Not So Much A Knight – Part 5

Previously we read about the strained past of Nikkie and Joseph, there are still many unsaid things between them. With Savio’s sudden illness, the lovers-turned foe entered an unsaid siege. We will dig in their past again to know what happened then and how it will turn the future.

PART V

Reminiscing the past is never a happy experience for Nikkie, she closed this chapter long ago when Joseph chose his Godfather over love.

She pushed the memories away and entered her father’s room at the villa, they have shifted him back to home this week. His fragile shape worried her beyond words, she has always seen Savio as a tall and proud figure.

It was time for evening medication when nurse entered the room with a small cup of colored pills. She carefully placed the cup near Savio’s lips and he gulped with a sip of water. Nikkie was watching this from the far end when her father said; “you can come here child, I won’t bite.”

Reluctantly she crossed the room to be on his side, since his return, Nikkie tried to dodge ‘sit and talk’ proposition. She knows what he expects from her.

“Don’t worry my baby, I am not going to leave you alone. You are my precious one, and this is the time to come back. Don’t fight your destiny, take up what is yours.” He said to her looking around the gigantic home he built years ago.

She gulped her emotions and cleared her throat to reply when Joseph entered the room. “Boss, Antonio is here, he is asking for the load.” He said looking at Nikkie with an unexplained contempt.

Savio gestured him to carry on looking at her daughter, her eyes were fixed on the floor, ‘I will make everything work just fine sweetie’, he thought while closing his eyes.

While leaving her father’s room, she glanced around the room where Joseph and Antonio with his men were having a meeting. They were looking dangerous, what Joseph is doing with such evil-looking men she wondered.

Taking a stroll by the garden calms her nerves, since her childhood she enjoys taking long strolls here and sitting by the fountain placed in the middle of her garden. Father said the fountain was laid down by her mother. She loves seeing different colorful birds come by the morning to take a dip in the pond, and the golden tench fish, Joseph got them from England.

The idle strolling took her 5 years back to the car journey from Latvia to her Krakow’s apartment with Joseph. He was clearly upset with her for not accepting the gift and his proposal. They did not speak that day during journey, after reaching the destination, he handed over keys and started walking towards the car. That was when Nikkie stopped him to say, “are you going without saying good-bye?”

His eyes were scorned red, she felt the chills of his contempt that day. “There is nothing left to talk, Nikkie. You made your decision. I was a fool who thought you loved me as much as I am in love.”

Her jaw fell open, she never thought he would react like that, all she wanted a conversation. But it had shifted from a simple disagreement of lovers to a battle of egos by then.

“I loved you all my life, still do, but just because we shared the most intimate part of our lives, you don’t own me!” She declared in an authoritative voice.

“Do you? I really doubt it, Nikkie. If you really have loved me, as you proclaim you would have never left home.” He countered back with probing eyes.

She was losing her patience by now, “Can we please sit inside and talk.”

He half-heartedly agreed, inadvertently entering it together. If her old granny would have seen that happening, she would have declared their future as ‘couple with a dozen children’.

“I don’t want to live in that dull home, it brings back all the ugly memories from the past. You know how much I despise that home, Joseph.” She explained herself and he silently listened.

Handing him a glass of water she continued, “Being around you makes me happy; I want to spend every breath of my life with you. But my only condition is – you have to leave that gloomy place.”

He stared back at her disapproval, “you mean I leave your father when he needed me the most?”

“My father is a man of resources Joseph; his work or life won’t stop even if you leave him. I know this with experience.” She snarled.

He got up from the chair heatedly, “What experience DO YOU have, Nikkie? You were never there for him! I have seen him crying for his only daughter in nights, he never overcame your mother’s loss and then you too left him for your stupid paints and art.”

Seething in anger, he continued “I was an orphan, he took me under his guidance and nurtured me like his own. You are telling me to leave him and run away? I am sorry, I could be anything but not a traitor.”

He picked up the sunglasses and turned towards the door when she called his name,” Joseph, I know why you won’t leave father. It is money and business, right?”

She toyed with him a little further, “he picks up a poor boy from the rubble, nurtures him like his own, now this orphan wants the ownership! Isn’t that right, Josie boy you want his name and reputation.”

It worked as a last nail in the coffin, their relationship was broken beyond repair now. All his life he worshipped Savio Givani, his godfather, this insult was not only humiliating for him, but it also reflected Nikkie’s thoughts.

Joseph left her home without turning back.

The post is written as part of #A2ZChallenge & #BlogchatterA2Z. To read the previous post, please click here. My theme this year is Short Love Stories.

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