Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“You won’t have to.”
“You don’t know that. There’s no prerogative with cases like this. It all falls on which family the judge deems the better fit.”
“Which will be mine.”
She acts as if I never spoke. “We could both lose custody if Valeria wins the popularity contest she’s been priming for her entire life. I’m—”
“Worth a million times more than whatever her strongest point is.”
You have no idea how hard it is not to strip her bare right now and fuck her as raw as the emotions in her eyes are shredding me. The only reason I don’t is because she needs this. She needs to shed the dead layers of skin Valeria’s lies coated her in.
Eventually, Valentina discloses the true cause of her unease. “If you don’t want to do the amniocentesis test, we need to play nice.” She drags her shaky hands down the front of her dress, ridding her palms of sweat. “That’s why I invited Valeria to my mother’s birthday dinner.”
I jackknife back so quickly I mentally book a chiropractic appointment. “You did what?”
She doesn’t reply. She doesn’t need to. Her silence paints the entire picture.
“That’s fine. I’ll tell her she’s no longer invited. I doubt she’s even started getting ready yet. She’s infamous for being late.”
Valentina slows my stomps to the door with a confession. “She’s already here. She is getting ready down the hall.”
I turn on my heel like a dog detecting fear. “You invited her into my home without considering how I would feel about that?”
She stands her ground, and as much as I hate admitting this, I’m glad. “Don’t do that. Don’t tell me I have as many rights here as you do, then strip away the privilege when it doesn’t suit you. Either I have a voice here, Giovanni, or I don’t. Which one is it?”
I love her gall. It proves what I’ve always known. Every man in this house would fall on his knife for her and then kneel at her throne. But it doesn’t hide the truth. “She hurt you.”
“Because she’s hurting, Vanni. Gosh. How can you not understand that? This is hard on her, too, and since I’m the easiest person for her to take it out on, I’m subjected to the brunt of her wrath.”
“It is only hard on her because she’s not getting her way.”
My hands twitch to spank her when she rolls her eyes. “Hello, pot, meet kettle.”
I don’t understand her metaphor, so I ignore it. “You don’t know this woman, dolcezza. You don’t know what she is capable of.”
“Because you’re not letting me form my own opinion. You’ve kept my head in the clouds so much the past three weeks I can’t think straight.”
“There’s a difference between being distracted and placing yourself at risk.”
Valentina slants her head, aligning our eyes. “I’m not distracted.”
“Yes, you are.”
Her laughter is as brittle as her words. “With what?”
I stalk closer, my steps purposely slow. “With me.” My nostrils flare when I breathe in deeply to suck in the scent of her rising arousal. “That isn’t a bad thing, dolcezza. Especially when it keeps you out of trouble.”
Valentina’s throat bobs harshly when she spots the determination in my eyes. It will take a tank to evict us from this room before I have her pliable under my touch… and that’s exactly what arrives when a knock sounds at my door a second later.
33
VALENTINA
The dining room of the Caruso manor glows like an amphitheater dressed for the opera. Crystal chandeliers scatter rainbow hues across polished floors, and the long table covered with used silverware and smeared porcelain plates gleams beneath them. My mother’s laughter rings across the room like a gentle melody, and for the first time tonight, I let myself breathe.
My mother’s birthday celebration is going better than I’d hoped. Even Valeria arrived early and has played the role of family friend and Caruso business associate to perfection. Her sophistication and graciousness have had my aunt searching the many gilded frames on these walls numerous times this evening, seeking her portrait.
Her amicable nature wasn’t what I pictured when I confessed to Giovanni that I’d invited her. I had hoped the extension of an olive branch would free her from the mud the IVF clinic threw on us, but I didn’t think it would actually work.
Valeria has far more at stake than I do. She’s already clutching at straws to keep the interest of a man who doesn’t look at her the way he does me, and in eight cruel months, the final thread may unravel.
I hate myself for saying this, but god, I hope Giovanni is right. This pregnancy was unexpected, and I offered to have a termination when I thought of it as more of an object than a living thing, but the thought of carrying a child for nine months and then handing it to someone else to take care of is worse than a knife to the heart.