54. I'll come back.

TONY.

"You can always run, but not forever, Lara. My baby will always be my baby and when the time is right, I'll come back to claim it." I read again, as I tried to understand what I had just read. "What the actual fuck?" I asked myself, trying not to think of what my mind was going to after reading the text. It wasn't possibly possible, was it?

I was about to dial the number to know who the person is, when my room door opened and Lara walked in. I dropped her phone on the bed immediately. If she was vigilant enough, I was sure she would have noticed that I had dropped something when she walked in. I even felt she saw me, a terrified look crossed my face as I looked at her from where I stood.

She stood by the door, holding the door knob and staring at me. "Babe?" She finally called as she stared at me suspiciously. "I've been expecting you back at the dining table and I was wondering if everything was going fine here. Are you okay?"

"Uhm, yeah." I said and placed my hand at the back of my neck to itch it. "Uhm, you and Luca are done with your arguments?" I asked her, trying to change the topic from me.

She rolled her eyes at me and walked further inside. Immediately, I bent down to the bed and pulled my bedspread so it could cover her phone. I acted like I was looking for something important, so she wouldn't think I was trying to hide something. When she got to where I was beside the bed, she spoke. "Luca is way too pestering. If he doesn't get himself a girlfriend soon, you should get him one. I wonder why he's even still staying with you. He isn't giving us the privacy we deserve." She paused as she probably remembered that I was searching for something some seconds back. "Eh, were you looking for something?" She questioned.

"Yeah, something like that." I said and looked around again, trying to act like I was truly searching for something. Also, I didn't say anything about what she said earlier about Luca. Luca is my brother afterall, and no one has no say in where he chooses to live or how he chooses to have his love life.

"What's that?" She asked me.

"Uhm, my phone." I replied sharply.

She looked at me somehow, probably suspecting me with the way I had replied her sharply. But her expression went back to normal soon enough as she walked to my bed and searched my bed for it. "Did you leave it here?" She asked me while she searched for the phone. "I don't even know where my own phone is either. I would have called it."

Just then, she saw her phone on the bed and picked it up. For some reason, her eyes remained glued to her screen as soon as she saw the phone. I wondered if it was the message I had seen earlier that she also saw, but I didn't want to jump into conclusion quickly. I walked closer to her, acting like I had no idea what she was staring at. Technically, I had no idea, but I could guess what it was.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her as I walked closer to her.

She jumped and quickly pressed the power button on the side of her phone. The lights on her screen went off. Then she turned to face me with an awkward smile on her face. "Yes, everything is fine. I am fine, Tony. Uhm, did you help me check my phone or something like that?" She asked me. She was quite smart, so I could tell that she had already noticed that the message she read had already been opened by someone. And there was no one else in the room but me.

"No. What's up? Your countenance changed when you looked at your phone. Are you sure you're fine?" I asked her, trying to pester her in every way possible, in case she would settle to tell me about it.

"No, nothing's wrong." She replied sharply. I nodded.

That was the first hint for me to know that something was wrong and that text the person sent was true. The only thing I needed to know was who sent it and to figure out why the person was trying to threaten her.

"Let's go join Luca in the dining?" I asked her, trying to change the topic, seeing that she was beginning to feel uneasy.

"Sure." She simply said. Then, she looked at her phone in her hand and back to me. "I'll join you. I need to sort some things out and use the restroom. I don't feel too well." She added.

"Do you want me to stay? Or you would like to go see the doctor today instead of tomorrow?" I asked.

"No, no, It's fine. Tomorrow is okay. I just need to use the restroom. I'll be fine by the time I'm out." She said, trying to reassure me with a weak smile on her face. I smiled back to her and nodded.

"Take care of yourself then."

"Thanks," she replied and I watched her walk into the restroom with her phone in her hand. When she closed the door behind her, I left the room and headed to the dining room. Luca was still there. He was on his phone.

"Hey, man." I said as I nudged him lightly on the shoulder.

"Yo." He simply replied. Seeing how he had so much attention on whatever he was doing on his phone, I peeped to see what he was doing. Then, his eyes moved slowly from his phone to me. "Why are you peeping at what I'm doing? You're intruding my privacy, man." He said the last sentence in a playful manner.

"Yes, that's the aim." I said and sat back ok my chair. "I was wondering what could make you so lost like that. I know it's only two things that can catch your whole attention like that. It's either a woman or—"

"It's a woman." Luca cut in.

"I knew it!"

"Dumbass, it ain't a woman. I was playing a game and you made me lose." He replied and dropped his phone on the table. Then he turned to face me squarely. "Where's she?" He asked me.

"She, who?" I replied him, despite knowing he was referring to Lara.

He rolled his eyes and picked up a spoon on the table and hit it on my hand, which was on the table. I glared at him and he dropped the spoon. "Is there any other female here? Of course, it's Lara. Dumbass."

"Whatever. She's in." I replied.

"Made your decision yet?"

"About that. There's something I need to talk to you about."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "You always have something to talk to me about."

"You want to hear it or not?"

"Whatever. Fire away."