5. Luna
FIVE
LUNA
With how busy Luna had been, she wouldn’t have even known a whole week had passed if Valerio didn’t insist on sending flowers to her apartment every day like clockwork. The kitchen counters, the dining table, and the floors—save for a little walkway—were covered in roses, peonies, and other flowers Luna couldn’t identify and didn’t care to. The entire apartment smelled like a greenhouse. It was overwhelming.
“This has to stop,” Cecilia muttered, kicking dead petals out of her path. “Talk to him.”
Luna scoffed. She picked up a few of the vases, setting them on the floor to clear up counter space. “Absolutely not. Not until I get that contract.”
She had been actively avoiding his calls and texts all week as well. And without the contract in her hands, she would continue to do so.
“Jeez, does it ever stop?” Gianna asked, walking through the front door. One of the vases fell to the floor, water spilling. She ignored it, walking farther into the apartment. Blair followed in after her, moving to open a window immediately.
“Tell him to stop,” Luna told Gianna. “He’s your cousin.”
“You think he’ll listen to me?” she asked with a raised brow. “That man doesn’t know how to listen to people.”
“Luna, I think this is something you’ll have to solve on your own,” Cecilia told her.
“Actually, I might have gotten something that will help you,” Blair said. She reached into her bag, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.
“What is that?” Luna asked. Her eyes were wide. For a second she thought it could have been the contract, but no way it was a single piece of paper crumpled up beyond repair.
“It’s one page of the contract because I couldn’t get access to all of them, but it’s an important one,” Blair said, handing it over to her.
Luna took it, skimming over every word.
“How exactly did you get a copy of that?” Gianna asked, crossing her arms.
“Allister left his laptop open in class when he went to the bathroom,” Blair said. “I just happened to stumble across it when I was walking to my seat.”
“And you just got it? That easily?” Cecilia asked. Her tone held apprehension.
“I feel like they wanted you to find it,” Gianna said. “How the hell would you have found the file that quick and managed to send it to yourself all while he’s peeing? Boys use the bathroom in like a minute.”
“That’s gross,” Luna muttered, still reading.
“Why would they want me to find it?” Blair asked.
Luna threw down the paper. “Because they want me to see that the only way out of the marriage is death.”
“Simple, just kill him,” Cecilia said, shrugging. “If you hate him that bad then it shouldn’t be that hard.”
Luna shook her head. “I can’t kill him. I want to, but I can’t.”
“Because a small part of you feels something for him?” Gianna asked.
“No. Absolutely not. I’ll kill him just to prove a point,” Luna threatened.
Blair took a seat on the barstool with a disturbed look. “I can’t believe I got played by Allister of all people.”
“We all got played,” Luna muttered, patting her shoulder for comfort. “If I can’t kill him though, I need him to hate me.”
Maybe there was a way that she could pull on his hatred for the Kingsleys. If he hated her father and brother, then maybe he could hate her with the same scope. She just had to do something that would send him off.
“Let’s be honest, I don’t think Valerio could ever hate you. But if you make his father hate you, then maybe he can break the contract,” Gianna said.
“How could I make Cesare Vitali hate me?” Luna asked, frowning.
“I don’t know. Do something crazy? Destroy his things, become a burden, hook up with other guys? Become someone Cesare Vitali would never want his son with,” Gianna said.
“That sounds ridiculous,” Blair said with a scoff.
Cecilia cut in. “No, think about it. Think about your mom, Valerio’s mom—they both had clean reputations; they were essentially the perfect wives. Now, look at how you were raised. You were practically groomed for the position. You’ve never been in trouble at school or received a bad grade, you’ve never been on a date before in your life, you’ve never even had serious conflicts with people because you always resolve things right away. I mean, hell, you even stopped fighting your father when you should have been giving him hell for what he’s making you do. Anything you do outside of that would tarnish your reputation.”
Luna looked at Cecilia in complete astonishment. Everything she said was exactly on the nose and it hurt way more than it should have. From the moment she was born, she was shaped into someone who could bend to someone else’s whim. It worked in her father’s favor when Luna went down without much fight, then he could gain connections and business deals.
She couldn’t understand how Valerio was the exception. With him, it felt like she didn’t need to hold on to that version of herself that Cecilia described. She fought against him continuously, and of course it made her consider if her anger was misplaced. The harsh truth was that neither one of them was innocent.
But where Valerio had never raised a hand to her, her father did. Things like that made fighting painful, figuratively and literally.
So if her father wasn’t willing to let her out of the contract, and Valerio promised to never let her go, tarnishing her reputation and hoping it got back to her potential future father-in-law might be her only hope.
“What do you recommend I do?” Luna asked.
Blair groaned. “This is going to end in disaster.”
Gianna squealed, probably excited that she would get to see Luna live out her wild side for once. “Well, initiation weekend is coming up, but I remember some losers saying they weren’t going.”
“You know The Chase is happening this weekend,” Luna said. “I don’t want to be anywhere around him .”
“Then we can go to parties that are affiliated only with the Kingsleys,” she said. “But otherwise, I fear I see a white dress in your future.”
Luna felt her internal panic set in. What choice did she really have at that point?
“Fine, we can go,” she said, giving in.
As soon as she saw the sinister smile on Gianna’s face, she almost wished she hadn’t. God save her.