Joey’s painting her toenails when I walk into the den.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” I reply as I sit on the sofa beside her, picking up the bottle of nail polish she’s using and inspect the label. Cherry Bomb. I smile. She’s definitely a cherry bomb kind of girl, while I’m more of a pale pink or soft caramel kind. Although I’d love to be the cherry bomb type myself sometimes.
“You want me to do yours? You know it won’t be long before you can’t reach your toes?”
I rub a hand over my expanding stomach. “I think I’m going to get real fat.” I giggle. “Especially as I’m craving pancakes and waffles every morning.”
“Pancakes and waffles?” she asks, turning to me with a look of feigned horror on her face. “Girl, you’ll be as big as a house.” She laughs harder as she goes back to painting her nails. “I’m sure my brother will still look at you with that dopey-ass loved up look on his face,” she says before making a fake gagging noise.
“He does not have that look,” I insist, because I have never seen it. She focuses on her toes so I carry on talking. “Well, he’s kind of stuck with me now, anyway, even if I do get to be the size of a house.”
“Hmm.”
I take a deep breath, hardly able to believe the words that are about to come out of my mouth. “Because we’re getting married.”
“Oh, he’s finally told you about that,” she says.
“What do you mean? Don’t you mean he asked me?”
“Told. Asked. Same thing.”
“Except that they’re not,” I insist. “How long have you known?”
“Um. A few weeks maybe. Since he told our father you were pregnant. Once he found out…” She trails off.
“Once he found out, what?” Why do I always seem to be the last person to be clued up on anything.
“He told Dante he had to marry you or kill you,” she says it so casually as if it’s a completely ordinary thing to say and do.
“He what?”
She sighs softly before turning and looking at me. “Our dad is kind of a giant asshole. Don’t worry about it. Dante chose wisely, right?”
“So all this time, he’s been weighing up those two options?” I snap, shaking my head in disbelief.
She scoffs. “He was always going to marry you because he would never do the other thing.”
I fold my arms over my chest and frown at her. “Oh well, aren’t I the lucky one?”
“Kat, my family is not normal. This kind of shit is just how they roll. Women like us are second-class citizens. We don’t get a say in our own lives.”
My frown deepens. I don’t want that for me, or for Joey. I certainly don’t want it for my child.
“The sooner you get used to that, the easier everything will be for you.”
She goes back to her toenails, and I scowl, feeling like the rug has been pulled from under me again. This morning, I wanted to marry Dante. Even though he admitted that I had no choice, I could see a way to build some kind of life with him. But not anymore.
I stalk down the hallway to Dante’s office, barging past the armed guard and opening the door before he can react. I guess he was waiting for our usual polite exchange before he tells me the great Mr. Moretti can’t be disturbed. Not today, Satan!
Dante’s head snaps up when I storm into his office.
“I’m sorry, Boss, she just…” the guard fumbles.
Dante glares at me, his eyes never leaving mine as he tells his guard to get out and close the door. “I just told Joey about our engagement,” I snarl at him, ready to crawl over his desk and slap his arrogant, self-entitled face.
“And?”
I take a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart because I feel like I’m about to implode with unsuppressed rage. “And she told me all about your father’s ultimatum.”
He sighs and closes his eyes.
“So it’s true then? You had to marry me or kill me, is that it?” I shout as I take another step toward his desk, unable to keep a lid on my emotions any longer.
“It’s not that simple,” he says, his voice strained and low.
“I suppose you think I should be grateful you chose the former, right?”
He stands, pushing his chair back, but I continue.
“You gave me that whole speech about marrying me and securing my future, when you only made that choice because your father forced you to. I guess if I wasn’t pregnant with your first-born, it would have been a much easier decision for you? Just kill me and move on to the next one?”
His dark eyes narrow as he glares at me.
“And that’s kind of your MO, right? When they become too problematic, then just toss them aside like trash? Is that what happened to your last fiancée?”
His jaw ticks in annoyance. “Enough,” he says, his voice low but dripping with menace but I’m not scared of him anymore. I won’t be quiet like the good little hostage he’s trained me to be.
“Did your father give you the same ultimatum with Nicole? Kill her or marry her?”
The veins in his neck bulge as he clenches his fists by his sides.
“Did you decide to marry her first and then realize the other option was a better fit for you the night before the wedding, Dante? Is that why you murdered that poor woman?”
“I said enough, Kat,” he warns me but I’m too swept up in my anger and the deep feeling of betrayal.
“Was she pregnant too?” I hiss.
He slams his fists onto the table with such force that the entire room seems to rattle and the papers on his desk scatter onto the floor. “Enough!”
I flinch, taking a step back as I wait for him to come for me. But instead, he sits back on his chair. “Don’t you ever get tired of this?” he says with a sigh.
I frown at him. “Of what? I’m tired of a lot of things, so you’re going to have to be a little more specific.”
“Of fighting with me on everything. Of finding something new every single day to be pissed at me about?”
I open my mouth and blink at him in shock. “Don’t you and your family get tired of finding ways to piss me off?” I retort. “You only asked me to marry you so that your father wouldn’t force you to kill me and our child instead, and I’m not supposed to be pissed about that? I’m supposed to roll over and be thankful for the fact that you are not as cruel and awful a man as you might be? Is that right?”
“My father hasn’t forced me to do anything for a long time, Kat.”
“I don’t believe you, Dante. I don’t believe any words that come out of your mouth, because every single time I find a way to make some peace with whatever the hell this thing is between us, you throw me a massive curveball.”
He stares at me, unflinching.
“But this time it feels even worse, because this time I believed you.” I wipe my eyes as they fill with tears.
His tongue darts out as he licks his lower lip.
“And now I find out that we’re not in this at all. I’m not in any of it. It’s just you and your family and whatever is best for the Moretti empire. So, congratulations, Dante, you have finally won. I give up. I’m defeated. You do whatever the hell you want and I will stand by and nod and smile like the perfect little wife. If that’s what it takes to keep myself around here so that I can see my child grow up, then so be it.”
His eyes darken as though what I said just pained him in some way. Before he can feed me another line, I walk out of his office. The fact that he doesn’t even try to stop me only proves my point further.
