Chapter 159 - Chapter(Hundred) Fifty Eight: Cupcakes

Johnny sat in front of her. Silent. Blue eyes narrowed in a disappointed glare that Becca didn't dare refute. She kept her mouth shut, hoping the intensity of his scowl would eventually debilitate his anger. They sat facing each other at a table.

Becca had asked him to meet up with her at a cafe a few blocks away from atlas. To talk things over, was her reason for hauling him here that early in the morning but despite not being in the mood for having a settling conversation, Johnny was ostensibly incapable of shunting Becca's invitation.

She fiddled with her fingers as her gaze fell on the tabletop— on the tasty-looking cupcakes she had bought him. He hadn't even taken a single bite.

He just kept staring at her with malevolently narrowed eyes.

At first, Becca honestly thought enticing him with food would help placate his disapproval of her decision to stay with Leo and not revolt against her relationship with him. But sitting in front of Johnny now remarkably quelled her alacrity, given that he didn't even bother to look at the cupcakes. Being the only customers in the entire place didn't help her case one bit, it simply heightened the deafening silence that Johnny evoked, the silence that threatened to drive her crazy.

Her lips formed a sad pout. If cupcakes didn't work, then cuteness should definitely do the trick but to her greatest dismay, Johnny's scowl remained unscathed.

" What the heck were you thinking?" Johnny finally spoke, surprisingly in a calm tone, just like when he was younger— when he used to repress his rage in an effort to stay placid.

Judging from the way he glared at her, she had anticipated him to bellow but he didn't.

" I was thinking about my happiness, and finally being in love. I thought you would understand and be happy for me." Becca's words trilled through Johnny but he forced himself to remain unruffled, his jaw tight.

Becca wasn't sure whether to be a bit reprieved that Johnny was handling his bitterness exceedingly well or be disturbed by the fact that he was so livid, he even saw the need to bottle it up.

Johnny straightened on his seat. " Love? With Leo?" He inched closer to her. " Becca, any other man would have been just fine."

He believed Becca simply didn't know what she was doing and even now, she still didn't know what she was talking about. She was still so young and apparently still had a mind of a teenager which was why she ardently accepted the first man who ebulliently professed his love to her.

Love? Johnny scoffed. Love was perfectly fine but not with Leo. Never with Leo. 

Leo simply wasn't the type of person anyone would want for their daughter or sister. And despite knowing a good amount of the hardship that had almost mangled the man to shreds in the past, the thought of Becca being in a romantic relationship with Leo, still rose crimson flags in Johnny's head. The sheer thought was frightening.

No matter how hard he tried, Johnny just couldn't seem to impede the shivers jolting through him when he recalled the pictures Kristina sent him, he couldn't stymie the portentous anger damned to sear him when he remembered how Leo's hands were all over Becca. So much so that he found it imperative to expunge whatever fraction of his sister's mind that was delirious enough to misconstrue Leo to be an affectionate type.

Becca dug her nails into her lap as she clenched it underneath the table, fighting to compose herself, to mollify her mind off the galling aspersion to her relationship with Leo but at the end, she lost to the vapid constricting feeling slowly tightening the knots in her chest by the second.

" Why? I don't see anything wrong with me being with Leo." She serenely clung onto her resolve, sprucing up her argument. " If not for anything, I would say he kinda reminds me of you." 

Johnny's eyes narrowed harder, forcing Becca to cogitate the brunt adverse effect of her statement.

" That is precisely the point, if he reminds you of me then he is most definitely not right for you," Johnny said, surprisingly with a straight face.

It was hypocrisy at its finest but Johnny didn't seem to care. All he desired was for Becca to find someone else, someone that wasn't a heartless murderer. Someone who wasn't Leonardo Kane.

Becca honestly deserved better.

" You can't be serious." Becca flailed her hands in the air in utter disbelief. " That doesn't even make any sense. You aren't making any sense."

" Whatever you two think you have, break it off. " 

Becca's heart sank instantly. " Johnny," Was all she could mutter before being silenced by the nerve-wracking look in his eyes, the anger— the fear.

What was he afraid of?

" Does he know where you live?" Johnny asked, massaging his temples. " Who am I kidding, of course, he knows. But that doesn't matter anymore, you will be moving out of your apartment as soon as possible."

" What?" Becca's eyes widened in poignant shock, intentionally leaving out the fact that she was no longer staying at her old apartment but with Leo instead.

The last thing she wanted now was to stoke the furnace of rage burning in Johnny.

" Did I stutter?" He bristled, disgruntled by the route their conversation was heading.

" Why? So he wouldn't come over to see me?" Becca folded her arms over her chest. " I know that you are my older brother and everything but may I just remind you that I am an adult and I'm more than capable of making decisions for myself. If this is about him being your friend then all I have to say is that you are acting hypocritical. You practically did the exact same thing with Navaya." 

Johnny froze and for the next ten seconds, they were enclaved in an impervious silence. 

His throat bobbed as he gulped. " H-how do you know about that?" 

" Are you kidding me?" Becca cocked a skeptical brow. " I have known Navaya for nearly a decade and I have known you my whole life. I'm not a dolt. I just didn't say anything about it because I was waiting for you guys to stop sneaking around with each other, perhaps grow a fucking spine, and come clean about your relationship by yourselves. After you and Nicky got married, I thought it would end there. But now that I think about it, I guess I was wrong." 

" Becca, you don't understand." 

Becca shook her head in denial, her chest stiffening. " No, you don't understand. Navaya is my closest friend, hell she's like a sister to me but as long as you promise to love her and make her happy, I don't mind that you two were secretly in a romantic relationship with each other, or that you are still pursuing her till this day. Then why is it so hard for you to accept my relationship with Leo? Why-"

" I don't care about my friendship with Leo. It's your safety that bothers me, Becca."

There it goes again. Why do they keep talking about Leo like he was some belligerent boor?

" First it was Kris, then mother, now you? Why don't you all just tell it to me straight and stop beating around the bush? Why can't I be with him?"

Just then the door to the cafe ricocheted open, granting Leo entrance. Never in his life had he been so uneasy, so worried. 

Once Leo trawled the whole place with his gaze, he trotted towards the table Becca and Johnny sat at, his stride wide, hastened and debonair all at once. Right when he was merely several paces away from them, Johnny lifted his gaze and stared straight at Leo. Something in the man's gaze wasn't settling, something wasn't right.

" He is a criminal who kills at will. He keeps a very low profile not because he loves his privacy but because of all the illegal businesses, he manages around the country. " Johnny said, not once veering his gaze away from Leo. " He is a murderer." 

Johnny watched Becca blanch, her face pallor with shock and fear, before being coated with denial.

" No! That's not true. Johnny, I know that you don't like the idea of me being with Leo but lying about him like this? How could you stoop so low?" 

"Oh, now you think I'm lying?" Johnny tossed Leo a glance. " Well here comes Leo. Go ahead, ask him and see if what I just told you isn't anything but the truth. For what it's worth, my words are more truthful than anything that man has told you." 

Becca turned to stare at Leo who was advancing from behind, the befuddled questions dimming her beautiful green eyes unnerved him so much, he was forced to halt. 

" Leo," Becca called out and Leo's heart dropped at the abysmal confusion in her voice. She got on her feet, her gaze still holding his. " Leo, I need to hear the truth from you now?" 

His silence dredged her suspicion— goading more stiffness in her chest, causing the pain to fester. His silence gibed her, it made her look and feel like a fool.

Say something, damnit!

She didn't want to feel like this, she didn't want to feel like she had wasted her time loving and being patient with him. She didn't want to have any contrition when it came to the relationship they built together but his behavior was making her feel otherwise. He was making things worse.

Suddenly, the acute trust she once had in him began fleeting away like a distant memory of the past. And it was all his fault.

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