Luca stared at me. “Speak your piece.”
“If she’s lying, she eats in my kitchen—whatever I serve her.” I looked at her. “How do juicy tomatoes served on old pewter plates sound to you?”
“You don’t mean…SignorFausti!” Nik Novak said, almost gasping for air. “I believe my daughter has made her point—” Before Nik Novak could react, Luca had him by the throat, feet off the floor.
Luca looked into Nik’s eyes as he struggled for breath. “These are bold claims your daughter makes of a happily married man. Let us ask your daughter, if she is so truthful.” Luca looked at her. “Will you stake your life on the claims you have made in this room?”
The girl looked left and then right, but she was cornered and she knew it. “Y-y-yes,” she stammered. Then, as any lying narcissist would, she stuck her chin up and said in a loud clear voice, “Yes.”
Luca set her father down, and he looked at the man in disgust as Ita and Irena had to help him out of the office.
Luca motioned to my seat again, and after I sat, all the men did too. My father-in-law looked at Rocco.
“The doctor claims there was no drugs present in your system. Even if so, the girl could’ve still used your body, which means in all truth—you were unfaithful to your wife.”
Rocco said nothing. Luca continued.
“As per our laws,mylaw, if the marriage is a covenant in the true sense of the word, if it was done to your wife, it shall be done to you, if she so chooses.”
I had to keep my mouth shut. It was about to fall open. He was saying that if I wanted to take a lover, because my husband had chosen to be unfaithful to me after we vowed only each other…I was allowed the eye-for-an-eye treatment.
Rocco let go of my hand.
Suddenly, I felt like grabbing on to him, holding on for dear life, because the tension in the room felt suffocating. Worse than when the girl had been spitting out her lies in the room.
Luca looked directly at me. “Tell me, daughter of the heart, will it be a lover for you. After the baby is born, of course.”
In a noise I’d never heard a man make in my life, Rocco got to his feet, and in what felt like under a second, flipped the heavy desk over, cracking it down the middle. Papers flew in all different directions. In the same amount of time, my father-in-law had my husband by the throat, but Rocco took his wrist and shoved it off.
The look on my father-in-law’s face shocked me.
He wasn’t crazed with anger. He almost looked pleased. If only for a second. The look concerned me enough that I looked to Scarlett, who had appeared beside me and taken my hand, her husband shielding us, and it seemed as if we both recognized something wasn’t right.
Rocco took Luca by the throat. “Any man dares to come near my wife,” he said, a ferociousness to his voice I’d never heard before. It was bloodthirsty. Hungry for it. “I will rip each and every heart out, that is my truth, father.”
Rocco had him, but not for long. Luca was able to set free himself. If I would’ve blinked, I would’ve missed it. Luca picked Rocco up and slammed him down on the downturned desk.
“You disrespect my office!” He was like a blood-hungry animal, going for my husband’s throat with his mouth.
“Stop!”
At first, I thought I had shouted it, the word coming from my mouth in Italian, but it was Maggie Beautiful who had said it. I was about to intervene, not allowing my father-in-law to kill my husband, and that was when I realized…
Rocco was silently asking for it. Preparing for it. He didn’t know what had happened that night, and if he was unfaithful to me, meaning to or not…I knew he was going to leave me. Leave me for good—leave this world. Maybe he would even provoke Luca to do it. The guilt would eat at him every second of the day like acid, even if I forgave him.
How could I blame him?
I trusted him. Trusted him with my entire heart. I valued it, because through it, I felt a flood of love that I’d never felt before for my husband, for our child I carried, for our life together.
But that was a question and situation to reflect on another time.
In that moment, Maggie Beautiful was standing close to the two animals, both bloodthirsty and ready to tear each other’s throats out. Luca had stilled on top of my husband, his hand around his throat. My husband was staring up at him, almost giving him his throat—daring him to break his windpipe.
I made a whimpering noise without even meaning to. Scarlett squeezed my hand even harder, her bones trembling, and Rocco’s eyes rolled to mine. “Please don’t leave me,” I mouthed. “Please.” Then I touched my stomach.
It seemed like both men released each other at once.
Maggie Beautiful started to speak to Luca like I’d never heard her speak to him before. Her voice was firm but also pleading. I still had a lot to learn about the Italian language, but I knew she was telling him she knew who he was—a man—but she was asking him to please not do this—to hurt the son of her heart, ever.
