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His lip curls in disgust. “It seems I did.”
“We don’t need him.”
“He’s had more than enough time away. He should be home looking after his family instead of playing the fool in Italy.”
“He’s looking after his sick wife,” I remind him.
“He will be returning. It is done,” he says with a dismissive shake of his head.
I grit my teeth before I say something that I’ll regret.
“If you’re not going to kill thisKaterina,” he spits out her name, “then you will marry her.”
“The fuck?” I growl at him, my teeth bared as I advance on him.
“Your mother would never forgive you if you raise her firstborn grandchild as a bastard,” he insists. “Put a bullet in her head or a ring on her finger,mio figlio.Because I will not allow a bastard to inherit my empire.”
“Get the hell out of my house. Now!”
His nostrils flare as he stares me down, waiting for me to back down. But that is never going to happen.
“Set a date or dig a grave, Dante,” he snarls before he marches out of my study.
As soon as he’s gone, I walk over to Joey who’s still holding her hand to her cheek. “Let me see,” I say as I gently move her fingers away to reveal the beginnings of a deep red and purple mark bruise.
“What the hell, Dante?” she winces as I run my fingertips over her cheekbone. “What just happened?”
“Nothing is broken,” I tell her as I inspect her face. “You should see Sophia about getting some ice for it.”
“Dante?”
I shake my head and sigh. “I have no idea why he reacted like that. I’m sorry he hit you. He will never do it again, I promise you.”
I wrap her in a hug as tears trail down her cheek.
“Is Kat really pregnant?” she whispers.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know. I swear. I would never have helped her if I had.”
“I know, kid,” I say, giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head before I let her go.
“What are you going to do?” she asks. “Are you going to marry her?”
I blow out a breath as I walk back to my desk. As much as I hate to admit it, my father is right. My mother would want her first grandchild to be born in wedlock. A pure blood Moretti through and through. But how do I marry a woman who hates me and whom I can never trust?
Chapter23
Kat
Hope is a crock of shit!
I lie on the bed with my hands behind my head, teary-eyed. I can’t seem to stop crying lately. It’s been four days since I was locked in this room. At least I think it has. I have no way of knowing for sure. No TV. No radio. No cell phone, obviously. I think there have been four sunsets since I first spent the night here and it’s dark again now, so four days and soon-to-be five nights.
It’s been four days since I saw Dante. Four days since anybody uttered a single word to me. A housekeeper brought me some of my clothes and toiletries the first day. He wouldn’t let Sophia in here because he knows she would crack and offer me some kind of comfort. Whoever this new one is brings me three meals a day and two snacks as well as prenatal vitamins too. But she never speaks to me. I speak to her of course. I’ve tried being nice to her. Begging her. I’ve tried bombarding her with questions. Shouting. Threats. Crying. Nothing works. She’s impenetrable. Like a robot.
So all I have left to do is cry. And throw up. I throw up a lot. I feel sick all the time. I haven’t been able to keep any food down since yesterday morning, so I didn’t even bother trying to eat my lunch, afternoon snack or dinner today. They are all still sitting on the tray, untouched. Congealing. Like me. Or maybe I’m stagnating. I don’t know.
