Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Aria hadn’t eaten the whole meal, but Dante had given her parents a look to silence them.
Dante didn’t like that after dinner, Aria had excused herself to go and find the bathroom.
She’d been gone ten minutes already. Dante had a feeling Aria was up to something. This dinner invitation had been for him and Aria only. However, Isabella had arrived, unannounced with her two children. Now, as they sat in the sitting room, Dante was attempting to distract Phillip, while Isabella did the work on her mother.
No one had mentioned Aria missing. Dante didn’t like this.
“So, how is married life?” Phillip asked.
He had tried to talk about work, potential business, but Dante wasn’t having any of it. He’d settled on mundane gossip, recent events, and now they turned to his marriage with Aria.
“It is thrilling,” Dante said.
Phillip laughed. “I’m sure it is.” He sighed. “I wish I had another daughter to offer you, but Aria was the only one I had left. If only you’d offered your hand to Isabella when you had the chance.”
He looked at Phillip.
Dante had never been interested in Isabella. He knew when she’d been suggested as a prospective love match. She was beautiful, he couldn’t deny that. He always found her boring whenever he talked with her, which was sparingly.
“I had no idea you were hoping for such a match,” Dante said.
“My Isabella was the most popular catch five years ago, Dante. I had seen you looking at her, talking to her. Yet, you didn’t once ask for her hand.”
Dante smiled. “Phillip, I never wanted Isabella. I was never interested in your daughter.”
“I find that hard to believe. Many men offered for my girl.”
Dante hated Phillip and as each second passed, he felt his anger toward the man building.
He didn’t like how long Aria was taking and it was starting to piss him off. He didn’t need that evidence, because he didn’t want to walk free.
“None of your girls interested me, Phillip, and quite frankly, neither did you. You’re the bastard son of the Pesci family. You have earned your reputation through blackmail and manipulation. That is all you have proven to me, and why would I want to join a family when the head is that way inclined?”
He saw the snarl on Phillip’s face, but just then, Aria entered the room. “I’m so sorry to cut this short, but I feel incredibly sick.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I feel I must go home.”
Dante didn’t even question it. He got to his feet, ignoring Phillip, and went immediately to his wife. The moment he touched her, he sensed a difference in her. She tensed up and Dante didn’t know if she had somehow heard what he said to her father. There was no possible way for her to hear it.
They said their goodbyes, and Dante knew he’d pissed Phillip off, and there was a chance he’d be paying for that all too soon.
Within minutes, he had Aria in the back of the car, and his driver pulled out of the Lewis’s family drive and rushed them onto the street heading back home.
He suddenly realized Aria held onto her side.
“Is something wrong?” Dante asked.
Aria didn’t say anything, but she lifted her dress and then presented him with the file he hadn’t seen in over a year. The same file Phillip had presented him with.
“Here it is,” Aria said.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
She was so different with him and Dante kept staring at her, even as she held out the file for him to take.
“I had no idea that … you wanted to marry someone else,” Aria said.
Dante took the file from her, and he opened it up to see the photos that bastard had printed off.
There were several showing him having sex with the boss’s daughter, Phillip’s half-sister, although she was much younger than Phillip. They only shared a father, the boss himself, Pesci.
There were also several photographs of him killing someone. All the evidence Lewis had manipulated was right here for him to see.
Dante looked toward Aria.
“This sets you free.”
“Aria, I’ve not used any condoms.”
“It doesn’t matter. You can have your divorce. You can start to make arrangements. Everyone will be on your side, and you can finally make it right for … Constance.”
Constance—the boss’s daughter, who he had fucked the night before she was due to marry another man.
“You must love her very much,” Aria said.
“I didn’t fucking love her,” Dante said. “I don’t even remember how she and I ended up sleeping together.”
“She’s not married anymore. She’s a widow.”
Constance’s husband had died within six months of the marriage. Dante had already been married to Aria by that time.
“This changes nothing,” Dante said.
“I did it,” Aria said. “I got what you needed. You didn’t deserve to be trapped by me.” She reached out and pressed a palm to his cheek. “And I know you hate my dad. You hate my whole family. This is the least I can do.”