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I only had to say one word.
“Una.”
Cristo’s face turned pale.
I smirked internally. Good, I’ve got the little bastard.
“Yes, your mistress. Side piece. Love. And now what? Mother of your child, Cristo?” I tutted him. “Reckless. So very reckless. There is such a thing as contraception, my friend.”
Cristo leapt to his feet and swept the glasses and bottle of ?uica from the table. Glass crashed everywhere, shards flying in every direction. One shot glass hit the wall and shattered. Liquor splattered across the tiled floor and pooled beneath the table.
Nicu shot to his feet, gun whipped out and trained on Cristo.
“Destul!” bellowed Nelu, backhanding his son in the mouth. “Enough. I told you to control yourself with your woman. Now look what you’ve done.”
“It’s not true!” Cristo shrieked.
“Oh, but it is. Pity your dearest hadn’t chosen to tell you,” I mused aloud. I waved to Nicu to put his gun away. I was never at risk of Cristo attacking me. This was a little show of his displeasure, but Nicu was always quick on the trigger. Literally.
Cristo didn’t know it, but I’d had that girl followed. Straight to the health clinic. She’d made an appointment for an abortion. It didn’t seem right to not let the father know. Cristo having a woman was never an issue. Cristo having impregnated a woman, regardless of what she chose to do in the end, was more of a problem. It would’ve become a nonissue again, if she had gone through with the procedure, but why waste a perfectly good opportunity to save our asses? I’d had her appointment erased from their system as a precaution until this issue was resolved. Was it heartless of me to take the choice away from poor Una, whose most stupid choice was falling for Cristo? Perhaps, but I did make sure to see she wasn’t so far along that it compromised her ultimate decision.
From Cristo’s reaction, I’d guess he didn’t know.
“She’ll terminate the pregnancy,” Nelu declared with a wave of his hand like he was ordering lunch. Cristo’s face drained of all color, and that told me more than I had ever wanted to know of Tasa’s fiancé. He’d foolishly allowed himself to fall in love. It made me want to punch him, and it certainly strengthened my determination to cut Tasa loose from him.
“Look at him,” I said in disgust. “Get a chair. He looks like he’s about to faint.” My head snapped toward Nelu. “And you would simply dispose of your grandchild so easily? Quite a head of family, you make.”
“What would you suggest I do, then?” he spat out, rage turning the edges of his eyes red.
“I don’t know, but I can only imagine you would do the same for my nephew if such an alliance were to go forward. It’s not a good look for you, Nelu. We are a family-friendly clan. First off, there’s no way she can abort prior to a marriage to my sister. It would implicate us, making it seem as if we sanctioned it. Secondly, Tasa ran away because she found out about the baby.” Lie number two. “I mean, really, it must be common knowledge if someone as innocent as Tasa found out.”
“We don’t know for sure if that’s why she left,” Cristo pleaded, wiping the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
It was my turn to rise from my chair. I did so slowly, pushing the chair back with a screech against the tiled floor. Deliberately placing my palms on the surface of the table, I leaned in and sneered, “What other possible reason could there be, Cristo?” I spat out his name like it was a curse. Fuck, I wanted to smash his face on the floor and grind it beneath my shoe.
“She’s a good girl. Too good for you, apparently. She was willing to turn the other cheek about Una for the sake of the families, but she’s a naïve virgin. How could she turn a blind eye to an infant? I can assure you that the possibility of an abortion never crossed her mind. That’s not the kind of upbringing she’s had. And it’s the type of scandal the Lupu clan simply cannot ignore. We’re not so desperate for an alliance that we leave our morals at the door.”
Breaking eye contact with Cristo, I switched back to Nelu. “He’s unsuitable.”
“Futu-ti pizda ma-tii,” he grumbled under his breath.
“Such profanity is unnecessary,” I replied instantly, but I was fucking smiling on the inside. I got him. I got the bastard.
“Oh, please,” said Nicu with a chuckle from behind me.
Nelu scratched his chin, his clever brain flipping through different scenarios like the good chess player that he was. When he was done and realized he had no get-out-of-jail card to play, his gaze returned to mine.
“How do we fix this?”
Time to introduce Luca as a substitute.
“You have a daughter, right?”
His jaw tightened. Even Cristo, the moron, tensed beside his father. As did Simu, interestingly enough. So Nelu and his family were protective of his daughter, huh? Oh, I was going to have fun gutting this fucker.
His hands came up in a pleading gesture. “She’s but a child.”
I slammed my palm down on the table. “I gave you my sister. How old is she?”
