AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My fingers go to my own necklace where the medal lies on top of a ring of my own.
The one he slipped on my finger.
In his hand with the gold band is a gun.
In the other is a brown paper bag with a familiar logo.
He tracks where my eyes are and smiles. Placing the bag on the vanity, he pulls out the drawer where Marco stored my gun, laying his there as well.
A weapon marital bed of sorts.
Lovely.
This is my life now.
“You must be hungry,” he says, stepping forward as he grabs the paper bag again. “You didn’t eat at all.”
Like I’m a child.
Like I’m someone he should be protecting.
Like nothing happened a few hours ago.
“I brought you this.” He lifts the bag. “Your favorite.” From the logo, I know it’s chicken nuggets and French fries, and suddenly, it hits me.
A single kind gesture takes all of the bravado I was trying to hold tight to.
The fear.
The betrayal.
The horror.
All of it hits at once, and the wall I put between reality and myself to keep my mental state safe collapses.
“What the fuck just happened, Dante?”
I make an attempt not to scream.
Dante drops the brown bag back down and moves quickly to where I’m sitting on the edge of the pretty bed he bought for me, clearly on the verge of a full-blown panic attack.
He kneels in front of me, looking up and holding my face in his hands. He’s holding me tighter than necessary, like he sees the cracks in my facade, the ones only he can ever detect, and is doing whatever he can to hold me together.
It’s not working.
“He knew,” is all he says.
“Who knew what, Dante!? Because all I know is that I’m now somehow engaged to your fucking nephew and everyone in that fucking room knows I’m a fucking Russo! You put a target between my eyes, Dante!”
“I saved you.” His words are so calm compared to how frantic mine sound. “Lilah, it was the only thing I could do. Paulie was calling me this morning because he found out. He knows who you are now.”
“Everyone knows who I am!” His jaw is tight.
“He called me this morning because Carmine told him you are a Russo. He found out and wanted to use you.”
“Use me?”
“I promise you, none of his options would benefit you or your own grand plan.” Dante’s eyes have gone wide, panicked. “I didn’t know what to do, Delilah. I needed to buy time. I sold him a story. Told him I was vetting you all along, making sure your intentions were pure. That I was making sure you wouldn’t betray us. That my plan all along was to set him up with you.”
