Page 99 of Valentino

“Where was this?”

“I don’t know.” She thinks for a moment. “Apparently everyone was drinking and you and Giovanna had gone to bed or something, and she got up hours later to get a drink or something and heard them going at it out in the garden.”

“What garden?” I frown. “That doesn’t make sense, we never went away with them anywhere.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs.

I think for a moment. “Well…what were they fighting about?”

“You.”

“Me?” I screw up my face. “What about me?”

“That’s all I know.”

“What do you mean that’s all you fucking know?” I snap. “What else did he say?”

“Just that they were fighting and Giovanna heard them.”

“I don’t understand.” I frown. “But why were they fighting?”

“Giovanna heard Valentino tell Carlo in a fight that you were always supposed to be his girl. That Carlo had stolen you from him.”

I blink, shocked.

“Imagine hearing your boyfriend say that he has always wanted another woman. A woman you had become friends with.”

My eyes widen.

“Crazy, right?” She sips her coffee. “I can’t even imagine.”

What?

“So.” I’m completely flustered. “What happened after she heard him say that?”

“They had a huge fight and broke up over it and were just limping through until the wedding because Giovanna had already been invited. This fight apparently had caused an irreparable rift that they had broken up over. But they decided they weren’t going to announce it until after the wedding so it wasn’t awkward for everyone.”

“Oh my God,” I whisper. “What?”

“And then . . . ” she shrugs, “She was killed.”

“Is this true or was Giuliano just really drunk last night?”

“God knows.”

Fuck….

“Well, this is need-to-know information.” I tip my head back and drain my glass of water. “Can you do some digging and find out if this is fact or fiction?”

“Already on it.” She thinks for a moment. “Oh my God, you know when it would have been?”

“When.”

“Remember a few weeks before the wedding we went to Lake Como for the weekend.”

I frown.

“Remember, we all stayed in that big house together.”