He didn’t look at me. His stare was only on hers. “Baby.”
“Don’t call her that,” I said without thinking. I found myself very protective of Nicky against my better judgment. One of my many impulses I had yet to control.
“She’smywife. I’ll call her whatever I want. Whatever you’ve done, whatever you’re gonna do, she’ll always be my wife and nothing will stop me from having her back.” He yanked at his chains, a scene that poured ice on the flames of rage dancing inside me, and stared back at her. “Nothing.”
“That’s not your fucking decision anymore,” I said.
He glared at me like Nicky used to, with all the hate and anger in the world, only more rabid and vile.
“Not only hers either.” I moved over to him. “How does it feel now, Domenico? How does it feel thatIam the one out of the cage and in charge of your destiny, while you are in shackles, picturing all the sick things that could be done to you, unable to do anything but wait for them to happen and be over, only so you’d live another day and relive the same pain all over again?”
“I don’t care what you do to me. Whatever you’d do, I’ve been through worse. The only thing that hurts is seeing my own wife standing right in front of me but I can’t touch her.” He kept his eyes steady on her. “Nicky, I know I hurt you. I betrayed your trust. But I never used you. I knew the consequences of what I’d done to bring you close to me. Still, I went through with it. And as I’m about to pay for it, I have no regrets. Marrying you, making you mine is worth every moment of pain I have to endure from now on. I don’t care what they do to me. All I care about is that you know that from the moment I saw you, I was truly and irretrievably in love with you. Everything I’ve done to make you stay with me might have been wrong, but it was the only way I knew how. I meant every single word I said to you before. I love you more than anything. We belong to each other.”
She held her proud tears, glancing at the ceiling to prevent them from falling. Her lips parted with a moaning sigh. “When you care for someone more than they deserve, you get hurt more than you deserve. I wish I could give you my pain for one moment, not to hurt you but to make you feel how much you hurt me.”
He pulled at the chains, and his knees hit the floor. “Hurt me all you want. Torture me for years. Make me feel it all until you’ve had enough. But then, through the pain, find your way back to me like you did before. Like we did together.”
One tear fled her eye, and she looked away instantly. Her gaze landed on my father, but she didn’t find the kind of comfort or support she was looking for. She sought my gaze, but that, too, wasn’t the answer she needed. Her eyes returned on Domenico. And stayed.
My lips pursed, and I sighed in disappointment. Anybody could see her love for him didn’t go away. It made me sad. I still believed she could do a lot better than Domenico Lanza. She deserved better. But I also knew beyond doubt what it meant to be unable to see no one but this one person and no one else, no matter how flawed they were or how toxic they were for you.
“My baby deserves a good father, Dom,” she whispered.
Surprise struck his face like a heavy slap. No Lanza had known she was pregnant yet.
The chains rattled and rumbled so loud as he got to his feet, growling her name, and tried to reach her with all his might, his veins popping from his neck and arms. “Please. I’ll do anything.” His head whipped toward Tino in panic. “Did you hear her? You have to let me go. She has my child. Have your fucking revenge. Tear me to pieces already, but then let me go. I have to be there for my baby. No man will raise my baby but me.” His bulging, glowing stare bounced back to her. “Promise me, Nicky, no one will raise that baby but me like I promise I’ll take care of both of you with everything in my power. All of you, just have your fucking revenge and let me take care of my family.” He fell to his knees again. “I’ll do anything. I’ll giveanything.”
“Anything?” I dared him.
He gazed back at me, humiliated and torn, no more sickening power, no more gloating or mocking, only pain and fear. “Anything.”
I kept the eye contact until I was satisfied, reveling in the sight of him on his knees, begging like a dog. Then I peered at Nicky. “Do you believe him?”
She held my gaze for a few moments, and then she nodded.
“Well, I don’t, but I’m willing to test him to prove me wrong.”
“What are you gonna do?” she asked with a catch to her breath.
“I’ll take that anything he’s so ready to give…from his own flesh,” I said. “But don’t worry. I’ll keep his dick for you.”
“What?”
“I know you want him to live. You even want to take him back. Fine. I’ll let him go back to you. But not whole. He literally took pieces of me that I’d never get back. It’s only fair if I did the same.”
“But Leo—”
“It’s either this or he’s dead. Your choice.”
“It’s okay,” he told her. “I accept. I’d rather live missing an organ than leaving you and my baby behind. I accept. Just wait for me, baby. Wait just a little bit, and I’ll be with you again.”
My father held her arm, pulling her gently outside. “Andiamo, Nicole.”
“It’s okay,” Domenico told her when she wouldn’t move. “Just for a little while, then we’ll be together.”
She buried her face between her palms and dragged her feet out of the room.
I crouched in front of him and grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking his head up so he’d look at me. “Do you know which part I’m going to take, you disgusting traitor?”
