Absolutely not. When she saw I wasn’t going to budge, she got to work. Removing it stung as hell, but I didn’t make a sound. She helped me out of bed and into a wheelchair.
My body felt stiff, only able to move in straight lines. The one small mercy was that I was wearing nothing but a hospital gown. When I sat on the toilet, it just flopped open, which made it much easier.
Rosa stood outside the bathroom door, giving me a moment of privacy. I turned my head to the mirror above the sink, and the second I caught a glimpse of my reflection, a howl ripped from my throat. The girl staring back at me looked like a stranger.
Bruises bloomed across my skin in sick shades of purple and yellow. My lips were cut and swollen, and one side of my face looked like it had taken the full weight of someone’s boot. I didn’t even recognize myself. That bastard had disfigured me.
“What the hell was that? Where’s the girl?” It was angry Carlo again.
Rosa, panicked, pushed the door fully open. I wanted to fix my gown, but it was too late. Carlo had already stepped in, gun in hand. He spotted me and stopped. His gaze dropped, sweeping over my body. He’d seen my breasts before but now, I was completely exposed.
His gaze lingered a beat too long on my lower half. Then he lowered the gun and addressed his men behind the door. “Get out.”
I didn’t know if they’d seen me too. I couldn’t process anything beyond the burning in my cheeks and the pounding in my head.
Carlo turned to Rosa. “Help her get back to bed.”
He didn’t look at me again. He turned his back and stared out the window. He was in jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders, clinging to his back like a second skin.
I eased myself back onto the bed, wincing with every movement, and pulled my gown closed over my body, covering as much as I could.
Once Rosa quietly stepped out, Carlo sat in the chair beside the bed and got straight to business.“Tell me everything you know. Don’t leave anything out.”
God, how arrogant and loathsome this family was.My rage was stronger than my pain. “Really? You’re not even going to ask how I am? Maybe pretend to care that your uncle almost beat me to death? A little sympathy for the fact that I’ll be hobbling around like a bandaged-up brick for the next month?”
Carlo’s face was blank. He rose from the chair with unsettling calm and leaned over the bed. The scent of him filled my nose, woodsy, masculine, wrapped in a thick layer of expensive cologne. And as ridiculous as it was, it dulled the pain.
That bastard smelled maddeningly good. But then there was his face. Whatever softness his scent offered, his expression stripped it all away. He was the very definition of unpleasant, danger in human form.
He started speaking, poison dripping from every word. “No one, not even you, knows better than I do how you’re doing right now. I spent thousands of euros to bring in the best doctors and nurses to make sure you stayed alive on that operating table. And I spent just as much to put you here, in the royal suite of the most exclusive five-star hotel in Italy, so you wouldn’t be left vulnerable in some public hospital.”
Oh my God. So I really was in a luxury suite. My gaze drifted, trailing across the room, but he snapped his fingers inches from my face. The audacity. Like I was some dog he could command with a gesture.
I glared at him, but he didn’t even acknowledge my anger and kept on.
“And as for any further expectations, you can shove them. Giuseppe has no blood ties to me. I couldn’t care less what he did to you. I don’t owe you sympathy. I don’t feel sorry for you because your own stupidity landed you in this mess. You have no idea the damage you’ve caused me. I’ve butchered far more powerful men for far smaller sins. So do us both a favor, shut your mouth and give me what I need. I don’t have the patience for anything else, Emily. I’ve got a mountain of shit piling up because of the disaster you and Tony have unleashed on my life.”
I lost my patience. “I didn’t do anything. How many times do I have to say it?”
He straightened, towering over me. “You knew. You knew about their affair.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a verdict. And denying it now would only make things worse. I’d already let something slip I shouldn’t have.
Still, I tried. “I didn’t know for long. I found out the day we first met. I went to Lucia’s room to spend some time with her, and I overheard them.”
His eyes darkened in an instant. “And what exactly did you hear?”
Like I was going to tell him that. This man was a walking explosion, waiting for the right spark. I didn’t need that on top of all my misery. So I played dumb.
“They were talking. I figured it out from what they said that they were involved. Then Rafael caught me and I ran. When you brought me back to the estate, Tony threatened me. He said if I told you, you’d kill me. What was I supposed to do? Everyone in that house calls you the wife-killer. He even told me that if you didn’t slit my throat, he’d hand me over to Giuseppe as a sex slave.”
Carlo drew in a deep breath, shaking his head slowly in disappointment. “So, you could slur out, in full detail and half-drunk, how your biggest fantasy was to be fucked from morning till night on some rich bastard’s private island. But you couldn’t manage to open that big mouth of yours to tell me my whore of a wife was fucking my cousin behind my back? You could’ve stopped all of this, but you didn’t? And now you expect me to feel sorry for you because Giuseppe beat you like a dog?”
My stomach turned, but he wasn’t done yet. “I’ve got news for you, miss idiot. I’m actually glad it happened. Because you fucking deserved it. And if he hadn’t done it, I would’ve made sure someone did.”
“Fuck you, you bastard!” I shouted. “Yeah, that’s right. I was stupid. I walked into this mess, straight into a den of vultures. But I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve to be beaten and humiliated like trash. No woman, no human, deserves that. Not even the guilty ones.”
His chest rose as he took a slow breath. He was trying not to explode. He leaned in, so close I could feel his breath against my cheek.
