Their words turned my stomach.
How could anyone dress up treachery against the Family at a sit-down as something noble, something they'd been forced into?
I shoved Gia's hand off me, and she let herself crumple to the floor, covering her face and sobbing.
"Adriana, I know you just hate me, but I never once thought about stealing your place at Enzo's side."
Seeing this, Enzo stepped in and pushed me away hard, ignoring the blood welling up on my forehead where I'd struck the corner of the table.
He gathered Gia up into his arms, his back to me.
"Adriana, she was willing to risk her own respect to help you carry Enzo Barone's name with more grace, and you can't even tolerate the one woman who stood at your shoulder. I'm so disappointed in you."
The clock on the wall pointed to ten, its ticking loud in the sudden quiet. Enzo strode off with Gia in his arms.
"I don't have time for your tantrums. The room upstairs is already paid for. You go and think long and hard about yourself."
I pressed my hand to the blood on my forehead. My phone suddenly lit up with a video call. My husband.
I stood, pulled out a tissue, and wiped the blood from my forehead.
But knowing how little escaped a man like him, he'd probably notice something anyway.
I ended the video and switched it to a voice call. His voice came through a moment later, wounded.
"Cara, why did you hang up on the video? You're the one who sent me off to settle business across the border on Valentine's."
"I'm not blaming you. It just wasn't a good time a second ago."
He let out a breath, and his voice brightened.
"I almost thought you were holding it against me. This dull, endless sit-down has to run another whole day, and I'll be back the day after tomorrow. When I am, I'll throw a grand banquet and call in men from every corner to mark the Family closing the largest pact we've ever touched."
I couldn't help laughing. He'd nearly let the whole thing slip through his fingers just to spend Valentine's with me. It took me threatening to keep a pretty-boy toy on the side before he finally, sniffling, had his soldiers bring the car around and flew out.
Except if I didn't find some gauze to bind this cut on my forehead soon, the bleeding didn't look like it would stop.
"Then congratulations, tesoro. I'll go with you to the banquet."
I hung up quickly and picked up the gauze to bandage the wound.
Two men who both had their dealings, and yet my husband's rackets ran on a scale Enzo would never so much as glimpse. And Lorenzo had always kept his own hands clean where it counted. Even on the night of our blood-bound union he'd flushed and admitted it was his first time.
I'd thought I was done crossing paths with Enzo. Then, at midnight, a message came in.
It was the room charge from upstairs, itemized. Two hours, two thousand dollars total.
Half furious, half amused, I forwarded it to Enzo without a second thought.
He called back right away, his voice rough from what he'd been doing.
"Adriana, why didn't you wait for me to leave first?"
"Enzo, two hours and you're already spent? Or is that little crew of yours about to go under, and you can't even scrape together two grand for a hookup?"
He didn't get angry. He actually laughed.
"Do you have any idea how big a haul I brought back from across the water? Ten million! So many women would kill to carry my name, and I turned down every one, because I gave you my word I'd marry only you."
I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes.
"Go marry Gia. She's magnanimous enough, gracious enough. She'll wear the Barone name just fine."
"Adriana, still going to say you're not jealous? I told you, I don't feel anything for her, there's a whole world between us. She's doing this for your sake. There'll be no avoiding these drinking tables in the life we're headed for, playing along for the room, so you need to learn to keep your cool."
I was so angry I nearly swore. In the end I held it back.
"Enzo, I'll say it one more time. I'm married. Stop bothering me! Who takes the Barone name has nothing to do with me!"
I hung up on the spot and blocked his number immediately.
