“If they find out and if they don’t accept me,” I said to her. There was no ‘if’ about it. Tradition and protocol dictated everything in this life. “We’ll have to work from the ground up.”
Mia stared up at me with her doe eyes. “From the ground up?” she repeated as a question, sounding unimpressed at the idea.
“It won’t be as bad as it sounds.” Looking at Mia’s face now, there was a sliver of guilt that unwound in my chest. Last night, my anger had served to satisfy my ego. A wholly selfish spur of the moment that hadn’t taken her into account. “What did I tell you?” I asked, brushing stray hairs out of her face.
“Not everyone has to like you. They just need to respect you.”
I kissed her gently. “If they find out the truth and don’t want me in that spot, I’ll take out every single person until they have no other choice.” It wasn’t beneath me to take it by force. “I promised you the world and I’ll make good on that promise.”
“I never asked for the world,” Mia whispered. The uncertainty that came with the morally grey ground we stood on, seeped into her. Mia may have liked power and she gained it through dinners and sugar sweet words, but for every diplomatic play she made, I had one that was more bloody and violent, and they weren’t always as well justified as she would have liked.
“Even more reason to give it to you.” Mia had never expected anything from me, never asked for a thing. Last year had proven that Mia did not need me. She was intelligent and time around us had sharpened her and made her resourceful. As long as she stayed calm, Mia could master most things without help but she chose to stay by my side after everything we’d put her through. “I need you to trust me. I need you to trust that I’ll give us a life that we deserve. That Link deserves.”
She looked me in the eye and reached up, gently taking my face in her hands. “I trust you with my life, Lucas James Foster.”
“I won’t let you down.”
“You never have.”
Lies. I’d let her down plenty during the short span of our relationship, but I vowed it would never happen again.
“Will you be okay today?” I asked her. If she wanted, I could leave Dante with the responsibility and work from home.
Mia took in a deep breath through her nose before nodding her head. “We might have nothing to worry about,” she said hopefully but I doubted she believed those words. “I’ll be busy getting everything ready for Franco’s dinner.”
I groaned and buried my face in the crook of her neck. “Let’s cancel.”
“We are not cancelling on him last-minute without reason. It’s rude,” she said.
Mia had the ridiculous notion of throwing a dinner for Franco as a thanks for doing what we paid him for and as a welcome back. I told her she should have just written him a card, but Mia got her way. She was prepared to play host and show her gratitude.
“So?” I asked, not seeing the issue. I pressed my lips against her neck, feeling her pulse against my mouth as my hands wandered down her sides. “There are better ways to spend the evening.” I nipped at her skin and she sucked in a breath. Last night’s argument had left me frustrated in more ways than one.
“So,” she said, clapping her hands over mine in an attempt to stop me. “I’m not having anyone say I’m rude, which means you need to make sure you’re home on time and on your best behaviour. Until there’s a reason not to, we need to carry on like normal.”
My hands came around her wrists, pulling them up and pinning them above her head. “Carry on like normal?” I asked, pulling my face away from her neck and arching an eyebrow.
“I also said behave,” she pointed out, biting on her bottom lip.
“Tonight,” I told her, dipping my body and face towards her. “I have no intention of behaving right now.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Mia
I’d seen Lydia off earlier in the afternoon, leaving the house to myself, Dom and Link. She’d pulled more than her fair share of work lately between looking after the house and helping me with my son. I could manage a single dinner, plus, I’d made sure Dom was being of use and helping me out.
“What was she thinking? Vittoria’s losing the plot,” Dom said to me. I’d filled him in on last night, conveniently leaving out the reason Tori had stormed out of the house. “Stupid move in my opinion.”
“No one asked for your opinion,” I said, not looking up from the recipe on my phone. “Hopefully, she won’t try anything like that again.”
All day, a deep sense of dread followed me in everything I did, making me jittery. I had locked and unlocked my phone a thousand times, waiting for the inevitable flurry of messages and calls asking me to clarify what Tori had told everyone. It was late in the day and nothing had come through aside from Luc checking on me and Katia asking for tips to combat morning sickness. Rather than soothe my nerves, the silence amplified them, causing me to be a little snappier than usual and feeling uncomfortably nauseous all day.
“I didn’t mean to snap,” I said, trying to smooth over my bad mood.
“It’s alright. You can be graceless with me.” He grinned.
“Maybe I should change it up and be completely unhinged with everyone.” I sighed, turning away and opening the cupboard above the counter.
