“In his office,” our butler confirms, his eyebrows lifting in silent question.
I don’t answer as I storm down the hall.
Bursting into my father’s study, I don’t bother knocking or waiting for an invitation, and he looks up sharply from his paperwork as I slam the door closed behind me.
“That toddler of anoyabundidn’t make the drop,” I snarl. “And I mean this time, he didn’t even bother showing up at all.” Pacing in front of my father’s desk, I struggle to rein in my temper as I lay it out there for him.
“Please, come in, Leonardo,” my father says dryly, ignoring my tirade.
“This whole ruse of an alliance is just setting us up to take the fall. You have to see that. Kenji used it to get us to let our guard down. Now that he has his foot in the door, he’s just jerking us around. You know thecopsmade it to the exchange today, while the Tanaka-kai couldn’t be bothered?”
“And from the sound of it, your brothers handled the situation, which is more than I can say for you,” my father says coldly, propping his elbows on his desk and interlacing his fingers in front of his chin.
“You can’t seriously be pinning this one on me. I told you from the start that family couldn’t be trusted, but you insisted on pushing the alliance through, and now they’re walking all overus, having a laugh at our expense because we’re actually sticking to this agreement, pretending we canworkwith them.” Fists clenched, I round on my father, trying unsuccessfully to keep a lid on my frustration.
“But itisyour fault, Leo,” the don says calmly, his sharp eyes cool and unemotional. “I brokered an alliance with the Tanakas so that your rule could begin without the conflict I’ve had to mitigate for the last two decades. The Tanakas have given you their only daughter. The contract is signed in blood. What more could you want? Their fate is bound to ours now, so if there’s still a problem, it means you haven’t been utilizing your wife.”
I scoff. After the hell I’ve put Sora through, he can’t be serious. “If my wife could be used as any kind of leverage against her brother, it would have worked by now.”
Kenji’s response to my attempt to antagonize him at my succession dinner opened my eyes to how little he cares about Sora. He didn’t come after me, threaten me, or even warn me to keep my hands off her. In fact, by the time we made it to cigars and brandy, he was joking about how much I must enjoy my new wife—that I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off her, like their family did me a favor by giving me some toy they no longer wanted, not theirdaughter, not Kenji’ssister. My brothers might drive me up the wall at times, but I wouldneverlet someone hurt them and get away with it.
Humiliating Sora didn’t even give me the upper hand against her brother.
It only proved that the Tanakas are laughing at the game my father is playing.
Which makes me confident that theirs is far more sinister.
I’m tired of torturing Sora and pretending it’s doing anything to manipulate her family. It’s turning me into the kind of man I don’t want to be. I’m hurting her, and it seems like I’m the only one who bothers. I don’t care what my father thinks any longer. I’m tired of his game. We’re losing, and he’s too arrogant to see it.
“Perhaps you’re just not using her in the right way,” my father suggests, his eyebrow climbing as he levels me with a meaningful look.
“You know what? We’re done here. I don’t know why I thought a conversation would help this situation in any way. Just keep burying your nose in the sand, and I’ll deal with the loose cannon that’s going to burn your precious legacy to the ground,” I snap, storming to the office door and wrenching it open.
23
SORA
It’s been nearly a month since the wedding, and while an odd truce seems to have settled between me and Leo since his succession dinner, I can’t stop the anxiety tightening my stomach as I wait for the other shoe to drop.
A soft knock on the door to our suite is enough to make my heart skip a beat, and I race to answer it.
“The items you requested, signora,” my maid, Clara, says, holding up a grocery bag.
“Thank you.” I’d tried getting a ride to the grocers myself but was informed that the Chiaroscuro family has staff who do that for them. All I needed to do was let Clara know what I needed. Still, I wish no one knew. “And, Clara?” I add as she turns to go. “Remember. It’s our secret.”
“Of course, ma’am. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise,” she says with a smile.
Of course not.Closing the door as she departs, I take the bag to the bathroom and put away the feminine products I requestedalong with the real reason I sent her to the store. My hand shakes as I pull the test out last.
I mightnotbe pregnant.
I’ve been under enough stress between the wedding and Leo and the tension between our families that it could easily explain why I’m over a week late. But I doubt it. I’m never late. And it’s not like we’ve been using protection or anything.
Ripping the box open, I take the small stick with their easy three-step instructions and follow them, then cap the test and set it on the back of the toilet as I wait the designated three minutes. While I wait, my mind continues to race a mile a minute. I don’t know how I would feel to learn I’m carrying Leo’s child. I’ve always known it’s a part of my duty as his wife. In truth, children were one of the few things I could appreciate about an arranged marriage. I’ve always wanted to be a mom. But I’m reticent about raising a child in the Chiaroscuro home.
Yes, tensions between me and Leo seem to be dissipating, and the sex—which we have a lot of—is passionate and shockingly satisfying. He’s even gone out of his way to do some nice things for me—surprising me with beautiful jewelry or an at-home spa day.
He spends long hours away from the house, which at first, I thought would make his abuse more tolerable. But surprisingly, I catch myself missing him, wondering when he’ll be home, because since the humiliation of orgasming in the presence of all his important dinner guests, he hasn’t done anything cruel to torture me.
