CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Ella
H annah and Val stare at me in my father’s living room, their jaws dropped. Their astonishment is split between my baby news and that I’ve temporarily stopped talking to the father.
Who’s a hacker for the mob. Something else I had to delicately confess. Hannah’s worried eyes kill me.
Balor’s been calling me, and I had no choice but to turn off my phone and pop out my sim card so he can’t track me. But it’s only a matter of time before he shows up here.
I’ve lit a fuse that will no doubt explode spectacularly in my face.
“He’s going to force me to marry him,” I mutter, pacing.
“And that’s bad, why?” Val asks, shaking her head.
“What do you mean, why is that bad?” Hannah jumps off the couch. “She’s a person. She’s free to do whatever she wants.”
I smile weakly, knowing when you mix in a dash of mafia into that cocktail, it paralyzes rational arguments.
Val stands and grips my shoulders. “Ella, honey, do you love him?”
“We’ve only been seeing each other for two weeks.” I bite a broken nail. “If seeing each other is the right word for screwing our brains out.”
“Did he ask you to marry him?” Hannah throws that out there.
“No. But he made it seem like I wouldn’t have a choice if he did.”
“Of course, you have a choice,” Hannah cries out. “What you also have is an opportunity.”
I stop dead in my tracks and stare at her.
“Opportunity?”