Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 118245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
“What reasons?”
I sighed. “If I had to guess, I’d start with the fact that everyone knows you’re sleeping with Alessio, who is married and a top-ranking officer in Father’s … business.”
“So? That’s nothing new.”
“Obviously, something changed. They mentioned that horrible man who used to come to dinner, Salvatore, and his murder. Somehow Father and the Cavalieris are mixed up in it. I don’t know the details. The point is, they want you out of Sicily and married off, not me.”
She narrowed her eyes and lifted her upper lip in a sneer. “Why not? You two certainly seem to get along.” She then raised an eyebrow. “In fact, he seemed extremely comfortable with the idea of bending me over Father’s desk and spanking me … almost as if he’d done it before. He mentioned something about his boat?”
To cover my guilt, I marched over to my jewelry box and tore off her heavy Bottega Veneta gold-drop necklace and replaced it with Mother’s simple pearl strand. “It was cruel of you, Antonia, to set me up like that, knowing I was only trying to help you.”
I took a deep breath and lied my ass off, which by the way was still sore from the belting Matteo had given me earlier. “It was only because he kept insisting that you leave for Abruzzo tonight that I got away from him and his… demands.”
She snatched her gold necklace from off my bureau top. “I know.”
I froze, feeling all the blood drain from my face. While clasping my shaking hands, I attempted to speak with a light voice. “You know?”
Sciatiri e matri! Was she eavesdropping outside the office? Did she hear my moans and all the dirty things Matteo said?
“Maria came upstairs and started packing my things. Father’s orders.”
Air rushed back into my lungs. “Well, don’t worry. I bought us another week.”
She snorted. “You mean you bought you another week. Remember your promise,” she chanted in a twisted singsong as she sauntered out of the bedroom.
Three days had passed in a sickening rush.
In the meantime, I had broken the news to Antonia that I had to stay in Sicily. I had realized the only way to get the wedding called off was my original plan of getting Father arrested for Mother’s disappearance and probable murder. In order to do that, I couldn’t be halfway across the country in Abruzzo.
Fino was ignoring my calls and would only respond with increasingly threatening text messages about me going to spy on the Cavalieris for him. I resigned myself to finding a way around him to speak directly to Judge Marzio Delluci. Even if I had to camp conspicuously outside the Judge’s office.
That there was no way I could even be in the same room as Matteo after what happened between us, let alone pretend to be his bride for a few weeks, had no bearing on my decision. Nope, no bearing at all.
I should have learned my lesson on the boat… and then in the gazebo… but now I’d definitely learned it. I was staying far, far away from the man.
So over the short time we had left together, I tried repeatedly to coach Toni on what to say to Matteo to get him to call off the wedding, or at the very least to postpone it for as long as possible. It was like talking to a wall.
She refused to even acknowledge she was leaving for the Cavalieri winery in two days.
I sat on the edge of her bed. “You seem very calm, considering you’re about to be carted off as purchased property sold by Father.”
She stood in front of me and gently pushed my ponytail back over my shoulder as she gave me a deceptively sweet smile. “Because I trust you will fix everything. Like you promised.”
Oh hell.
Once again, I would have to go into the long, tedious explanation of why I couldn’t go to Abruzzo. I swore, sometimes dealing with my twin was like dealing with a hyperactive toddler who just did a speedball of sugar.
“Listen, Toni. We’ve talked about this…”
“Hold on.” She left the room and returned moments later with a bottle of red wine and two short glasses. “I don’t want us to fight anymore. Let’s share a drink first.”
Reluctantly, I held both glasses as she poured.
She took one glass and held it up. “To my dear sister.”
I raised mine. “Salute.”
Alarm bells went off in my head the moment I saw her lower her glass without drinking.
The room spun, causing a wave of vertigo to hit me.
My eyes widened as the glass slipped from my numb fingers onto the floor. “Toni, what have you done?”
CHAPTER 20
ELLA
Stale cigar smoke. Rubber. Leather. Chemical pine scent.
It hurt to breathe in too deeply, so I kept my breathing shallow.
Whirr. Thud. Whirr. Whirr. Thud. Whirr. Whirr. Whirr.
The monotonous but strangely soothing sound of wheels running over a road.