Chapter 140

Aldo

I clenched my jaw and sat back further into my chair. There was zero doubt in my mind that she was right.

That ongoing fear that played on my mind these past few days was rushing to its peak.

“Tell me.”

“What I’m going to suggest to Layla is that she take a break from this—all of this.”

“A break?” What the hell did that mean exactly?

“Yes.”

“How does one simply take a break?” Carlo asked.

For a split moment, I’d completely forgotten that he was still in the room. I’d become so wrapped up in Eva’s explanation, that I ended up blocking everything else out.

“He’s right. What would this entail?”

“We think that Layla would benefit from taking a break from being directly associated with the Marcello family,” Eva said.

My brows furrowed as I managed to suppress the bitterness from my voice.

“Are you saying that it would be in Layla’s best interest if she were to pack her bags and move out?” I asked incredulously.

Eva held up her hand to placate my growing anger. “Not to that extremity.”

“Like we said, Layla is only dealing with a mild case of dissociation,” Stasia remarked. “Had it been any more severe, then yes, immediate isolation would be necessary for an extended period of time.”

“That is not the case with her, though. You see, she’s only experienced a few blackouts that haven’t lasted too long.”

“Explain what you mean by ‘blackouts’,” I pressed.

“Tell me, when Layla was going over the plan to rescue her son, did you notice anything off about her physical appearance?” Eva questioned.

“A nervous twitch? Did she continuously clench her jaw or her hands?”

“Her eyes,” I admitted. “I noticed it immediately when I caught sight of her eyes. Her pupils, specifically, were huge. They nearly consumed all the color in her eyes.”

Eva nodded. “That was Layla dissociating. That soulless, endless void look she had was her slipping into that developed persona.”

I rubbed a rough hand over my eyes. “But why is it happening in general? Why now?”

“This could easily be the result of an ongoing internal suppression that Layla’s been sustaining for quite some time.”

Good God. It felt like I was being actively stabbed in the chest. My wife—my Layla has been suffering like this for so long and I never even knew it. Or did I...Had the signs been there all along and I was just avoiding them?

How many times had she questioned me about not knowing how to go about living between two worlds? How many times had she questioned her own profession when she had taken the lives of others?

And I never said anything. Not a word of support, nor a reassuring remark to ease her worry.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

“Based on just that short interaction we had with her, we believe that Layla has always been a strong-willed person,” Stasia said. “But everyone has their weaknesses.”

“And everyone has their breaking points,” Eva added. “How many times has Eli been kidnapped?”

An awful taste had clung to the back of my tongue. “Four.”

“That does something to a mother,” she said firmly. “Especially a mother like her.”

I sucked in a deep breath and forced my eyes up from the desk. “Neither of you are wrong. Every time Eli’s life was placed in danger, it destroyed a part of me. It filled me with nothing but guilt and shame.”

Carlo stepped forward again to speak. “But why this time? I mean, why had

“When Layla had to step into Aldo’s role, it ended up putting an obscene amount of pressure on her to act accordingly. That, of course, didn’t help. However, Stasia and I concluded that a lot of the emotional trauma that’s been going on is purely due to Layla’s own guilt.”

I nearly lurched out of my chair. Both Carlo and I wore matching looks of disbelief.

“What guilt?!”

“She feels as though that since she was the one who initially brought Vaness into the family, she’s the one who’s responsible for what happened to Eli.”

“But that’s not her fault! She couldn’t have none of that was going to happen,” I countered back.

Eva gave a soft smile. “We appreciate you sticking up for her, Aldo. Stasia and I feel the same way. Unfortunately, the only person who can convince Layla of this truth is solely herself.”

“She’s going through an exceedingly difficult emotional time. In a way, it’s a good thing,” Stasia said.

All I could do was shake my head, any other movements would have made me overcome with nausea. “How could it possibly be good?”

“It means that she’s still fighting,” Eva clarified. “Believe me, things would be far worse if Layla wasn’t reacting at all to what’s been going on.”

“It’s true. That would mean that she has allowed the darker persona to take control completely. It would have made the possible chance of any treatment to be considerably harder.”

All that anger...All that sadness. It’s just been Layla trying to hold onto what little sanity she's been able to keep from all the pain and fear this family had unintentionally inflicted on her life.

“So, you believe that a few days away is going to help her get better?”

Eva shared a look with her sister. “We do. Getting Layla away from the weight and pressure of being under the Marcello name will help her remember what it was like to be her old self.”

“Make no mistake, the respect and care that Layla has for the Marcello family is truly unmatched. But right now, she’s riding a fine line between love and hate,” Stasia explained.

“I...I don’t understand,” I said breathlessly. Love...and hate?

“You obviously know that Layla got her medical license revoked, yes?”

It was an ongoing twist of pain in my heart. I nodded my head.

“Are you aware of the reason as to why her license was taken away?”

“Yes, Layla had been trying to operate a free clinic without all the appropriate permits in place,” I answered.

I studied the looks on their faces which promptly made me doubt my response. Had that not been the actual reason for Carter to snatch away her medical license and put an end to her career? Semantically speaking, yes. Layla was breaking the law by not carrying out her practice in a legal manner.

But, the way I saw it, as well as many others, she was doing the right thing by wanting to help those who desperately needed it.

“The free clinic wasn’t the reason why Agent Carter dissolved Layla’s career. He merely used it as leverage in order to get Layla to talk.”

“Fucking what?!” I shouted. “You’re telling me that motherfucker didn’t even care about the fact that Layla had been breaking the law. It was just a way to pressure her??”

Carlo’s voice was instilled with calmness. “What was it that Agent Carter wanted to know?”

“He was after Marcello family secrets. Layla refused to say anything. He thought he could use her medical license as a sort of incentive. It’s true he knew about the clinic she was operating, but it wasn’t as though he ever really cared about the legality of it all,” Eva acknowledged.

I was fairly certain that my jaw had hit the top of the desk. My heart split in half, making it feel as though I was bleeding internally.

“Why would Layla keep that from me?”