my eyes widen at his question.

What should I do?

Tell him the complete truth?

Can I do that?

No, I can't do that.

"He's my ex-boyfriend," I say and Leo nods and asks me to continue.

"In my freshman year, Marco started paying attention to me. We were in the same school and he was a year elder to me. It was all sunshine and glitter back then, we started talking and to be honest, I was really excited but more surprised that the demi-god of our school liked the plain old me. Everyone wanted to be friends with me and suddenly I was really popular and people welcomed me in their social groups as though I had been their friend since forever. Before this, the only friend I had was Nina and I was pretty happy with it but when I started dating Marco things went up like crazy. I was rich and got good grades and with this increasing popularity I quickly became the goddess of our school and now that I think about it, I sound so lame and dumb. So I and Marco finally hit it off at the freshman homecoming dance. Things went smoothly during the sophomore year but then I found out some stuff about him and I saw the real side of him and no matter how much I wanted to stay, he kicked me out of his life and disappeared until recently. When you moved in that's the time when I saw Marco after quite some time and I don't know if he has feelings for me or something but I don't have any feelings for him," I say and take a deep breath after I finish this and laugh.

Telling the quarter of the truth isn't as bad as telling the complete lie.

Plus, I just can't risk my life and the life of everyone I know by spilling my guts.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry I made you say all of this," Leo says and hugs me and I let him.

"Well you know, it wasn't really the toughest thing to say and I don't know but just saying this out loud has made me feel at peace. It's like a slight burden got lifted off from my shoulder so its actually, thank you. Also, once again, I'm really sorry for that whole thing with Marco and I am glad we communicated and just talked it through," I say and smile at him and he like always, smiles back.

I leave out the sordid details of what the secrets were and why I left and also if I told him everything he would join the dots and find out that I'm that girl that his uncle has been looking for since forever.

As always, some words are better left unsaid.

One of these days, I'm just going to make this statement my life's motto cause this just sums up everything that's been going on recently.

"So, I've said everything now, are we clear here now?" I ask him and he nods his head.

"I'm the leader of a clan," he says and I nod.

"Why are you not surprised?" he asks me.

"I kind of already knew this," I say.

"And you aren't scared?"

"Of you?"

"Yes"

"No," I say and he chokes at my response.

"What, why?" he asks me.

"I'm just not, I've had worse,"

Yes, worse as in clan related shit.

"Worse than this?"

"Kind of," I say and he looks like he doesn't believe me.

"One more thing," he grimly says.

"Shoot,"

"I'm sorry I lied to you and the thing is that I know Marco killed Petro," he says and my eyes widen in horror.