Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
“Does that mean Lorenzo’s actually talking to you?” Mia asked.
Clarissa nodded. “And we’ve spent some time together.”
“This is good news,” Liana said.
“How is it?” Clarissa asked.
“Look, I hate to be the ... bearer of bad news for all of us. We know what we all heard, and it fucking sucked,” Liana said. “Trust me, I get it. I ran right to my dad and brother, and I wanted to end the relationship. He called me a freaking doormat.” She held her hands out. “But we’re not getting out of this unless we’re dead. We’re married women, and although we’re in modern day times, we all know the moment we get that divorce, none of us have anything to offer. None of us are virgins. We’ve been married to respectable Capos. Not all the men in the Colombo Mafia are like our men. Some of them are cruel. They hurt people. Sure, our men hurt us in their own ways, but they’ve not physically hurt us.”
“You’re telling us to just let it go?” Tatiana asked.
“No, not let it go, but maybe give them both a chance. Help me, Mia, come on, you forgave Giovanni just as I did Diego.”
Mia held her hands up. “It took a long road to get there. I didn’t just wake up and decide to forget about it. It took a lot of work, and he had to prove himself to me.”
Clarissa didn’t want to hear any more. “I need a drink.”
It was easy for them to say. They had gotten out of the other side. Liana had been called a doormat, and it was easy for her, because she was anything but that. Mia was referred to as being childish and immature, but she was not that. She embraced her fun side, so the insult didn’t freaking stick.
Old, boring, and dull, as well as stiff as a board—exactly what Clarissa was. She loved to sew. She loved to knit. She was not a social person. She didn’t know what to do during sex. She did what was expected, what she had been told to do—just to lay there and let her husband deal with it. That was what her mother told her to do, and it was all she knew.
It was okay for Liana and Mia, their insults didn’t stick. For Clarissa, they were so accurate, it made her feel sick to her stomach.
****
Diego hung up his cell phone and turned toward the table where they were playing poker. “That was Liana,” he said.
Without a word, all three men put the cards on the table. It wasn’t actual money they were playing with. It was how they passed the time, talked business, and had a little fun. The money didn’t play a part.
Giovanni let out a laugh. “At least I know this time it’s not my wife who is drinking.”
“It’s Clarissa and Tatiana,” Diego said.
Of course it was. The two women who were not pregnant, nor breastfeeding.
Diego was mightily proud of the fact his wife breastfed, and of course, Giovanni loved that his wife was pregnant with a strong baby. They were two smug bastards and it pissed him off.
Getting to his feet, he wasn’t pissed off at Clarissa, though, as it meant she would be a little more talkative. The alcohol helped lower those walls she kept putting in place, and he had to keep knocking down.
They left the casino and made their way out, taking the small walk to the café where the girls liked to do lunch. He checked the time to see it was a little after five. He’d dropped Clarissa off at exactly noon, giving her plenty of time.
The moment he stepped inside the café, he saw Clarissa and Tatiana on top of the table. Their guards were close by, and Liana and Mia were not helping matters as they had their cell phones out and were playing music.
This was not helping, although Lorenzo took a moment to watch his wife. Without her walls up, she was a sight to behold. Her long brown hair that she usually had pulled back into a bun or clip was out, and she was using that clip to lip-synch into. Her hair looked wild and had a natural curl to it.
Tatiana still had her hair up, but she was dancing crazily, and her jacket was off. Clarissa wore a dress, and it looked like she had put a hole in her tights.
“There’s my cheating hubby right now,” Tatiana said. She let out a whoop and a wave. “Hello, cheating hubby.”
Clarissa giggled like it was the funniest joke she had ever heard. Emilio stiffened.
It turned out Emilio had lied. He had told them all there was no mistress. The moment he first saw Tatiana, he had fallen head over heels in love with her. No other woman compared to her. They were all talking shit, and he didn’t want to have to deal with that, so he lied. That man had been paying the price ever since. It was a lie he couldn’t get away from.