Chapter 36
CHIARA
The following morning, I decide to try my cousin again. I have been calling her line for the past week, but it’s been going straight to voicemail.
But today, it’s finally ringing.
On the third ring, a voice comes through. “Raquel Cavaleri’s phone. This is Dante, her very handsome husband, speaking. How may I help you?”
I flip my head back, my brows shooting up to my hairline.
“Husband?!” I practically shout. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She married Dante? Oh my fucking God. He was a funny kid growing up, always cracking jokes. I don’t know who this Dante is now, though, and I especially don’t know why he married my friggin’ cousin!
Growing up, I didn’t tell her about Dom or his family. I was scared she’d tell her dad, who’d tell mine. So obviously, when she met Dante, she had no clue who he was.
“Ah, Chiara. How very pleasant to hear from you on such a fine day.” He sounds obnoxious. “It’s been way too long. We must catch up.”
“Shut up, Dante. What have you done to my cousin?”
“Oh, I’ve done a lot of things to your very sexy cousin. After we were legally married, of course. I am nothing but a gentleman.”
“You’re an asshole,” I fire back.
“I apologize. We really wanted to send you an invitation, but we eloped rather quickly.”
“Can you stop sounding like a moron and tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Nothing. Much. We came to a very mutually beneficial arrangement. She’s happy. I’m happy. Be happy, Chiara.”
“We haven’t spoken in fifteen years, jerkface. I don’t know you enough to be happy you married my cousin. And for what? Another form of revenge against my demented family?”
“You and your cousin are anything but demented, and I have done nothing she didn’t want me to. Believe me.” I can just see him smiling all arrogantly.
“You’re not keeping her locked away like he did me, are you? Because I swear—”
“I’ve not hurt a beautiful hair on her body. She’s doing just fine. Free as a bird…of sorts.”
“Let me speak to her. Now. Or I’ll show up at your house with a blowtorch, and I’ll start with those nice cars I’m sure you drive.”
His voice grows silent, and I look down at my phone to make sure he didn’t hang up. He’s still there.
“Dante. Where is she?”
He pulls in a heavy sigh. “She’s here at the house, lying out by the pool. I haven’t hurt her. I don’t intend to.”
“Great.” I roll my eyes, completely irritated. “Let me talk to her and confirm that. Your word means very little.”
“Only if you promise me one thing.”
“Depends on what it is.”
“Don’t tell her about who we are and how we know your family.”
I sneer. “Excuse me?”
“If she finds out from you, she’ll never forgive me.”
“Good!” A snicker rolls off my chest. “She shouldn’t.”
“I get that you’re pissed.” There’s shuffling on the other end, like he’s sitting down or standing up.
“You have every right to be, but during all this shit, I’ve started to care for her, and I think she cares for me too.
Let this play out until we get Sal and the rest of them, and then I’ll tell her. Give me some time.”
I don’t say anything, my words trapped in my throat. The genuineness with which he speaks of my cousin melts my heart.
“We could be something, Chiara. I’ve never felt like this before.”
Geez. He really does care about her.
“Why did you even do this? How does this serve your purpose?”
He sighs. “You know more than anyone how much the Bianchis hated us. Imagine how they’d feel if one of their daughters married one of us. Sal won’t be happy, will he?”
I laugh humorlessly. “Not even a little. Does he know yet?”
“Not yet. I don’t want to use her that way. I’ll tell him right before I put a bullet in his brain, though.”
“You’re so romantic.”
“I try.” He chuckles.
“Heads will roll, and not just Sal’s,” I add. “Carlito’s too.”
“I can’t fucking wait. I hate that bastard.”
“How do you kno—?”
“Long story for another day. Just promise me you won’t say anything to her. Please, Chiara.”
I consider it, but how can I lie to my cousin?
Yet, at the same time, who am I to take away her chance at escaping the constant threat of arranged marriage? Maybe this is what she really wants, even though she’s not getting the entire story. I have to know how she feels about Dante.
“I won’t say anything right now. Not if I see she cares for you like you clearly do her. But if she’s afraid, if she wants to leave, I’m telling her everything.”
He inhales deeply. “Okay. I’ll go get her.”
“Wait,” I say. “Don’t take too long to tell her.
Look at what happened with Dom and me. The truth always finds a way to slither out from the dirt and bite you when you least expect it.
I don’t know how long all this with my uncles will play out, but she has a right to know that you’re going to kill her father. That you’re not who you say you are.”
“You were always such a pain in the ass.”
“I was so not!”
I hear the opening of a door as he chuckles.
“For what it’s worth,” he continues. “Dom is a fucking mess. And he’s never a mess.”
I remain silent as he goes on.
“I remember him crying one night after we ran, after we ended up in one of those dirty shelters.”
They were in shelters? Oh my God.
“I’m sure he didn’t want me to hear, but I did, and it was your name he spoke as he cried. It was like he was mourning you too. You were the one person outside of all of us he could count on, and he thought your friendship was over.”
My jaw stiffens, an ache building behind my throat. “Why didn’t he try to contact me? To ask me about those texts?”
“I know. You’re right. But he was a kid who was thrust into having to be a man.
It was an awful time for us. Being on our own, losing our parents and our brother…
it fucked us up. He’d believe anything at that time.
Then the years just flew by. I’m asking you to be a little sympathetic.
Not a lot.” He laughs. “A little, all right?”
“Shut up, Dante.” My mouth curls into a warm smile, my fingers wiping away stray tears lingering within my eyelashes.
“I missed you, dumbass,” he throws in.
“Whatever, dweeb.”
His laugh bellows through the line. “Raquel, Chiara’s on the phone.”
“Really?” She sounds excited. “It’s safe to talk to her?”
“Yeah, but make it fast, baby. Just in case.”
“Okay,” she replies to him. “Chiara? Is that really you?”
I breathe in a sigh of relief. “It’s me. Oh my God, I missed you! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I swear! I’m sure you have a million questions.
But I met this guy, and he agreed to marry me to help me avoid marrying Carlito, and he needed a wife for business purposes.
So here we are.” She finally takes a breath.
“It all happened so fast, and then I couldn’t call you in case my family or Carlito could track us. ”
“Yeah, he told me the happy news. Is he treating you okay?”
That’s all that matters to me. She can tell me the rest another time, when this is all over.
“He’s wonderful. At first, I was nervous.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “He’s so hot, and he was technically my husband. I couldn’t stop myself from resisting him anymore.”
“You didn’t!” I feign a gasp.
It feels like we’re normal, gossiping about men like women do, but our situations are anything but normal.
“I did. A lot. And, yeah…” Her voice drifts off with a sigh. “He’s so good at that.”
“Well, okay, then. Glad you’re…ah…having fun.”
She giggles low. “I love you, and I can’t wait to see you soon. If my family contacts you, don’t tell them anything.”
“Are you kidding? I’d never.” I pause. “You sound happy.” My lips pinch with a smile.
“I am. I only miss my job, but they’re fine with me taking some extended time off.
I told them I had a family emergency. I’d say being forced into a life I didn’t want is an emergency.
” She lets out a dreary sigh. “I thought my life was over, Chiara. I really thought I’d have to marry that asshole or die.
Now, I’m married to someone else. I know it’s not supposed to last beyond our arrangement of three months, but… ”
“But what?”
“What if it did? What if we stayed married? I mean, he’s nice to me, and it feels like he genuinely cares.” A heavy breath rushes out of her. “I sound insane, I know. I barely know him. It’s only been just short of a month.”
Wait, a month? Around the same time I was taken? Shit. I had no idea.
“You’re not insane. You’ve been with him all this time, alone in that house. Things happen.”
“I guess, yeah. I don’t know what’s going to happen with us, but I like it so far. Anyway, I should go in case they have the phones tapped, but we’ll speak again soon. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
She hangs up, and I drop the phone on my bed. She’s really okay. Dante wasn’t lying.
I’m glad one of us may get their happiness. I don’t think that’s ever in the cards for me. But even still, with everything Dom has done, I want to hear him out. I think I need that closure, even if forgiving him might not be something I can do.
I arrive at Vixen promptly at seven, but I can’t seem to make myself get out of the rental car. Remaining in the parking lot seems safer than what awaits inside.
It’s not that I’m afraid of him. It’s more that I fear for my heart and what he can do to it.
There’s so much hidden beneath our wounds, so much shrouded by agony, yet still it’s hard not to stare at it, to feel it in my bones.
The old Dom and Chiara are within the walls of our demise, waiting to find their freedom, waiting for what could’ve been.
Running my fingers through my pin-straight hair, I flip open the car mirror and look at my face. The dark brown shadows do a great job at concealing the puffy eyelids, but I still don’t look like myself.
Closing the mirror, I exit the car and shut the door. My black stilettos click against the pavement as I near the club entrance. The parking area is near empty, except for a few cars. I doubt the place is even open at this time. Most dance clubs don’t start until at least nine.
As I approach, a tall, fit man with a shaved head and black t-shirt greets me with a smile.