Not waiting for a response, I brushed past Flo—the fucking traitor—and jumped into the elevator before it disappeared back to another floor. Fuck this, fuck them and their fucking intervention, I wasn’t putting up with it.
Familymeant nothing to me, and Jace damn well knew it.
I needed to get fucked up because all I could think about was how Billie had gone back to an abusive relationship. She’d made that choice, just like my mom had when she left me for dead ten years ago. Ihatedthinking about her, so the only option was to get obliterated on whatever drug I could get my hands on.
Maybe this time it would kill me. I couldn’t even find it in me to care.
four
BILLIE
Of all the insane things I’d done in my life just to survive, this had to be themostridiculous. And dangerous, no less. Angelo’s father had his metaphorical hand around my throat, and just the slightest misstep could see him tighten his grip, cutting off my air and choking me to death.
That was why I went along with it. I’d had a taste of the Ricci wrath already and never wanted to go back there. So I smiled politely as a staff member of the exclusive Siena Country Club held out my chair for me.
“Try to look slightly less like you have broken glass in your panties, Bella,” Angelo muttered in my ear, pretending like we were sharing an intimate moment as he sat beside me. “I thought you were a better actress than this.”
Pasting a smile on my lips, I turned my head so I could bat my lashes to my ex. “Eat a dick, Angelo,” I whispered without dropping my smile. From a distance, we just looked like lovers speaking quietly. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
He smirked, running his tongue over his teeth. “Not my thing, Bella. You know that.”
I was saved the need to respond by one of Angelo’s aunties approaching us with a wide smile.
Her initial greeting was all in Italian, which only soured my mood further since I couldn’t understand her and she damn well knew it. To say I was being receivedbadlyby Angelo’s family would be an understatement. It wasawkward, especially since I’d known a lot of his family when we were kids.
Then, I’d been Angelo’s innocent, schoolboy crush. The harmless little girl next door. Until I was no longer so innocent, or harmless. Then I’d become an enemy to the Ricci family, andthatwas what they all remembered.
“In English, Tia Donna, please. Bella still doesn’t speak Italian.” Well, that was something. At least Angelo was pretending to care about appearances.
Tia Donna gave me a brittle smile, her head-to-toe glance sharp and disapproving. “Hmm,” she huffed. “Well, what’s done is done, Angelo. Your father wishes to speak with you.”
Angelo gave a short nod, then leaned in to whisper in my ear again. “Stay here, Bella. Don’t leave this table until I return.” He said it quietly, so I forced myself to smile like he’d said something sweet. Like a man in love with his mistress.
Ugh.Mistress. How degrading. But that was the long and short of it since Angelowasstill married with no intention of divorcing his wife any time soon. The only reason he was permitted to openly take a mistress now was—
“When’s it due?” Tia Donna asked, nodding her weathered face at my belly.
I licked my lips, watching Angelo walk away. He glanced back, and our gazes locked for a tense moment. He thought I was going to run, but I wasn’t a fucking idiot. I knew what was at stake here, not just for me but for both of us.
“Uh, April,” I replied, snapping my gaze back to Donna. “Another five months.” My hand smoothed over the swell of my belly, not even slightly disguised by the pastel-blue dress I wore. It felt like such a slap in the face to those who knew Valentina, showing off myfertility.
That was why Angelo had beenpermitteda mistress. He and Valentina had been married for nearly eight years, and she had yet to get pregnant. Not even a scare of a missed period to offer the family a sliver of hope. Giovanni Ricci was a man determined to secure his family line of succession. In recent years he had become frustrated enough that he didn’t give a shit who the mother was, so long as his son conceived a child withsomeone.
Enter Angelo’sinsaneplan. Make me his baby mama. Okay, fine, his mistress. I didn’t know which title was more insulting.
“…better hope that’s a boy,” Tia Donna was saying, her mouth twisted with disapproval. “The family won’t accept anything less.”
Whatever the fuckthatwas meant to mean.
The old, heavyset woman waddled away again after delivering that little gem of a threat, leaving me alone at the table. I blew out a long sigh, resting my elbows on the table and dropping my head to my hands. Fucking hell. I’d forgotten how judgmental Angelo’s relatives were.
Not that he’d exactly gone out of his way to remind me. While I’d recovered from the torture and beating I’d taken at his guys’ hands, he’d been there for me twenty-four seven. Then, six weeks ago after I’d gotten the all clear from the well-paid home doctor—all my injuries were healing well and I no longer needed anything stronger than aspirin for pain—he’d just up and disappeared. I could count onone handhow often I’d seen him since then, and none of those visits had been about any kind of reconciliation for our past transgressions. Hell, I’d go so far as to say our relationship was more toxic now than ever before.
“Hey, you’re Bella, right?” a woman’s voice jerked me out of my little silent pity party. I inhaled sharply and sat back up with my fake smile pasted across my lips.
“Billie,” I corrected her, “Yeah, that’s me.” I extended my hand to shake hers, but she just eyed my fingers like they were made of rancid fish.
Her overlined lips twisted with disgust, and her hip popped to the side as she shifted her gaze to my pregnant belly. “So it’s true then? He’s been cheating on Vee?”
