14. Ilaria
14
ILARIA
D ante’s Inferno is packed.
I lost my fiancée thirty minutes ago when he was pulled away to talk business with men who didn’t seem to be here with legitimate things. But Dante didn’t have to make excuses for what he was doing, I played my part and kissed his cheek before drifting off to talk to everyone and thank them for coming.
Being a mafia wife meant being a good actress and I was working on my Oscar nomination tonight.
My eyes scanned the bar area, landing on my friends and breathing a sigh of relief as I slipped onto the stool between Tessa and Sammie.
The bartender brings me an espresso martini as soon as I’m seated and I’m chugging it before he even has a chance to turn around, which is good because he can make me another.
“We want to go downstairs. Sammie heard someone talking about there being an illegal casino below us.”
Jesus Fucking Christ.
“Can we get a round of shots?” I call to the bartender because the only way I’m going to be able to deal with my curious friends is by getting so drunk that I need to be tucked into bed tonight.
Dante wouldn’t like that.
Fuck .
My friends would get me home though.
Why did I care what Dante wanted?
But I knew why. It was his night, he had worked hard for this and he wanted to have everything run smoothly.
We had already done the pictures with our families and had taken a dozen pictures of us cutting a ribbon because Dante insisted we do it together, whispering some romantic notion in my ear about how this was the first building of our empire.
He looked too good tonight.
All that dark hair and dark eyes in the burgundy, like he had danced out of the flames of hell. If he would grow a five o’clock shadow that man might convince we to trade in my-
NOPE .
I grabbed Sammie’s drink, tossing back the gin and tonic without even thinking about it, breathing heavily as I looked at the shots that were being laid out in front of us.
“Who is Dante talking to?” I looked at Maddie, watching her point to where my fiancée was currently half hiding in a corner, his arm around a girl that looked oddly familiar.
His left hand rested on her hip as she looked up at him, twirling one of her blonde curls as she flirted very openly with the man I was supposed to marry in a few weeks. Neither of them seemed to care that I was there.
And then it hit me.
Gabriella DeLuiso. Dante’s ex-girlfriend.
I had done some extensive web sleuthing when I had gotten home. Deep dives of his social media, trying to learn as much about I could about him. Which included the blonde he was currently talking to.
He had dated her for two years and they had traveled together in his early 20’s. Pictures that she still had on her account and even one that was pinned so I had to see my fiancee wrapping someone up in his arms, looking happy.
That mother fucker.
I should go and-
Stopping myself I blink, looking at my girlfriends and smiling at them, picking up the shot as they all exchanged looks, knowing that whatever I was about to propose was going to be an adventure. But wasn’t it always.
“To good times, good friends, and good trouble.” We clinked glasses, taking our shots and slamming the glasses down, laughing.
How many times had we taken shots together instead of talking? It was like our pinky promise to each other that we would eventually be able to talk about things.
I could feel Dante’s eyes on me and I knew better than to glance up at him as I looked at my friends. I didn’t want to see someone else wrapped up in the man I had taken engagement pictures with today.
“Meet me at Logan in an hour. I think we need a vacation.”
Standing up from the stool I turned just as Dante came up, wrapping an arm around me. I tried not to think about how he smelled faintly of someone else’s perfume.
I wasn’t jealous. I wasn’t hurt. I was….
Something .
“Is business settled? Did you move on to pleasure so soon?” Asking him sweetly as I didn’t flinch from his eye contact. Waiting for him to answer, see if he understood what I had seen and exactly how I had felt about it.
So much for not having a goomar.
“Princess, don’t act jea-”
“Fuck you, Dante.”
I rolled so that the door was to my back and I was still close with him, a smile plastered on my face so everyone would think we were two lovers talking instead of me being ready to ring the stupid mother fuckers thick neck.
He stepped closer, arm wrapping around me as he dragged me close to him, my hands sliding over his chest to keep the distance between us instead of tugging him closer like I would have done earlier.
“Come to my office, Ilaria. We can talk about what you saw. Let me explain myself.” There was a plea in his voice and I wanted to just follow him and let him explain himself.
But Dante should have never put himself in a situation where he needed to explain his actions to me. He should never have been holding his ex-girlfriend with the same hand I would be sliding a ring on. The same hand whose wrist was weighed down with a watch that I had bought him. The same hand he was holding me with now.
I was going to cry or throw up.
I had known him for a day and already this man was pulling at my emotions and manipulating me into feeling things that I knew better than to feel.
All men are the same.
They show you over and over again who they are. The fix me sign they wear in their eyes prompting false hope to a broken cause.
“No.”
The one word was all I could manage and Dante was searching my eyes, seeing the tears that had pooled there. I was going to cry because he had made me feel stupid and the last thing I wanted was to cry in front of him.
He didn’t deserve them.
“Just let me go home. Please.”
The exhaustion in my begging made him stop trying, looking at me as he nodded his head, leaning in and kissing my forehead with his poison lips.
The lips he had used to kiss me and give me hope that maybe I could be wrong and maybe I could have feelings for my husband some day.
Good to see that my original instincts were still all I could trust.
“I have a car parked in the alley. Let me walk you out.” He held me steady as he guided me through the restaurant, keeping up appearances until we were outside.
His driver was smoking outside but upon seeing Dante stood straighter, flicking it away as he rushed to open the back door. Dante flicked his wrist in dismissal, the man jumping behind the driver’s seat and keeping his eyes straight ahead instead of looking at us.
“I can’t leave, Ilaria. I have to-”
“I didn’t ask you to come back with me.” The way Dante was grinding his teeth, probably ready to tell me to stop interrupting him but I didn’t give a single fuck about what Dante wanted. “Bye.” I pushed towards the car but he grabbed me, lowering his lips towards me but, I turned my head, letting his lips hit my cheek.
He was shocked but recovered quickly from my denial. Straightening his back as he cleared his throat, eyes on me as he tried to see what was going on with me but I wouldn’t give the man another inch of my life.
I learned my lesson.
Slipping into the back of the car I knew it was only a five minute ride to the penthouse and I prayed I could keep in the tears that were threatening to fall.
Fuck any man who ever made me cry. They have never been worth a single tear and I’m sick of wasting them on fucks.
But they fell anyway, not caring about my pleas that they did not.
The sob came out as I covered my mouth, feeling the driver’s eyes on me in the mirror. Making a spectacle of myself that I was sure he was going to tell Dante about.
I just needed twenty minutes in the place to get changed, pack a bag and escape for a few days with my friends.
My life had been filled with adventures and friendship. I’d take as many of those as I could before being tied to Dante.
Fuck, now that I knew he had a goomar lined up I would take them after I was married as well.
If he wasn’t going to change his life for our engagement, why would I?
When the car stopped, I saw the driver ready to ask if I was okay or if I needed a minute but I threw the door open, rushing inside without a word and riding up to the penthouse with my tears as the music that played.
If I called my friends they would all be here in a moment, crawling on Dante’s bed as they hugged me and turning on some romcom to comfort me. They would be spoon feeding me chocolate banana ice cream like it was medicine and I was the patient.
But I wanted them to rally around me and some more fun together.
Which meant borrowing my fathers plane without permission and going on a girls trip. Girls trip being code word for getting more revenge on those who had wronged us.
But I’m really good at apologizing so I’ll cross that bridge when I get there with my father.
There were boxes of things that had been delivered earlier from my fathers house littering the living room and bedroom at the penthouse.
I had tried to unpack some of the stuff before the opening but as I looked around I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get everything done.
I was throwing the dress I wore on the bed, cursing as I pulled on the jeans and cami I had worn earlier to the photoshoot with Dante.
I didn’t know where any of my luggage was so I grabbed one of my large purses, stuffing some undergarments in them, a pair of jean shorts and six bikinis. I pulled a couple dresses off the hangers they had been placed in earlier and shoved two pairs of heels inside. I grabbed my crossbody that I knew had all my ID’s, cards and sunglasses and grabbed a phone charger.
Texting my friends I was on the way, I called the company my father used to pilot his plane. Asking if we could head to Puerto Rico within the hour.
Thankfully there was someone on duty and we could leave tonight.
A few clicks on my phone and we had a company booked to clean the house and July 4th vacation plans.
I was going to escape this situation and not think about anything for a few days except my friends, which was just what I needed.
My phone vibrated as I sat in the Lyft, looking down as I saw I had been tagged in a post. Opening the photo app, I froze as I saw the picture from earlier.
Dante’s arm around me as we held the oversized scissors, cutting the ribbon. ‘ All my dreams come true ’. My eyes were on him as he cut the ribbon as he smiled so wide like this was everything to him.
What a fool I was. Looking at a man who was just looking ahead to the dreams he had.
I scoffed, shutting my phone for a second before smirking. I still needed to post my picture of us together because this relationship needed to be legit.
If Dante wanted to go with the over the top message branding I’d be subtle.
Emotionless.
Let him overthink everything I do and drive himself crazy with worry. I wan’t going to do it anymore.
Dante was about to understand that I wasn’t going to be his dream but his worst nightmare.