Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Matteo
She was lying to me. Or at the very least, she wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I had thought so for months, but in the weeks since I had found that poison in her bathroom, I had become sure of it.
There was more going on than I knew, but I couldn’t find out anything. It was like all my avenues of enquiry were dead ends, and no one across the pond was talking.
Sophia almost did, though. Just now, she almost spilled her secrets. I had seen in her eyes that she had wanted to, and like a moron, I had kept on talking over her.
And now the moment was gone.
Leaning forward, I pushed the plate away. I knew it wasn’t poisoned, but I had tried to punish her anyway.
Humiliation was my weapon of choice for Sophia.
Sighing heavily, I dropped my head into my hands. What was I going to do about Sophia? If I couldn’t find out what she was hiding, and she wasn’t telling me. What other choice did I have but to keep punishing her?
She could stop it at any point. All she had to do was talk to me truthfully.
The chair scraped back with a loud screech, and I walked toward the bedroom where we had once shared a bed. I wasn’t going to sleep, though. And neither was Sophia.
Grabbing the closest dress that looked suitable, I headed toward her room, slamming open the door without knocking.
She froze. Her back was to me, and she was dressed in nothing but a pair of red panties and a bra. I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to know she would look exquisite.
She always looked amazing, and it made me furious. “Why are you standing there in your underwear?” I snapped and scolded myself. So much for trying a different approach to get her to open up. What was it about her that made me crazy? “Still trying to seduce me? It won’t work.”
She whirled around, hands on her hips, and she glared at me. “You are the one who walked in here without knocking, Matteo. I was changing. I wasn’t hanging around in my underwear in the hopes you would come in.”
I stared at her open-mouthed. Of course what she said made sense. It was my own thoughts that didn’t.
I sucked in a breath. “Have dinner with me?”
She shifted her weight slightly. “We have already had this conversation this evening, Matteo.”
“I am aware, and now we are having it again. I want you to put this on.” I thrust out the dress, which was as red as the underwear I was trying not to drool over.
She stared at my outstretched hand and the scrap of red material hanging from it. When she lifted her eyes to me, hers were full of confusion.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Sucking in a deep, settling breath, I tried again. “I want us to go out for dinner.”
Her eyebrows slammed down. She still didn’t reach for the dress.
“But you said…”
I cut her off. “I know what I said, but I think I want a burger, and you haven’t eaten. And I would like you to come with me.” I stressed the last words. “Plus, you haven’t left the apartment for weeks. Don’t you want some fresh air?”
The look she gave me told me she did.
“So get dressed and let’s go and get some burgers. Maybe take a walk. You would like that, wouldn’t you?”
Her fingers brushed against the material, but goosebumps erupted all over my arms like it had been me she touched.
“I’m not wearing that to get burgers, Matteo.” She snatched her hand back.
“You will wear what I fucking tell you to wear and be thankful I’m even allowing you out of the house.”
Why was she so defiant?
Shaking her head, Sophia took a step back. “Then, unfortunately, I am going to have to decline your offer. I hope you enjoy your burger.”
She turned her back on me.
“There won’t be any food for you, now put on…” I froze. I wasn’t going to starve her, and we both knew it. I was just blowing hot air, and she knew it.
It was hard to battle a woman who knew me as well as Sophia did. Especially when we were so alike.
A sigh rattled my chest. “Just put your fucking jeans, Sophia.” I gave in.
This was a battle I was willing to lose because I would win the war against her and her family.
She flashed a smile over her shoulder and reached for them. “Are you going to just stand there and watch me dress?”
Crossing my arms about my chest. I nodded. “Yep. Now, hurry up. I’m hungry and I want food that I know isn’t going to kill me.”
She jerked on her clothes. There was nothing slow and sensual about it, so I knew she wasn’t trying to seduce me. It was like she was getting changed as quickly as possible. Like she didn’t want my eyes lingering on her body.
Too soon, she was completely covered, her long dark hair was pulled back from her face in a messy ponytail, and her feet were stuffed into sneakers.
Even casually dressed, she still looked beautiful.
I offered her my arm, and she slipped her hand through the crook of my arm like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“So where are we going?” she asked, the moment we set foot in the elevator, and I pressed the lobby button instead of the garage.
“There’s a burger place a few blocks over. Tiny hole-in-the-wall dive place. It’s completely low-end and…” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her frown. “It has the biggest, tastiest burgers I have ever tasted. There’s even one with pineapple…”
The doors whooshed open, and we stepped out.
“You are not right in the head, Matteo,” she said, completely deadpan. “I bet you like pineapple on pizza as well. And you call yourself—
Halfway across the marble floor, her body jerked backwards. She froze.
Confused, I had taken two steps before I realized she had stopped.
Turning to her, the first thing I noticed was that she had a weird look on her face. The second was the blood.
That just confused me even more. It took me the space of several heartbeats to understand what I was seeing.
Sophia dropped her hands to her stomach, where a bright red stain was spreading across her shirt. She pressed her hand into it, and blood bubbled up between her fingers.
“Matteo?” she implored me, her eyes begging me to help her.
I jumped into action, catching her around the shoulders as she slid to the floor.
“Sophia.” Her name left my lips in a whisper. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” Wildly, I looked around. The desk man was staring at me open-mouthed, a phone already pressed to his ear.
“I’ve called 911.”
I didn’t hear anything else he said because that really didn’t matter.
Someone had shot her right here in our building, and I hadn’t protected her.
Someone had tried to kill her.
To the left of me, one of my men skidded to a halt. His jacket was already bundled in his hands. “Press that to her stomach, Matteo,” he ordered.
I shook myself out of my daze, pressing down hard on her stomach. She let out a cry of pain.
“I know it hurts,” I told her when she cried again. “But pain is good. Pain means you’re going to be fine.” I tried to make light of it.
But there was nothing light about how much she was bleeding.
“We need to get her to a hospital,” I muttered and watched in horror as her eyes fluttered closed.
“Ambulance will take too long,” he said. “I’ll get the car. We will be quicker, and she needs medical attention.”
Yeah, it would, and yes, she did need attention. I wasn’t going to lose her like this. I refused to.
No one got to hurt Sophia but me. She was mine to punish.
Standing, I lifted her into my arms.
“Let’s get her out of here, and I want to know who took that shot.”
“Yes, sir.” The man didn’t even try to argue with me. When it came to her, there was no arguing with me. I might hate her, but I loved her as well, and I wasn’t going to let her die like this.
The doctor in his white coat stood in front of me and completely ignored my rage.
“The bullet barely hit her,” he said, but I barely heard him. My eyes kept drifting to the bed. To her, to Sophia. Whom I had almost lost. It didn’t matter how many times I was told that she was in no real danger. I knew the truth.
Someone had tried to kill her. It was just pure dumb luck that they had been a lousy shot.
“She will be sore for a few days, but nothing too bad.” He glanced down at his notes. “But we do need to ask some questions. If she isn’t on any birth control, it’s possible that she’s pregnant again? We will need to do some follow-up tests if she is and…”
My head snapped back around to his. “There is a chance, of course, but I don’t think so. But what do you mean again?”
The doctor fell silent. His eyes widened, and he took a self-conscious step back. “You didn’t know…” His voice wobbled, and for the first time since I had set foot in this hospital, he seemed genuinely afraid of me.
Good.
Scared men were more prone to talk.
“Maybe I am…”
“What do you mean again?” I asked again. Half-crazed, I spun toward the bed.
She lay there, looking pale and in pain. I had never seen her look so small before. The narrow hospital bed seemed to swallow her. But maybe that was because she was trying to make herself look as small as possible.
“You were pregnant before?”
She didn’t answer me. Instead, she wrapped her arms around her and turned her face away guiltily.
I crossed the room in a rage. Grabbing her face in my hands, I yanked her head back.
“You can’t do that.” The doctor yelled, and I ignored him completely, tugging her hair back. I forced Sophia to meet my eyes.
“Answer me. You were pregnant before? You had a goddamn child.”
I remembered the thin, silvery lines on her stomach and the softness of her curves. Even the way she acted now made sense.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I was pregnant.”
My chest retightened. She had said over and over again that I was the only man she had ever been with, and now she was telling me she’d had a baby.
Could that baby be mine?
“So there is a baby?” Wildly, I searched her face. “Is it mine? Where…” I left the rest unsaid.
Her face turned slack. “There is no baby,” she spat. “I didn’t give birth. I couldn’t…well, there was no baby to give birth to.”
She had aborted. That’s what she was trying to tell me. Years ago, six to be exact. Sophia had been carrying my baby, and she had gotten rid of it.
The rage that engulfed me was all-consuming. It took me over in a white-hot rage. Slamming my fist into the pillow by the side of her head, I screamed.
I screamed that I hated her.
Just when I thought she couldn’t hurt me anymore, she went and tore another piece of my soul and heart out.
“Sir, you can’t…I am going to have to call security.”
“Don’t bother,” I snapped. “I’m leaving. Test her to make sure she’s not pregnant, and this time, I want proof.” Storming away, I didn’t look back.
I couldn’t. If I did, I would hurt her.
I had never hated anyone as much as I hated her.