Chapter 29 #3
The thought made me so sick, I had to jump from my chair and run to the bathroom. I shut and locked the door behind me, wretching all I’d had for breakfast into the porcelain toilet. Rocco banged on the door, but I told him to give me a moment.
Another moment later, another knock, this one gentler. Scarlett. I cracked the door, and she peeked in at me.
“I’d say morning sickness but given the situation…” She handed me a small bottle of mouth wash, and I’d never been more thankful for such a small blessing in my life.
When I walked out, she was waiting for me. She squeezed my hand. “I don’t feel everything,” she said, “but I feel a glow coming from you—an overwhelming warmth that makes me jealous I can’t have another.”
We smiled at each other, but it faded fast when we got to the hallway and my husband and hers were standing with their backs against the wall. A female doctor was there, and she looked me over.
“You are feeling sick, Signora Fausti?”
“I’m pregnant,” I said, even though I knew the sickness had to do with the assaulting mental images of my husband and that wicked woman in the room.
My father-in-law had been standing by the door to his office, along with Maggie Beautiful, and her eyes instantly filled with tears. She hugged me so hard I took a step back.
“I’m so happy for you and Rocco, Ari! This is such a blessing, isn’t it, Luca?” While she held me, she looked at him, but his eyes were on my husband.
Surprising me, Luca brought me to his chest and hugged me before he kissed each of my cheeks. Then he said the meeting had to continue. He asked if I still wanted to be included.
In answer, I started for his office and stopped at the door. I wanted so badly to look at my husband, but in that moment, I couldn’t. When we entered the room again, he took my hand, and even though I wanted to pull away, I refused.
The women sat before the men in usual tradition, and then the meeting picked up where it had left off. My father-in-law jumped back to the central point.
“There is a possibility of a pregnancy, then.”
The girl bit her lip and then nodded.
Luca stared into the distance for a moment before he turned his stone eyes to Rocco.
My husband did not say a word. What could he say? I was drugged?
Maybe he couldn’t say it, but I could. I called her a liar again and recounted how I found my husband in the room. How he couldn’t remember anything. How the donkey wrangler had passed out too.
Luca looked back at Rocco. Rocco only nodded. Luca ordered Guido to call the doctor in. Five minutes later, he entered the chat. Luca asked him to recount what he had found, and after he adjusted his glasses, he said no substance had been found in Rocco’s blood.
The girl clapped.
Luca turned to her, and I saw it then—what he had been keeping behind a shield. He didn’t trust her. It was the first time I noticed a flicker of unease on her face.
“Tell me, is this a happy time for you, Signorina Novak.”
Nik Novak asked for permission to speak again. Luca nodded.
“My daughter feels vindicated, Signor Fausti. You can understand this?”
“What I cannot understand is how a girl who feels threatened, or a heavy conscience, can cheer. Explain this to me.”
None of them had an explanation, not even the girl in question.
Luca dismissed them from the room, saying he would be in touch.
He wanted the doctor to take Ita’s blood as soon as it was possible.
The girl gave me a sarcastic little wave on her way out, and all the anger and frustration that had been building boiled over.
I stood from my chair so fast, the only one who’d seen it coming was my husband. He held me back.
I pointed at her. “You are a lying bitch, and the truth always comes out.” I looked at my father-in-law. “If I can prove she’s a liar, or the truth comes out on its own, do I get vindicated as my husband’s wife?”
Luca stared at me. “Speak your piece.”
“If she’s lying, she eats in my kitchen—whatever I serve her.” I looked at her. “How do juicy tomatoes served on old pewter plates sound to you?”
“You don’t mean…Signor Fausti!” Nik Novak said, almost gasping for air. “I believe my daughter has made her point—” Before Nik Novak could react, Luca had him by the throat, feet off the floor.
Luca looked into Nik’s eyes as he struggled for breath. “These are bold claims your daughter makes of a happily married man. Let us ask your daughter, if she is so truthful.” Luca looked at her. “Will you stake your life on the claims you have made in this room?”
The girl looked left and then right, but she was cornered and she knew it. “Y-y-yes,” she stammered. Then, as any lying narcissist would, she stuck her chin up and said in a loud clear voice, “Yes.”
Luca set her father down, and he looked at the man in disgust as Ita and Irena had to help him out of the office.
Luca motioned to my seat again, and after I sat, all the men did too. My father-in-law looked at Rocco.
“The doctor claims there was no drugs present in your system. Even if so, the girl could’ve still used your body, which means in all truth—you were unfaithful to your wife.”
Rocco said nothing. Luca continued.
“As per our laws, my law, if the marriage is a covenant in the true sense of the word, if it was done to your wife, it shall be done to you, if she so chooses.”
I had to keep my mouth shut. It was about to fall open. He was saying that if I wanted to take a lover, because my husband had chosen to be unfaithful to me after we vowed only each other…I was allowed the eye-for-an-eye treatment.
Rocco let go of my hand.
Suddenly, I felt like grabbing on to him, holding on for dear life, because the tension in the room felt suffocating. Worse than when the girl had been spitting out her lies in the room.
Luca looked directly at me. “Tell me, daughter of the heart, will it be a lover for you. After the baby is born, of course.”
In a noise I’d never heard a man make in my life, Rocco got to his feet, and in what felt like under a second, flipped the heavy desk over, cracking it down the middle.
Papers flew in all different directions.
In the same amount of time, my father-in-law had my husband by the throat, but Rocco took his wrist and shoved it off.
The look on my father-in-law’s face shocked me.
He wasn’t crazed with anger. He almost looked pleased. If only for a second. The look concerned me enough that I looked to Scarlett, who had appeared beside me and taken my hand, her husband shielding us, and it seemed as if we both recognized something wasn’t right.
Rocco took Luca by the throat. “Any man dares to come near my wife,” he said, a ferociousness to his voice I’d never heard before. It was bloodthirsty. Hungry for it. “I will rip each and every heart out, that is my truth, father.”
Rocco had him, but not for long. Luca was able to set free himself. If I would’ve blinked, I would’ve missed it. Luca picked Rocco up and slammed him down on the downturned desk.
“You disrespect my office!” He was like a blood-hungry animal, going for my husband’s throat with his mouth.
“Stop!”
At first, I thought I had shouted it, the word coming from my mouth in Italian, but it was Maggie Beautiful who had said it. I was about to intervene, not allowing my father-in-law to kill my husband, and that was when I realized…
Rocco was silently asking for it. Preparing for it.
He didn’t know what had happened that night, and if he was unfaithful to me, meaning to or not…
I knew he was going to leave me. Leave me for good—leave this world.
Maybe he would even provoke Luca to do it.
The guilt would eat at him every second of the day like acid, even if I forgave him.
How could I blame him?
I trusted him. Trusted him with my entire heart. I valued it, because through it, I felt a flood of love that I’d never felt before for my husband, for our child I carried, for our life together.
But that was a question and situation to reflect on another time.
In that moment, Maggie Beautiful was standing close to the two animals, both bloodthirsty and ready to tear each other’s throats out. Luca had stilled on top of my husband, his hand around his throat. My husband was staring up at him, almost giving him his throat—daring him to break his windpipe.
I made a whimpering noise without even meaning to. Scarlett squeezed my hand even harder, her bones trembling, and Rocco’s eyes rolled to mine. “Please don’t leave me,” I mouthed. “Please.” Then I touched my stomach.
It seemed like both men released each other at once.
Maggie Beautiful started to speak to Luca like I’d never heard her speak to him before.
Her voice was firm but also pleading. I still had a lot to learn about the Italian language, but I knew she was telling him she knew who he was—a man—but she was asking him to please not do this—to hurt the son of her heart, ever.
Rocco fixed his suit and hair as he made his way in front of me, as solemn as someone who had just been accused of murdering something vital our world needed to survive.
He stared at me, and I stared at him.
I cleared my throat, because in that moment, no matter how badly my body shook, the words had to be said.
“I don’t want anyone else,” I said, my voice loud and clear, even if my knees shook.
“Not before. Not now. Not ever. No matter if it has been done to me…No. No other man for me. My vows are sacred and always will be.”
My grandmother’s words echoed through the years. “There’s never a ‘but’ in love, Amora.” I knew she hadn’t meant to stay no matter what—abuse, in any form—but even then, there’s still no but.
Love doesn’t just disappear because we get hurt by the people who are supposed to love us. But loving doesn’t mean we have to stay with a clown either.
In this situation, though, I chose to trust my husband.
The furthest thing from a clown there was. He was the perfect specimen of a man who was an imperfect human being, and I knew in my heart of hearts, whatever happened wasn’t his fault.
Rocco made an inhuman noise in his throat. He picked me up, carrying me toward the door, and then his father’s voice stopped him.
“You think you are strong enough to defeat me,” he said. “We will see.”
My eyes caught Luca’s, and a chill ran down my spine.
Rocco’s reaction to what Luca had offered me made him insane, and for some reason, my father-in-law seemed satisfied to know how far Rocco could be pushed through me.
It was far enough that the colosseum on the property came to mind, and all that came with it.