Chapter 10
VICTOR
This cannot be legal.
I owned half the house; she couldn’t change the fucking locks without me knowing, could she? I dragged a hand down my face and groaned, knowing Lila was completely ignoring me from inside.
This wasn’t like her at all.
Delivering me fucking divorce papers, then this?
I turned to see neighbours peering out at me from behind blinds and curtains, and rage welled within me.
“Have you seen enough?!” I roared, stomping to my truck. I’d come to have a civil fucking conversation with my wife, and she was behaving like a woman scorned.
Which she was, I realized, as rain fell on my burning cheeks.
But how were we meant to get past this if she wouldn’t even fucking talk to me?
I spied the side gate leading to the garden, but knowing her right now, she would have changed the locks there too.
But could I scale it?
I’m forty-six, but fairly fit. It’s nearly seven-foot tall though, and what would I even do? Smash the patio windows to speak to my wife?
No. I’ll wait outside—she would have to leave the house at some point. Even if I waited here all damn night.
I sent her a text.
Victor: I’m not leaving until you speak to me.
Then I sat in my truck, glaring at my house through the rain-soaked windows.
It was around an hour later that my sister and mother showed up. My stomach dropped when my mother pointed a finger at me, then shook her head.
Lila called my fucking family?
Vanessa headed to the house without even looking at me, and my mother made a beeline for my truck, an umbrella resting on her shoulder, shielding her from the rain.
Her hair was perfectly made into a bun, her brown eyes narrowing at me as she rapped on my window.
“Get out of the car, Victor.” Her heavily accented tone told me she’d been speaking plenty of Italian, which she did when she was pissed off.
I sighed and opened the door, standing in the rain before my tiny mother who stood with a hand on her hip.
“No call?” she snapped, flicking a hand at me. “You don’t tell your own mother you cheated on your wife?”
I stared around us, which was the wrong thing to do. A finger jabbed into my chest.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
“Mama, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
Another jab.
“To me? Or your wife?” Her voice climbed with every word. She wanted a show. “Because I did not bring you up like this!”
I bowed my head. “I came to apologise—”
“Idiot!” My mother shoved me in the chest and I gaped at her. “Lila wants a divorce! There is no speaking now!”
“Mama—”
“What can you say? Hey? I’m sorry I slept with some other woman? Please, forgive me and let me in?”
I frowned. “Mama, you’re meant to be on my side!”
“No!” Another shove. “I’m disgusted with you.
Twenty years of marriage and you do the dirty on your lovely wife, then come here, demanding to be let inside?
Saying you won’t leave until she talks to you?
” Her eyes blazed, and she spoke through gritted teeth as she delivered another blow.
“Your father would be so disappointed in you.”
I winced, barely able to look at her anymore. My father was a king to me, and he wasn’t here to tell me himself what he thought. But as a loyal husband, I could only imagine his reaction.
“I need to talk to her. I own half of this house; she can’t do this!” I argued, as she shook her head.
“You give her the divorce, let her sell the house, and leave her alone. You don’t deserve her. Now go. I don’t want to even look at you."
Sell the house? What?
“I love her. She’s my wife, I’m not—” I gritted out before she slapped me around the face, her voice rising.
My cheek stung, but the women in my family loved passionately, and they loved my wife as much as they loved me.
This was deserved, but it still hurt like hell.
“If you loved her, you wouldn’t have cheated with a homewrecker! You love your wife; you treat her like you love her. You are nothing but a cheater. Stop embarrassing yourself and leave.”
My mother glared at me and pointed at my truck.
“Leave, Victor.”
I loved my mother, and respected the fuck out of her, and I knew better than to push her when she was this pissed. My sister didn’t even glance my way, for fuck’s sake.
“Fine,” I muttered, yanking open the truck door.
“You have some sense then,” my mom called before narrowing her eyes further. “You won’t get her back. Stop trying.”
Then she turned toward my home and walked up the drive without a care in the world as the rain dripped from her umbrella.
“Your mother scares the fuck out of me. She always did,” Enzo said, lifting the beer bottle to his lips.
“She’s got a mean right hook too,” I muttered, wincing when I touched my cheek.
“She’s big on family, dude.”
“Yeah? I’m her fucking son.”
Enzo gazed at me. “She loves Lila like her own. Don’t forget when Lila’s dad cheated and left her mom in the shit, your mom and dad were there for them.”
I closed my eyes and wished to every god in the world I could take the affair back. But I couldn’t. My mom would be even more unsympathetic if she knew it was because I felt neglected.
Fucking hell.
“Why’d you do it, man?” Enzo asked, the beer bottle now dangling from his fingers as he gazed at me from the armchair across from me.
“I told you.”
“Yeah, you said you felt neglected.” Enzo paused. “Is that it?”
I nodded, feeling fucking ridiculous.
“Maybe…” Enzo took a deep breath and leaned forward, his eyes meeting mine. “Maybe you just let her go, Vic.”
Pain sliced through my chest at the thought. I’d never let Lila go. Never.
But maybe I’d have to play by her rules in order to get another chance.
However, deep down inside, I knew it was over. She wouldn’t even speak to me. She’d filed for divorce and changed the locks. Lila couldn't afford to live there alone, though, so I felt sick at what might come next.
Who knew my wife was capable of this?