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I blink rapidly, stunned by his declaration.
“Your father fears me, which means he fears you.”
Something potent settles itself within my stomach. A recognition of what he’s just said. We’re powerful because we’re together. An unbreakable force. Vincent and I are invincible to the judgment, pain, and threats of the outside world.
twenty
“You totally should have bought that dress,” Gabriella scolds me for the hundredth time.
I nudge her with my shoulder, pushing her into the glass windows ofLouis Vuitton.“It was five thousand dollars,” I balk.
She shrugs. “Vincent would’ve paid for it. Didn’t he give you his AMEX?”
We’ve been shopping for hours. After Gabriella asked for a rain check on our lunch, she messaged me the next morning asking if I wanted to go shopping and have lunch. I jumped at the opportunity. One, I wanted to make up for my poor behavior the day before. Second, Cat aside, friends were scarce. Not long ago, I thought of Trixie as my friend, but the bitterness of her betrayal still burns me into fury. My marriage was sacred to me, even if she thought it was a farce. She crossed a line I could never forgive her for. I wouldn’twantto forgive her.
“Are you ready for lunch?” I ask. “I’m starving.”
“Tommy Bahama?” Gabriella suggests.
I nod.
I hook my arm through hers, and we walk arm in arm, a spark of friendship already having solidified between us. She isn’t far off eighteen, only a few months younger than me, and she holds a connection to Vincent I want to nurture.
“Bianca!”
I stop walking, my body taking a step backward in shock when Trixie steps into my path.
“Leave me alone.”
Gabriella looks back and forth between us before grabbing my hand. “Let’s go.”
“I’m sorry,” Trixie cries, following me as we walk away.
“It’s not good enough.” I shake my head, looking over the road, afraid Vincent is close enough to see us. “You should go. He’ll kill you if he thinks you’re harassing me.”
“You don’t think anything is wrong with that?” She grabs me, turning me to her completely.
“Of course there is,” I bite. “But there is nothing I can do about it. Leave me alone.”
“Girlfriend, you heard her,” Gabriella steps in.
“We’re friends.” Trixie stares at Gabriella for a second longer than makes me comfortable, so I step in front of her.
“Are we? Because I can’t imagine a friend I’d like to call mine who would be so willing to fuck my husband.”
Shame forces her eyes down. “You asked me what he was like… I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“I asked you that before he wasmine,” I yell, closing my eyes in embarrassment at my outburst.
“Yours? Vincent doesn’t belong to you, Bianca. Surely you know that? He’s a criminal.”
Something about the woman in front of me was different from the one I counted as a friend. Her voice holds a desperation that has unease coursing over my skin in a ripple of anxiety. It tells me to run. Her appearance is messy. Her eyes move over the street skittishly.
“Don’t speak about things you don’t understand.”
She laughs, the sound in no way humorous. “I understand more than you ever will.”
I frown. “I’m going now.”
