He shook his head at me. “You don’t understand. Lucia is the one shining light in this entire dark fucking world. That she’s promised to Romeo at all is one of the worst notches in this plan my father has orchestrated. She deserves someone who wouldn’t dream of putting a finger on her except to take care of her.”
I didn’t like the tone of Gianni’s voice. “Like…” His eyes shifted to me and then he calmed some. “Like anyone other than Romeo.”
What was he about to say? If he hadn’t caught himself, was he going to say like him? I’d heard things here and there in the past, that Gianni always pined after Romeo’s promised bride, but I never saw any signs of it. Since we started our affair, he’d never so much as uttered her name.
Was I being stupid? Was I being paranoid?
Gianni lifted the ice pack off his hand and clenched his fist a few times. “I think it’s okay,” he said.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “Do you need anything else?”
“Yeah.” He stood up from his chair and walked over so he was standing in front of me. “I need to make the most of our time together before you’re gone again.”
Pressing his hands to either side of my neck, he leaned down and kissed me and it knocked all of my fears away. I was silly for thinking that Gianni’s heart lay anywhere else but with me. He hadn’t told me he loved me yet, even if he often referred to me as ‘his love,’ but it was in everything he did. I couldn’t quite explain it, but just because Gianni had neversaidhe loved me, it didn’t matter. I could feel it.
I continued to tell myself that as the night carried on and even through the morning. I just repeated it to myself over and over. Gianni wanted me. I was the one he was with. There was no need to question the way he felt. He hadn’t written Lucia hundreds of letters for ten years. He hadn’t asked her to run away with him when all this craziness was over.
That was me.
“Okay,” he said to me in the morning just before his father’s men arrived. “Keep your ears open for any other news and I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, happily taking the kiss he offered.
“And take very good care of Lucia,” he said. “She deserves it.”
It left a toxic feeling in my stomach. When he spoke about her, it wasalmostlike the way he spoke to me. I didn’t like it. “I will.”
Not long after that, Angelo’s men came to collect me, placing the bag over my head and dragged me down to Angelo’s car. They helped me into the back, and for as excited as I normally was going to or leaving Gianni’s, I suddenly felt like all the wind had been knocked out of me.
“Not as lively as normal,” Angelo’s gravelly voice called out. “Lover’s quarrel?” A gross snicker came out of him.
“No,Signore,” I replied.
“I hope you aren’t falling for that son of mine,” Angelo said. “That would make you much more stupid than I thought you were.”
My stomach turned. “No,Signore.”
“He thinks nothing of you,” Angelo said. “You’re nothing more than a toy to him. Someone with whom to pass the time. His heart lies elsewhere.”
My nose started to burn and tears came to my eyes. “Yes,Signore.”
I knew those things weren’t true, but that didn’t make it any less difficult to hear. We’d long since figured out that Angelo believed Gianni was just using me. We chose to continue letting him think that because as long as he did, he would continue leveraging me to get Gianni to do what he wanted.
He chuckled again. “Do you think I’m stupid, girl? I know what Gianni tells you. The sweet things he says to you. The romantic things he writes to you.”
My heart slammed in my chest. We knew that Angelo had eyes, but we firmly believed there were things that he didn’t know. How did he know? “S-Signore?”
“It’s a skill we Cavetti men have mastered. Gianni is chief among my children in using a silver tongue to get what he wants from people. Do you know what he told me?” he laughed. “He said that he knows you love him and lets you think he feels the same. It makes you more of awhorein bed. You’ve told him you loved him, didn’t you? That’s how you know I’m not lying.”
My whole body seized up. There was a voice screaming at me that Gianni couldn’t have possibly said that, but how else would Angelo know what he knows?
Had Gianni been playing me the entire time?
“I almost feel bad for you,” Angelo continued. “You can join the leagues of many who thought we meant the words we said. Know this, Philippa. You can’t believe anything a Cavetti man says to you with a smile on his face. Eleven times out of ten, he’s lying.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I dared to ask.
“Because I want you to remember your place,” he responded. “You are property. Something to be used and used until your usefulness has run out. Remember it well. Subservience gets you far in our world.”
