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“Explain that you lied,” I cry. “That you’re not who you fucking said.” My heart feels like it’s shattered into a million pieces and my throat feels tight.
“I am. What I’ve told you is true . . . everything but my job.”
I suddenly feel exhausted. “Take me home.”
* * *
Nero forces me to drink lots of water before guiding me upstairs to bed. I can’t bear to look at him let alone speak to him, so when he turns the light out and leaves, I’m relieved. I cry into my pillow. I’ve been such an idiot . . . again.
I drift off into a restless sleep, tossing and turning, and dreaming of Callie and Emerson. I wake with a start when the light floods the room. Dante leers over me, and the fear I’d left behind for a couple days soon returns. “Dante,” I whisper.
“Get up.” I sit and the room spins. I hold my head. Fuck, I forgot what a hangover feels like, and it’s not good. “Are you sick?”
“No.”
“Where’s Nero?”
I frown. “I don’t know.” Last night comes flooding back, and I suddenly feel worse. I should tell Dante. If he finds out that I knew and didn’t say anything, he’ll be so angry.
“I have breakfast downstairs. Let’s go.” I follow him down, smelling the bacon as I get closer. The last thing I want to do is eat. “I had someone come in and cook for us,” Dante says as we enter the dining room. I stare at the table full of food.
Minutes later, Nero appears with Kai. He gives me a strange look, and I think he’s silently pleading with me to stay quiet. “Everything okay, Boss?” he asks.
Dante points to the seat on his right, and Nero sits while I sit to the left. “I thought we could have breakfast and a catch-up.” He begins to pile food on my plate. There’s no way I can eat, but if I tell him that, he’ll punish me, so I pick at the bacon.
“Do you wanna talk in private?” Nero asks.
“No. Let’s get it all out in the open.” Nero glares at me. He thinks I’ve told Dante. “Shall we start by talking about this?” he asks, holding up a condom wrapper. It’s the condom wrapper Nero used.
I begin to panic, my body shaking as I try to think of an answer quickly. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. “It’s mine,” says Nero.
“Clearly,” snaps Dante. “What I want to know, Nero, is why the fuck there is a used condom in the bathroom?”
“I’m so sorry,” I cry. “I’m sorry.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dante growls as he turns back to Nero. “I gave you a simple instruction. Fuck my wife, get her pregnant. You fucked my wife using a condom. Do you not understand basic sex education, or should I show you?” The words hit my brain and confusion follows. Dante gives a cruel laugh. “Oh, wifey, you didn’t think he actually wanted to fuck you?”
“Tess, ignore him. Listen to me,” shouts Nero, standing. Kai rushes forward, grabbing Nero’s arms and pulling them behind his back. “It was real. It was all real,” he continues to yell.
I stare, open-mouthed. His words sound distant as Dante laughs harder. “I hired him to get you pregnant, Tessa. He doesn’t give a shit about you. All he wants is to work his way up in my firm.” My heart breaks, shattering into a thousand pieces. “All the dinners, the little dates, the picnic in the park,” Dante hisses, “I cleared it all.”
“That’s not true,” yells Nero. “He’s lying.”
“So, now you have a choice—fuck my wife, or I’ll find someone who will.” Dante grabs my hair and pulls me to my feet. He shoves me over the table, pinning me face down. “What do you say, Nero? You or Kai? Who wants to go first?”
I rest my face against the hard wood and stare at Nero. He looks devastated, and somehow, that hurts me too. He deserves to hurt. I should blurt out some of my own truths, but I don’t want him to feel pain. I don’t want him to feel the same as I do because it’s too much. No one deserves to feel like this. Dante pulls my shirt up over my arse, and I hear him laughing over the whooshing sound in my ears. This must be how Emerson felt. Poor Emerson. My heart twists painfully.
My hand slides slowly across the table to the fruit knife. Nero is struggling to free himself as Kai shouts for Enzo to come and help. In all the commotion, they don’t notice me take the knife, and I smile because, for once, Dante’s dropped the ball. For once, I’m going to win.
I don’t feel the blade go in. I thought I would. In fact, this feels nothing like I’d imagined. Maybe Emerson is helping from the other side. She knows I’m ready, so she’s making the pain feel less. I pull my hand up to my face to check and, sure enough, it’s coated in sticky, red blood. I smile wider, relief flooding me. I’m going to be free. Finally.
“Tessa?” Dante yells, pulling me up and turning me onto my back. He assesses me with his eyes, freezing on my now bloody inner thigh. “What the fuck have you done?”
“Jesus, if she’s hit the femoral artery, she’ll die in minutes,” shouts Nero. Those words bring me comfort and I close my eyes, waiting patiently for death to come.
NERO
Kai releases me, and I take off my shirt, ripping it down the middle and wrapping it around Tessa’s wound. “Call an ambulance,” I demand.
