“How often does Antonella text her cousin?” Valor slides his phone back in his pocket, not having gotten an answer to his text right away.
“Some. Their communications are frequent but inconsequential.” And because it’s who I am, I read them fourteen times, looking for some hidden meanings and couldn’t find any, so I’mfairlycertain that I’m right about them being inconsequential.
“Were we able to recover the messages from before the wedding?” He immediately jumps into the next question.
Deny.My wolf immediately raises his hackles.Protect her.
“No, I didn’t get all the message history. However, I get the feeling these two are close but that Leticia probably doesn’t know anything about what happens in our lives or even really inside the D’Medici home. It’s not like Mom and her being into everything.” I pepper enough information into that sentence, hoping somehow he doesn’t ask more questions.
“I don’t remember the last time I had humans in my house,” Valor grumbles.
“Other than your wife?” I huff a laugh.
“That’s different, she’s stuck with me.” He heaves a massive sigh. “I have to get Kerrianne prepared to behave. What do we even talk about at dinner? Couldn’t this have been like coffee, or I don’t know, some sort of outing where we’re not confined to the dining room?”
“You have a built-in distraction with my favorite niece. She’s practically a whole night’s worth of conversation. I don’t think you’ll have an issue getting through a single dinner being civil.” I try really hard not to invite myself to dinner.
I need to keep my distance from Leticia. Even if our circumstances were different and I could explore my attraction to—and my wolf’s obsession with—her, this level of attachment to someone I barely even know is unhealthy.
What’s a little stalking?My wolf is obsessed already.
“No,” I say aloud to scold my wolf, and it cuts off Valor before he even starts the next question he was going to ask.
“You don’t even know what I was about to say.” Valor raises an eyebrow at me.
“I know you well enough to know you were about to ask me to spy on Leticia and figure out what angle she’s playing, and I know enough to tell you no. That you need to be open to the merger of the families. It happened. Get over it.” I hope my stab in the dark is in the right direction.
It was because Valor folds, slouching further. “Fine.”
“Tell my niece that I’m ordering the last pieces for her robot. So we can do that later on during break.” I get out of my chair before I can do something stupid like mention to Valor what’s going on in my head.
“You know she’s obsessed with building robots, right?” He laughs.
“Oh, I know. She messages me all the time asking if I think a robot could do any number of things. Surprisingly, though, she’s never asked if it would do her homework.” I smile.
“She really likes Antonella as a teacher,” Valor muses, and I can feel the undercurrent of something more.
My brother and his kid are falling in love with his new wife. The arranged marriage isn’t as bad as he keeps trying to make it out to be.
Maybe an arranged marriage wouldn’t be so bad? Mom and Dad have always left marriage up to me. But even the second son could have some pull for an alliance.
My wolf walks away, disgruntled, thinking of Leticia.
I’ve always wanted everything I’m not supposed to have. Why wouldn’t I want her? It’s just that this time, I can’t have her.
Probably.
7
LETICIA
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS
It’s been a rough day,and it’s only one in the afternoon. Mom is on a trip to Entitled Island today, and it’s a product of her own doing.
I duck into the second-floor utility closet and draw a deep breath, wishing it didn’t smell so much like cleaning products but knowing it’s one of the few places she won’t think to look for me.
The dark closet is such a reprieve to the current ‘stressful situation,’ which Mom has made for herself. We’re preparing for an ‘impromptu holiday get-together’ for all her high society friends. An event that isn’t happening today, but one that I have to get the house ready for, nonetheless.
