Vengeance.
It's something I've been taught as the son of a cruel mafia don; something I've comforted myself with for years.
When the one thing that kept me grounded is yanked away so ruthlessly, it's only in my nature to strike out in the only way...
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Nicholas was scarce for the rest of the day. It was either that, or I'd done a fantastic job of avoiding him.
When I was in the bedroom, he was somewhere else, but the minute I stepped out of the bedroom to get some food, he'd taken a shower and left the room.
The plus side to the new bedroom arrangement was that he didn't sleep in his room. Well, he chose not to last night, but I wasn't sure tonight would be the same.
Right now, I was in one of the three lounge rooms in Nicholas's mansion, curled up on the couch while a movie played in the background. I'd lost interest after the first ten minutes.
I reached for my phone on the coffee table, both surprised and elated to see a text message from Raquel.
She was my roommate and best friend in college when I went to study overseas. When I boarded a plane back to the States after graduation, she said she was going to do some soul searching and might not send me a message.
That was a month ago, and the last message between us was when I texted to tell her 'my life was getting ruined'.
RAQUEL: Always one for dramatics, I see. You want my attention so badly you had to make up something.
I could only smile at the text. She thought I was joking. If only she knew I wasn't joking this time around.
I dialed her number, pressing it to my ear. It rang twice before she picked up the call.
"Elle!"
I sat up on the couch, grinning widely even though she couldn't see me. "Babe! I've missed you so much."
"Me too! How have you been?"
"Ugh, my life has been so boring without you."
"So, what's the deal with your life getting ruined?"
"I'm married."
Raquel was quiet for a long minute before she burst into laughter. "You're joking."
"I wish, Raquel. I wish."
Her laughter seized. "You're joking," she repeated.
"I swear I'm not."
"It's barely been a month since you left. Your parents married you off so quickly?"
Raquel was the only one that knew my family was part of the mafia. She constantly made jokes about it, but when I told her about my past, she stopped making those jokes because she thought they made me remember that awful night.
She loathed my parents for believing I killed Gianna and wouldn't stop talking about how much she hated them whenever I brought the issue up.
"Yes, but on the plus side, he's hot. He's not a sixty-year-old man with sweaty palms," I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
