“Matteo was there this morning,” he admits. “Do you think she’s covering for him?”
Heat blisters beneath my skin, seeping into my veins and clouding everything around me with a red haze. I’m tempted to string him up by his dick and break every bone in his body while she watches.
It still wouldn’t be enough.
“How long was he there?”
“Not long,” Nicky says. “Maybe ten minutes.”
I swivel in my seat and glance out the window. “Don’t let him enter that house again before the wedding. I don’t care what you have to do.”
“You got it, boss.”
“And, Nicky?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t ever withhold information from me again.”
“I won’t,” he assures me. “There’s just one more thing I need to mention.”
“What is it?”
“She wants to talk to you,” he says. “Asked me three times.”
A pathological curiosity tempts me to consider it before I remember how and why we got here in the first place.
“Tell her to enjoy her upcoming nuptials.”
12
ABELLA
Awave of nausea rolls through me as I pause on the stairs to the private jet. Once I board, there’s no going back. I’m still holding out hope I’ll wake up from this dream any second now. But Gabi’s voice anchors me to the present, where the undeniable truth awaits me.
“You okay?” she whispers.
A panicky feeling settles in my lungs, triggering every survival instinct that tells me to run. I choke it down.
Pretend.
Pretend.
Pretend.
“Yes.” I force the word through clenched teeth.
Valentina sighs from her position on the top stair, reaching out to help me along. I fumble my way to my seat with their assistance, as far from my father as I can manage. It still isn’t enough to escape his glare when I take a glass of champagne from the stewardess and swallow it in three gulps.
“Don’t be sloppy, Abella,” he warns.
All eyes on the plane turn to me, and heat rushes to my face. It doesn’t matter that it’s just my bridesmaids on the flight.Being scolded in front of them like I’m a child is humiliating, no matter how you slice it.
Mariella shoots my father a glare when he turns away, and Valentina secretly flips him off. Truthfully, I don’t know why he’s even on the same flight when he could be traveling with the other men. But if I had to guess, this is his way of ensuring I don’t run off and his million-dollar wedding deal doesn’t fall through.
The stewardess returns and takes my glass, and I don’t dare ask for another one. As the crew prepares us for takeoff, we all settle in, and the cabin falls silent. My stomach is in knots as I stare out the window, wondering what the chances of survival would be if I parachuted myself off this jet at forty thousand feet.
My phone chimes, and I glance down to see a text from Matteo.
