Chapter 43

Aron Curry narrating:

Even though seeing Laura out and about in her Freedom made my chest tingle with the smile she wore, it still felt as if I was imprisoning her feet in a chain when I sent a car to keep an eye on her. Perhaps it was fear of my enemies, or fear that she wouldn't come home.

At the same time as love gives us the feeling of freedom, of exploring the world, jealousy and the fear of losing the one you love are also chains tangled around our feet, making us live in fear or perhaps just being suffocated by the insecurity that I'm not good enough for Laura, that at some point I'll hurt her again.

It wasn't long before I spotted Jason's car pulling into the yard of my house. The look on the face of someone who had felt death sigh in the back of his head was as cold as if it had unlocked a splinter inside him.

"Aron, little brother. Jason sneered.

''No irony, this isn't the time for that.'' I cursed.

Heading inside, I hated fighting the urge to get drunk on whisky before lunch. Nine o'clock in the morning. Jason's eyes were crucifying me, seeing the war I was waging inside myself.

"Do you think it's right to leave what you love for love? What is this love that makes you forget who you are?" Jason asked me.

Speechless, I had to turn away to avoid looking into his eyes.

"I'm not leaving who I am... I'm moving away from what puts Laura in danger." I answered Jason, knowing that in the end leaving the mafia was a stab in the chest.

"You take care of business, I'll be responsible for collecting the debts." Jason said, standing up.

"You're wearing the same perfume Samantha wore when I met her." I cursed in a calm tone, lowering the fury inside me. "Have you seen her?" I could feel Jason's footsteps slowing down when he heard the question about Samantha.

"No..." Jason's tone gave away his lie. Enraged, I smashed my glass of whisky against the table, which broke in half, spilling the liquid it contained.

"Don't lie to me... you always hated that Samantha chose me over you!" Without even realizing it, I was once again ready to punch Jason, my twin brother, in the face, but his rage was so uncontrollable inside him that he adopted a torchless stance and pushed me away from him.

"Did Samantha choose you, Aron? Or did you steal her, deceive her with your lies, make her destiny just like you did Laura..." Jason shouted as his finger pointed at me.

"This is your plan, Jason? Manipulate Laura so that her paths turn to you... You want to change her fate to hurt me because I won Samantha's love?"

"You won her love only to destroy it later... If Samantha were with me, your son would be alive and loved." Jason shouted as if he needed to get those words out of him.

I couldn't refute the truths coming out of his mouth, I couldn't compete with my cowering half-words, a weak man who understands the way he destroyed everything he once had. It's as if I need to feel this pain, the guilt eats away at me, and I can no longer punch my own twin brother in the face, so I settle for punching the wall. Scream until I get back to the main focus of this conversation again.

"I'll take the business, you take the enemies. I'll start again, one house away and I'll love you." I sighed as if to say to myself.

"All right, Aron, I'm not going to ruin the love you cherish so much, but understand once and for all, what you've fought so hard to achieve, this fucking mafia, it's going to destroy you and the family you create again, your arrogance destroys you, wanting to be better at everything destroys you." Jason muttered, ready to leave the room.

"Jason... we're not enemies. We shouldn't be enemies. " I told him helplessly.

"No, Aron, we shouldn't be, but you chose to be when you made me your enemy so that you could have the mafia."

Jason left, leaving a huge gaping hole in my chest that I didn't know how to stop. I hated that my twin brother, whose face is the same as mine, hated me so much, as if he wanted to be me in some way, or to have what belongs to me. The mafia, Samantha, Laura. They were Jason's desires, for a petty war to prove to himself that he could be me. Brothers inevitably fight over secrets, but why does Jason fight over envying my crude life?

As much as I want to push him away, it's inevitable, we're connected in a way that loyalty must prevail between us.

"I can't accept you leaving like this... tell me what you want Jason? Tell me what you want to stop this war between us." I shouted as he got into his car.

"I want you to renounce who Aron is, to hand over the mafia to me and take responsibility for me laundering their money... being a mere employee, are you willing to lose your mafia title for love?" Jason said.

"For Laura, yes... I'm giving up who I am today."

"Do you really believe that her love is worth it, Aron? When she wakes up in the morning and looks at you tired of life as a couple because she'll never be able to give you a child? You know about her dream Aron..." Jason frightened me.

"I trust the feeling that guides my heart." I answered him straight.

"If you trust it that much... give it up and I'll have one night with her..." Jason released his words, taking my trust in Laura to the maximum level, ready to hear that this was enough for me.

"I accept. Laura will spend the night with you." Without even realizing what I was saying, I answered him, without seeing the ego-driven madness I was putting the woman I love through.

"Do you really think Laura will love you in the same way when she finds out that you sold her to get rid of your enemies? That you sold her to the man who once made her moan as much as you do? You're handing her over to a war of fate, Aron? You're handing over her love for another man to cultivate." Jason continued his quest to bruise my ego.

"I trust the woman I chose to love, Jason."

"Tomorrow night Laura will be mine, and I hope she chooses not to come back."