Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 27333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Was it because the other man was Giancarlo's best friend and someone she thus trusted?
Or could there be another reason?
Did your granddaughter truly ask you to replace me with Viktor Bianciardi?
The memory taunted him as he listened in on the conversation between Gazelle and the other man.
'I can't believe you really married him!'
'I knew it. This is why I didn't want to dance with you. You're still mad—-'
'I'm worried, dammit. That man is dangerous. Why won't you believe me?'
'He has no reason to harm me—-'
'Yet. And I can prove it.'
Lorenzo got to his feet as soon as he saw Viktor slip something into his wife's hand.
'Leave him,' Viktor urged tautly. 'Leave him. For me.'
Lorenzo slipped back inside the ballroom, and Potenziana looked at him calculatingly as he took his seat.
"You look jealous," the older woman remarked.
Lorenzo adjusted his wireless earpiece as he continued listening to the conversation between Bianciardi and his wife.
'You're not safe with him, Gaz.'
Lorenzo turned to his wife's grandmother. "Why did you choose me over him?"
'I've already lost my best friend. I can't lose you, too.'
"Why do you say that?" Potenziana asked archly.
'You'll understand everything, once you realize what I've given you.'
"Don't you remember? It was not me but you who chose yourself over him."
'I'm serious, Gaz. Choose me this time.'
"So perhaps you should think about answering your own question," the Marchetti matriarch suggested. "And if you will, think of how you're different with my granddaughter and her alone."
'Remember where Giancarlo and I used to have late-night dinners with you?'
"The answer should be clear enough."
'I'll wait for you there until midnight.'
Journal Entry
There's always a price to pay when you dance with the devil.
VIKTOR WALKS ME BACK to my table, and Lorenzo rises to his feet when he sees me coming, his beautiful face impassive.
I come to his side, but Lorenzo makes no move to pull me close.
How...unusual.
He's usually very protective around any man who's not related to me by blood.
"Congratulations on your marriage."
My stomach cramps at Viktor's deceptively smooth voice. No one looking at him now would ever guess that he had accused my husband of murder just moments ago.
"Grazie."
Lorenzo's tone is equally bland as he shakes hands with Giancarlo's best friend.
Viktor nods at me before moving away to speak to the rest of my famiglia. We both sit down, and I wait for him to ask about Viktor.
But he doesn't.
And I don't get it.
Am I expecting too much from my husband?
I really believed he'd only have to take one look at me, and he'd know something is seriously wrong.
But he doesn't.
And stupid or not—-
Unfair or not—-
His unawareness breaks my heart, and things just keep getting worse when the evening comes to an end.
It's only the two of us in the car now, but he still doesn't ask me about Viktor.
Am I being unreasonable, God?
I slowly turn my gaze to my husband.
I know he knows I'm looking at him.
But he refuses to look at me.
And I don't get it.
It's as if I'm looking at a stranger, and there's not a single trace left of the man I once found so unbearably sweet and protective.
It's as if...
No, oh no.
I no longer matter all of a sudden.
Oh God.
And that's when I finally get it.
Lorenzo Anghileri is not the Beast of New York for nothing.
He should've known something was wrong with me the moment I came back to his side.
He should've known.
But he didn't.
Because something else, something he deemed more important had distracted him.
And that thing was the end of our marriage.
God, oh God.
I swallow again and again.
It's all I can do to keep myself from throwing up.
God, it hurts so, so much.
The only thing that's changed between now and then was Lorenzo seeing me dancing in another man's arms.
And I suppose that's when the truth hit him.
The honeymoon's over.
He looked at Viktor and me, and he realized he absolutely felt nothing.
What now, God?
He realized that I was just a novelty, nothing else.
What do I do now?
I was different because I didn't care about his past, but not so different that seeing me with Viktor could make him jealous.
And so here we are now.
A wife who's hopelessly in love, and a husband who no longer wants her.
Journal Entry
Bodies that are close enough to touch.
But because there's no love—-
The distance between their hearts couldn't be any greater.
IT WAS THE FIRST NIGHT in their marriage that he and his wife went to their separate rooms.
And remained apart.
I should've expected this, dammit.
Her own grandmother had warned him about this, but instead of calculating the risks as he had always done, he had thrown caution to the fucking wind.
And this was the price he now had to pay.
The sound of his wife moving in the room next door as the minutes ticked closer to midnight.
Damn her.
She wasn't even making any attempt to keep the noise down. Was she that bad an escape artist or had the thought of eloping with her brother's princely best friend had her so excited her brain had completely shut down?