His Ruthless Pursuit

"Hera," I heard Mateo calling from beside me so I slowly opened my eyes. I lifted my head from his shoulder before I pulled away from him. 

Memories of Mateo came flooding through my mind and they were enough to make me want to hide from him. 

He kissed me- and I kissed him back so shamelessly and desperately. Then I accepted his proposal. He asked me to be his wife again and God knows what fully being his wife means.

I wiped the palm of my hand across my forehead before looking over at him. 

"Where are we? Where's Mila?" I asked him in panic as soon as I realized that we were on a plane.

"We're on a plane, Hera. We're going home." Mateo took my chin into his hand before he made me look at him. "You're my wife, Hera. Your place is by my side." He continued before he took my hand in his; he slowly ran his thumb in circles over my wedding ring, so I angrily pulled my hand out of his grasp. 

"Let us go, Mateo. We can still end this- forget that it ever happened. Spain is not my home anymore and Mila deserves better than this. She doesn't know you, Mateo. What will you tell her if she asks?" I asked him in confusion and he angrily glared at me before he came dangerously close to my face. 

"You're the one who kept her from me so watch your tongue, Hera. The only reason why you're still breathing is because of our daughter. You accepted my proposal so there's no going back! There's nothing to end here, this is only the beginning, princess." Mateo harshly told me.

"This is the real you, Mateo. You're poison and you're going to poison my daughter if you come into her life. You're not a good person, Mateo and you don't deserve Mila." I pointedly told him and he clenched his jaw at my words. 

"You should know me better than that, Hera." He told me and I shook my head at him. "Yes, Hera. I loved you, and I would have loved our daughter from the moment she was born, and you know it." He told me and I continued to shake my head at him. 

"You ran away because you got scared but you should've known better," Mateo told me. 

"I did know better, Mateo. That's why I ran away from you. You killed my dad, and I knew that no matter how much I loved you, you would only get worse. You were never going to change. Sparing me but killing my dad is not real love. You never love me!" I told him and he sat back in his chair. 

"I didn't kill your dad. Give me one reason why I would deny killing your father. Killing a general of the army isn't exactly something you would hide in the mafia. That shit would've taken me up the ladder so why would I deny killing him, Hera? If I killed Tomàs and I had good reason to, I would have told you." Mateo told me in a genuine tone. 

"Bravo, Mateo. You're just so honest." I bitterly uttered. 

"I didn't kill your dad, Hera. I know how much you loved him. 

"But you know what happened to him." I pointedly told him.

"I don't know shit about what happened to your dad." He angrily told me.

"Right. Because of the code of omertà?" I asked him and he frowned at me.

"Where did you get this from anyway? If you tell me who told you about this fuckery we can go and ask them to tell us the truth." He calmly told me. 

"Mateo please, I can't listen to you explaining yourself when you're the same person who's been hunting me down for six years. For six years, you have reigned hell on me, Mateo. You made me a murderer and you turned me into a fugitive. I was running from you, Mateo. And now you expect me to just believe you. No, it doesn't work that way." I said before wiping the stray tears from my cheeks.

"What else was I supposed to do, Hera? You're my wife. Of course, I would come looking for you." He said and I sighed heavily. 

"Where's my daughter, Mateo?" I asked him and he clenched his jaw. 

"Our daughter is in her room." He said, emphasizing the word "our," and I looked over at him. He still looks as perfect as he did when I first met him.

His eyes are still the perfect shade of blue, his lips are just the right shade of pink. He has a buzz cut now, but it suits him, and his beard was trimmed to perfection.

He was wearing a black suit paired with a black button-down shirt. He's still wearing the silver chain that I got him for his twenty-first birthday. 

I looked down at his hands and my breathing got stuck in my throat when I looked at the wedding ring that he was still wearing. He had at least three rings on each of his hands, his wedding ring one of them.

To think those beautiful hands were once mine. 

But he was bad for me.

This is all a part of his plot to rope me back in. I can't fall for his tricks again. He's a bad person and that should be enough reason for me to stay away from him. 

I don't know what drew me to him all those years ago or what it is that still draws me to him. 

I remember how I had just joined the military when I saw him for the first time. 

I used to believe that it was love at first sight, but now I'm not too sure of that. He's the savior of the mafia, everything he does has been perfectly curated and planned out before he goes through with it. 

I left everything behind to be with him, and even though I knew who he was it didn't stop me from loving him with everything inside of me. 

I married him within six months of knowing him. He became my world, and everything about me was him. But we were kids back then and I knew that he loved me but it couldn't have been half as much as I loved him. 

Érase una vez Mateo fue mi salvador. (Once upon a time Mateo was my savior). 

"Her name is Mila," I told Mateo and he frowned lightly. "She has my eyes and your smile. Her favorite food is pepperoni pizza. She's an iPad kid, she can't live without it. And I told her about you, so she knows everything." I told Mateo and his frown deepened. 

"How much is everything?" He asked me and I looked into his eyes. 

"Only the good parts," I told him. 

"Why are you suddenly telling me this?" He questioned.

"Because whether I like it or not you are her father. And if Mila wants to meet you, because it is her choice, you should at least know the basics about her." I told Mateo. 

"Is that right?" He asked me and I nodded at him. 

"Yes, so you're going to make her the best pepperoni pizza you've ever made. And you're going to buy her the prettiest stuffed animal there is, but you have to go out and buy it yourself; otherwise, it won't count. So don't send one of your shoppers to do it for you. You're going to treat my daughter like the princess she is." I pointedly told him and he nodded at me. 

"Yes ma'am." He told me in a husky voice with a smile on his face. 

A man dressed in black came walking over to us. He avoided making eye contact with Mateo before he addressed him. 

"Mi Salvador, your daughter just woke up, and she's asking for the doña." The man said while staring at the ground and I flew up from my seat.

"Take me to her," I told the guy and he nodded before he walked ahead of me. He stopped in front of a door before he stepped aside. I opened the door before I entered the room.

I smiled when I saw Mila, I entered the room, and she came running over to me, so I knelt before holding my arms open to her. 

"Mommy!" She yelled before she threw her arms around me. I wrapped my arms around her before placing a kiss on the side of her head. 

"I missed you, mi cielo," I said before placing a kiss on her forehead and she buried her face into my chest. 

"I love you, mommy." She whispered into my shirt and I rubbed her back. 

"And I love you so much more," I said before placing another kiss on her cheek. 

If I know one thing for certain, it's that my daughter doesn't deserve this. To grow up as the daughter of a mafia boss. It's simply too cruel. 

But what am I supposed to do when Mateo has the leverage now?