Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Rachele holds up a hand. “It’s okay, Arch.” She straightens her red off-shoulder dress while glaring at me. “Give us a minute.”
He goes over and kisses her cheek. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” she says without breaking eye contact with me. “It’s probably about Raphael, and it’s best you’re as little involved as possible.”
The idiot grabs a gray silk jacket that matches his suit pants from the sofa and pulls it on. “I’ll take my phone.” Pinning me with a look, he tells her, “Call me if you need me.”
When James closes the door behind him, she crosses her arms and cocks a hip. “I saw it on the news. It was you who killed Raphael and his men, wasn’t it?”
I take the envelope from my pocket, extract the pages, and throw them on the counter.
She barely glances at the folded sheets with the logo of the lab printed in the corner, but I don’t miss how her cheeks lose a bit of their color.
My voice is low, dangerous. “What did you do, Rachele?”
She drops her arms to her sides and walks with a stride designed to look casual a safe distance away, putting the counter between us. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I look her straight in the eye, letting her see the violence churning in mine. “Anya is pregnant.”
Fear washes over her features even as she lifts her chin and says with boldness, “You didn’t leave me a choice.”
I advance to the counter, curling my fingers into fists lest I tear her from limb to limb. I emphasize every word. “What the fuck did you do?”
“You drove me into a corner,” she cries out. “It was the only way to get out of our marriage.”
“What the fuck did you do, Rachele?”
She inhales and blows out a shaky breath. “A guy at the lab owed me a favor.”
Unable to believe my ears, I say it out loud to be sure I understood correctly. “You paid him to falsify my test results.”
“Technically, I didn’t pay him. I collected a debt.”
“You lied to me.” I narrow my eyes. “You deceived me in the worst way possible.”
“You forced me into a marriage I didn’t want,” she spits out, her green eyes all venom and sparks. “What the hell did you expect me to do?”
“That was low, even for you.” I didn’t think I could dislike her more after what she did, but now I can hardly look at her. “You knew I was with Anya, yet you kept your mouth shut. You knew she could fall pregnant, and you chose to say nothing.”
She stares at me with contempt. “The whores you nailed at the club said you always used condoms. How was I supposed to know you were going to fuck Anya bare?”
“Because she’s my wife,” I say, slamming a fist on the counter.
Rachele jumps. “Look, I know it must come as a shock, but isn’t this what you always wanted?”
“A shock?” My laugh is mocking. “You let me believe for all this time that I’d never father a child. Do you have any idea what that did to me? For years, I hated myself for not being able to give you a baby. I hated my body, believing I was incomplete, that what happened to us was my fault for being defective.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” She pins her arms at her sides. “You always make everything about you. Well, surprise, surprise. This wasn’t about you.” Her voice rises in volume. “This was about me.” Yelling, she stabs a thumb on her chest. “About me. I never wanted you, and I never wanted your damn child.”
“You went on birth control,” I say as the truth hits me. “That’s why you changed ob-gyns when we got married. You knew Nicole was friendly with me.”
“Yes,” she hisses. “So sue me.”
I’m trembling with rage. It takes enormous effort to reel myself in. “I was wrong in forcing you into a marriage you didn’t want. I’ll give you that. You were right when you said I made you a trophy wife. You were right when you said we weren’t good for one another. For that, I apologize. I hope you found everything you wanted in James.”
Her lips part at my honesty.
I snatch up my cane. “But what you did, Rachele, that I can never forgive you.”
She sneers. “Maybe it’s never occurred to you, but I don’t want or need your forgiveness. I never cared enough.”
“That part was always clear,” I say, turning on my heel.
“Sav.”
I stop, giving her a chance to have the last say because after all the misery I caused her, it’s only fair.
“We weren’t cut out to be husband and wife,” she says to my back. “We’re not cut out to be friends either.”
My voice is firm. “Agreed.”
With that, I walk out of her life for good, severing all the ties that bound me to the Bianchi family.