Page 133 of At The End Of The Day

Her shoulders squaring, she lifted her chin and arched a brow, looking down her nose at me. “We’ve always kept tabs on you.”

Rage twisted my stomach and I sneered. “Kept tabs on me. On your son.”

“We had to make sure you did not do anything to mar our reputation.”

I damn near snorted with derision. “You mean, embarrass you.”

“Yes,” he snipped, a muscle in his jaw flexing. “And, frankly, we are more than humiliated with your current chain of poor choices.”

“And what choices would those be?”

“We heard about your troubles on television,” she muttered, tilting her head to smooth her hair behind a heavily jeweled ear.

Again, I snorted. They heard about it on television. They get a phone call from police, telling them their son had been attacked and shot up in their home, and they never once called to even ask what happened. They got their information from the news, just like thousands of strangers who could care less what happened to me or mine.

“So, you did hear about a man hunting me down and trying to murder me. Interesting. I assumed, since I didn’t hear from you while I was in the hospital, fighting for my life, you didn’t know. Nice to learn you did, you just did not care enough to contact me. Parents of the year,” I mocked with an overly exaggerated, toothy grin while holding up both thumbs.

He grew more agitated, his complexion darkening further. “We were unable to reach out at the moment.”

My sight scanning over them both, I chortled and shook my head. “Nice fall tans. Just get back from Italy? Yeah, I can see where your attentiveness was engrossed elsewhere.”

“Don’t you dare judge us—”

“Why?” I chortled, shrugging my arms out. “That seems to be all you’ve done to me since the day I became disposable to your needs.” My arms sliding back together, my fingers tapping my sides, I jutted my chin and sneered. “Now tell me why you’ve encroached yourself on my personal life unsolicited and unwelcomed after all these years.”

A second time, they shared a quick glance. He coughed and straightened his stance, clasping his wrist in front. “It has come to our attention that you have recently become a widower and are already considering marriage.”

Bit by bit, everything inside went cold as horror washed through my system. A knot clogging my throat, my arms fell to my sides. Oh…shit.

“Honestly, Dario,” she whispered, humiliation burning her cheeks bright red. “Of all the things you could do to bring shame on our name, this?” she spat with a wave of her hand. “Simply appalling.”

Rage struck a chord in my gut and I bristled, my teeth grinding. Heaving, I was absolutely seething, shedding my genteel upbringing. “What the fuck is so awful?”

“A man,” he shot, his upper lip curling again. “That is abhorrent—”

“Man, get the fuck outta here with that shit. You don’t fucking matter, I don’t fucking matter. What does it have to do with your perfect little life out in Florida what I fuck out here in the backwoods of Alabama?”

She gasped but he grew more incensed. “People are talking, Dario—”

“Who?” I shouted, shrugging my arms out. “Ain’t no one in Florida got nothing to do with me.”

“Listen to how you’re speaking, we raised you better than this.”

“No, the fuck, you didn’t. You didn’t raise me at all. Hotchkiss raised me and you showed me off like a fucking trophy. Now get the fuck outta here and don’t come back.”

“You listen to me, Dario Pietro Mangiacavallo,” he barked, wagging a finger. A thin layer of perspiration on his face, the vein in his temple was spidering out, foam building in the corners of his mouth. “You will stop this travesty of a marriage now.”

“The fuck I will, old man.”

“Dario!” she shrieked, clutching her throat.

He lunged forward and grabbed the front of my shirt, flinging me into the door. Because I still wasn’t a hundred percent healed and his movements caught me off guard, I didn’t have time to react, and pain exploded in my lower gut.

“Ah, shit,” I croaked, an arm folding over the wounds as I hissed.

“You will not continue with this grotesque display of fornication. You will not disgrace my name, goddammit!” he bellowed. “You have no clue just how dispensable you are.”

Ice hit my veins and I choked on an inhale, gawking. Did he just threaten to kill me if I didn’t do what he said?