Angelica This wasn’t as bad as I thought. The Arciero family was not welcoming in the slightest. Not that I expected them to be friendly to me when we all knew what my presence meant. They were ready to dig their claws into my flesh within a minute of my arrival.The only good thing that came out of it was getting to know my in-laws better. It only took half an hour to learn that Meghan and Miles had a worse relationship than Miles and Curtis. Meghan was to Miles exactly what he was to Curtis—the illegitimate child who destroyed his parents’ marriage. Meghan’s mother had disappeared two years after her wedding and her body had been found in the woods later, and Meghan blamed Miles’s mother. To be fair, it could be any of Fergus’s innumerable women. Not that it mattered. If I could use my in-laws as weapons against each other, I would enjoy the show without getting my hands dirty. My brother-in-law couldn’t keep his eyes off me. It made my skin crawl. I generally hated male attentio
“What the hell were you doing with Miles?” He asked again, despite having figured out that his brother was trying to make it seem like we had something going on.This time, I gave the answer I should have in the beginning. “I was looking for you. He said you would be here.” “Like hell I would.” He glared at me so hard I thought he was going to take out his fury on me. Not that I would let him. He toned it down but only to give me a stern warning. “Stay away from Miles no matter what you do. It will not end well with that scumbag in the picture.” ‘It will end in flames,’ I thought. I nodded. “Whatever you say, husband.” I had meant to tease him and the look on his face made it all the more worth it. He looked confused, puzzled and, annoyed at the same time. He didn’t say anything about it, probably because he wanted to pretend that didn’t happen. I led the way down the hallway and thought we were going back downstairs until he grabbed my hand and shoved me into the room I had just
Angelica. I do not believe in coincidences. If something happens twice, it's a pattern. And patterns were my forte–especially those hidden underneath the mask of perfection. I didn't believe perfection existed on its own. There had to be something behind every urge to keep a place impossibly perfect. Every other person found the slightest disorganisation to be unpleasant but normal. For germophobes, it was disastrous. But for people like Curtis, it triggered a full-blown traumatic reaction. I had caught a glimpse of it. When a maid accidentally spilled water on him at his family mansion earlier in the day, he had nearly blown his top. He looked like he wanted to strangle me for ditching a hairpin in the living room but susprisingly, he had no reaction to the mess in my room. I had set it all up and his lack of reaction didn't quite add up. So I raided his room for a new towel and 'forgot' to put the rest back, leaving the rest on his bed. I still couldn't get over his outrage an
Curtis I watched as Angelica tore open the acceptance letter and waited for her reaction. When she looked up at me, she smiled. “Thank you.” I nodded. There was no ounce of joy on her face. Wasn’t this what she wanted?“You asked for this.” I reminded her. “I know.” She returned the documents into their envelope. “It’s all I ever wanted. It’s just…I have no one to share the happiness with. I would tell such big news to my dad but…you know.” I had the strongest urge to embrace her. I would if I didn’t think I would get kicked in the balls. Instead, I sat at the edge of the seat, keeping the distance she wanted. “You can celebrate with me.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t want your pity.” “It’s not…” Forget it. Why did it even matter? I was going to say it’s only right for a married couple to share their happiness with each other but that wasn’t the case for us. We were a contract couple. Our relationship didn’t work like that of a normal couple. “Well, I did my part. Now it’s you
Angelica Of course the day I have to sneak out when my husband goes to sleep would be the day he has so much to do that he stays up working. I watched the clock tick, gritting my teeth with every hour that passed. If I didn’t make it to the tunnel by 3am, what would Spider do? We worked perfectly together but I knew Spider all too well. He was impatient. If I didn’t get there on time, he would try to sneak in without me. Not only would that be unsuccessful since he didn’t know where the secret room was, but he could get caught. What was worse, I couldn’t give him a call. If the Arcieros were onto us like Spider suspected, discussing anything on the phone might be the fastest way of giving ourselves away. With nothing else to do, I set an alarm for 2:40 am and tried to catch some sleep. That wasn’t successful either. I was too wired to close my eyes for more than a minute. I checked the time. It was 1 am. If Curtis were to stay up all night, I wouldn’t be able to leave under his scr
Curtis I had lost count of the red lights I ran by the time I finally got to Inferno. "I didn't know you were coming tonight." Heston remarked when I walked past him on my way to the elevator. I ignored him and got in, finding it to slow. I was on the verge of losing my patience when I finally reached the VIP floor. I had tried not to call Siren on my way here or there would have been an accident with me cruising along the road like a race car driver. When I finally saw her, I let out a breath. "There you are." She threw herself into my arms. "I'm glad you came, Curtis. But how did you get here so fast? It's dangerous to drive too fast." Who cared about my driving speed? I inspected the side of her face where I had caught a hint of pink. It was slightly swollen. I wanted to kill someone. "Who touched you?" She smiled. "It doesn't matter now that you're here. I should get back to work." "No." I grabbed her hand, only realizing that I was squeezing too hard when she winced. I le
Angelica I stared at the file in my hands in shock. Why was there a file labeled Giannelli? Did Curtis already know who I was? Spider spooked the life out of me when he spoke right next to my ear like a phantom. “Open it.” “I’ll kill you if you keep scaring me like that.” I warned him. Though to be fair, he had done nothing wrong. It was not his fault that seeing this file had made me so sensitive that a gust of wind would scare me. He made a show of pulling a zipper over his lips but stayed in my line of sight so I wouldn’t forget what he said. I willed my heart to stop racing and opened it. However, there was nothing in the file. At least, there didn’t appear to be anything. Just a stack of empty sheets of paper with the first one printed “Giannelli” in large, bold font. I glanced at the wall we had come through. How come the secret room wasn’t nearly as secured as an ordinary vault? “This feels…” I flipped through the pages one at a time in case there was something else. Spi
AngelicaHow the hell did I get myself into this?It was nearly 4 am the last time I glanced at the time. Between then and now, I didn’t know how much time had passed but I knew it was nowhere near the time I was expected to be awake. Curtis shouldn’t be banging at my door so early in the morning. The only reason he was here could be… he had found out about my late-night tryst.What was worse, the evidence was all over me. The smoky clothes. My messed up hair. My missing glove. That glove could be anywhere between the Arcieros’ library and this apartment.Fuck.This was not how I envisioned my death.“Angelica? Are you in there?” I heard his voice much closer. He was in my room. Of course he owned a spare key.“Yes.” I croaked out.“I see.” He said. If I wasn’t reading too much into it, there was a hint of something in his voice when he heard that one word from me. Relief?I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I had to come up with something fast. Something that would explain me leaving
Angelica"What is it like being a mother?"Klara paused with a spoon of chocolate ice cream halfway towards her mouth. I only realized how odd my question was when I saw how she was looking at me. I dug into my ice cream and shoveled a spoon into my mouth to calm myself down."Why would you ask?" she asked. "Are you planning to have kids?"I was glad I wasn't looking at her so she wouldn't read my mind—not that I still believed shrinks could read minds but it was awkward nonetheless."Maybe," I gave a vague answer. Considering Curtis's stance on kids, her surprise was understandable. However, I didn't want to tell her I was pregnant yet. It didn't feel right to tell anyone else before Curtis."Well," she shrugged. "That's a broad subject. But I had all these plans for my kids. Rowan and I always wanted two, close in age, and we planned everything including what parenting methods we would use, which schools they would go to, what kind of friends we would allow around them, how I would
Angelica I groaned as I forced my eyes open, adjusting to the blinding light that had just been flickered on. I didn't know how long I had slept. Hell, I wasn't sure if it was day or night. There was no window in this dingy cell and the door was a solid hank of metal that didn't allow any light through it. The only source of light was the offensively bright bulb above me, which had been kept off until now. I had alternated between sleeping and pacing in the dark the whole time and it was driving me crazy. The only thing I could feel was the chains around my wrists and ankles, reminding me that I wasn't dead yet. I didn't know how long had passed since Curtis interrogated me about The Viper. It could be a day, a week, or a year. Hell, it could be ten years for all I knew. I looked down at my stomach and my lips twitched. At least there was a way to know if months had passed. My belly would bulge out. This was Curtis's idea of torture.To be fair, solitary confinement was one of the
Curtis“Angelika Giannelli, Angel of Death…is there any other identity I should know of?” I mocked.“Tell me everything about The Viper,” I demanded.She averted her gaze, dragging the long chains with her so she would walk up to me. I smirked when she stopped, her radius finally running out.“Is this necessary?” She bit back.Yes, it was. This woman killed Miles right under our noses and we didn’t think she was at fault. She played us all like a violin with that innocent smile on her face, all while taking out one Arciero after another and pitting us against each other. However, that was not why I was here.I pointed at her chains. “That will be the least of your problems. Answer me.”She shook her head. “I can’t tell you anything. You’re going to kill me anyway. Just do it.”“I knew you would say that.” I grinned. Someone with her skill could endure a lot of pain.Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to torture her. At least not physically anyway, which was odd, considering how willing
Angelica I needed my head examined. Was I seriously considering having this child? I had bought a dozen pregnancy test kits in the hospital’s pharmacy and couldn’t wait until I got to my hotel room, so I took the tests right there in the hospital washroom. Unsurprisingly, all of them came positive. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know what I thought pregnancy felt like but this was not it. I had expected a little more drama. Aside from my boobs feeling like they were about to fall off, the doctor mentioned I was lucky enough to have a morning sickness-free pregnancy. Maybe that was why I still couldn’t believe I had an actual baby inside me. It sounded like a joke—until I remembered I had to tell Curtis. Between upgrading and downgrading my way through as many cars as possible in the last two months, and spending each of those nights at a different hotel, I had about a thousand dollars to my name. It was a drop in the bucket in relation to how much I needed to bring up a child. I
AngelicaI felt like crap. Where the hell am I? I wondered. I forced one eye open and squinted, wincing from how horribly my head hurt. I patted around for my phone and remembered dropping it the night before. I hadn’t stopped to pick it up. I was too busy running for my life with Curtis hot on my tail. I didn’t know how he found me but I wasn’t going to be able to hide from him forever, I guess. My plan was perfect if I do say so myself. I ran around the city, leaving Curtis a trail that would make him think I was headed for Arcron, then I circled back and returned to Silverwood, where I rented two apartments; one in my name and the other under Klara Arciero. I stayed at neither. I spent every night at a different motel far from both apartments. The apartments were only a way to keep Curtis busy if he found out I was still in the city. Which is why I couldn’t understand why the fuck I thought it was a good idea to check out my fake apartment. I was yet to enter the building when
CurtisTwo months later. Why was I still on this wild goose chase? I hadn’t caught a whiff of my wife even though I felt I had searched the whole of West Auburg. She couldn’t have left the country. There was only one person capable of helping her get a fake passport and he was currently on our side. Sometimes I could swear she was leaving me a trail. Though when I got to it, she was gone like a puff of smoke. I was more frustrated by the realization that the longer it took to find her, the farther away she could go. If she found a way to get a fake passport from somewhere else, she could be halfway across the country and there was nothing I could do about it. But I wasn’t giving up. I meant it when I said I would tear down the whole world to find her. I was not giving up now. I was still staring at the road with my hands gripping the steering wheel. What if I was approaching this from the wrong angle?I took a U-turn at the next exit and returned home. Klara was visiting, which was
The Viper “Angelica left.” I glared at Spider. “What do you mean she left?” He shrugged, letting me know there was nothing else to explain about it. She ran away. “And you let her?” He scrunched his nose. “You know there’s no such thing as ‘letting’ with Angelica. You could lock her up in a cage with an active electric field all around it and she would still find a way to leave.” His words conjured up a memory of that feisty little kitten she once was. She’d been looking for me for a year and I knew every bullet she put between a target’s brows, every throat she sliced was to get my attention. She did get it, but it was way too much than she bargained for. She ended up in my dungeon after putting down one of my most loyal men. I made sure the shackles were way too small for her to wiggle her hands free, and the chain was too short to be of any use. I was going to decide whether she was worth keeping that night but I walked into the dungeon only for her to head-butt me and make
CurtisLyra Giannelli, now known as Eloise Dalton, was as hard to find as her sister. I already knew she was Samantha’s cousin from overhearing their argument but I still couldn’t find her, not even with Giancarlo’s help. Eventually, I had to ask Samantha and I had to promise not to harm a hair on her head before I got any useful information.Good, because I didn’t plan to hurt her. She was more useful to me alive, anyway.I watched as the debate played out on her face, if she would be able to run past me if she tried. She decided against it. Smart girl. I didn’t track her down just to let her escape.She sat down opposite me. “Make it quick. I have to get home.”“Of course.” I let her settle down before I asked what I knew she was already expecting. “Where is she?”“Who?”“Don’t play dumb with me.”She crossed her arms at her chest. “What do you expect me to tell you? That I know where to find your wife? Why would I know that if you don’t?”I knew what she was worried about. “Look, I
Lyra “Come with me.” Angelica urged me. When we made it to her car, she had floored it out of the Arciero mansion’s garage and only stopped about half an hour later. We were far from the Arciero mansion and certainly not being followed. How nice of her to ask if I wanted to leave with her after grabbing me without much choice earlier. I was yet to figure out why we were running away. Wasn’t Curtis her husband? So what if her maiden name was a little different from what everyone thought? “Why?” I asked. “You said your life is in danger. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She said frantically, and I knew she was hiding something. “Curtis might just take his anger out on you.” “I’ll be fine.” I assured her. Samantha was my cousin. Not biologically, but if the Carlo she always talked about was Giancarlo Arciero as I was starting to think, Curtis wouldn’t hurt me. And Andre…well, I wasn’t about to put Angelica in more danger than she already was in. “No one wants to mess with