"Marco and his woman are truly bound now, two souls who wandered the wrong roads and found each other at last."
"You have to know just how low these gold-digging women can crawl before you can appreciate what real devotion looks like. There's a lesson in it, I suppose."
The made men circled around me, mocking, tearing me down without a shred of restraint. The air in the private club was thick with cigar smoke and the smell of aged leather, and every voice carried the easy cruelty of men who'd never been told no.
Marco, who had once been my husband, knew I was being wronged, yet not a single word of defense came from his lips.
Instead, he flicked the lapel of his jacket and lifted his chin, pointing at me with contempt, his voice dripping with disdain. "I don't know where she heard it, but she came sniffing around, hoping to catch a moment with Don Ashford."
"Look at her. Pathetically begging for scraps."
"Absolutely shameless. It's sickening."
The associates around me stared, their eyes filled with scorn as they picked me apart. "Lady, dignity matters. Time for you to leave."
"This is a members' room, not some charity supper. You're making people uncomfortable. You won't see a single dollar."
"You've got arms and legs. Why don't you earn your keep instead of always looking for a handout?"
I met their harsh words with cold defiance. "I didn't come here begging for money. I only happened to cross paths with Marco."
Marco sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. "Your pitiful little act of playing coy, and you think I'll fall for it?
"Adriana, I once loved you, but I ran out of patience with you a long time ago."
He pulled Bianca close, a clear show of possession, and shot me a glance. "I have someone else now, and we'll be bound soon."
"As for you, you're neither my first love nor my obsession. You're just a fleeting shadow."
"Seeing you here today brings only one feeling. Disgust. Your methods are dirty, beneath me."
The first clap came from nowhere. Then the whole room joined in.
The made men clapped eagerly, their faces gleaming with admiration.
"Marco's a man with steel in him."
"Marco really knows how to guard his woman. What command."
The sycophantic display turned my stomach.
I couldn't bring myself to trade words with these people, so I turned to leave.
But Bianca stepped in front of me, blocking my path. Her smile held a half-second too long before she spoke. "Adriana, are you just going to walk away like this?"
"Don't you think you owe me an apology?"
I blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Bianca pointed to her high heels, her voice dripping with pride. "These shoes? Custom-made. Thirty thousand."
"You trod on me earlier, and now the leather's ruined."
Every gaze in the room shifted to me, their eyes cold and judging.
A heavyset associate sneered, "How can this woman be so uncivilized?"
"Not just uncivilized. Vengeful, too," another added.
Marco's eyes locked on me, his expression hardening. "Adriana, you've really sunk to new lows."
I could only offer a helpless shrug. "I didn't step on her."
Bianca's laugh was sharp and dismissive, her fingertips brushing the corner of her mouth. "So now you're calling me a liar?"
"Soon I'll be bound to the boss of the Amato line. What's my standing worth? Would I really waste my breath making false accusations against you?"
Marco's expression turned to ice at her words.
He pointed at me, his voice cutting through the tension. "Adriana, did you or didn't you step on her? Stop lying and shaming me."
I couldn't hold back a bitter laugh. "You're out of your mind. What does it even have to do with you? Why is this your shame to carry?"
"Marco, stop flattering yourself. I stopped caring about you long ago. I didn't come here for you today."
His face turned pale with rage. "Fine. You really don't know when to stop, do you?"
"Then I won't do you any favors. Pay for the damages, or we call the Feds."
The crowd rallied behind him at once. "Call the Feds. Teach her a lesson."
I glanced at the time, my heart sinking. I was about to be late picking him up again.
