Aurora had vanished from the house, too, though I couldn’t be sure where she’d gone. I trusted her enough that I didn't keep tabs on her whereabouts. Carlo, I was sure, did.“Vas?”Speak of the devil. My aforementioned second in command poked his head through my opened door as I drained my second mu
Layla“I’m pregnant.” I gripped the thin purple test stick, fingers white against the flimsy plastic. Shaking a little, from shock and another emotion I couldn’t quite name. “Holy shit. I’m pregnant.”And what a time to find out: twenty minutes before my wedding ceremony. The day my family would off
LaylaI froze. Unable to move, unable to fully process the words. Unable to recognize the cold, unfeeling man towering above me. He wore my Vasco’s face and yet, he spoke as a stranger. “We should get a divorce.”No, this couldn’t be my love. When Vasco smiled, he was the sun itself. But this man …
VascoThe wheel turned soft as butter beneath my callused hands. Of course it did. The Bentley hadn’t come cheap, but I’d settle for nothing less for my Layla.Music hummed from the speakers, soothing and subtle. Jazz, for driving mountain roads, Layla had said when she’d picked the station, and I h
LaylaEight years laterSunlight streamed through the wide plate-glass window, glinting silver off the city skyscrapers, as I stripped bloody blue gloves from my hands. Like a celebration of yet another successful surgery—an emergency bypass this time.I gave myself only a moment to bask in that cel
AldoWhy was she here?As silence fell in the wake of the shots, the woman in my arms wrenched away. I let her go, and instantly felt the loss—of her warmth, her softness, the slightly sweet smell of her shampoo. It was the same, the same as she’d always worn.Her smell.My Layla.She wasn’t suppose
How could I not have known … but of course I hadn’t. I’d shut her out so completely, I’d erased her existence from my life. How would I have known she’d returned?I could barely concentrate on family matters.Did my men notice my distraction?Carlo was released from the hospital four days after the
LaylaI turned the car down my street, smiled a little as the brownstone rowhouse came into view. I could practically smell the wonderful dinner I was about to cook for my family. The bag of groceries in my passenger seat would go entirely to that meal—but it was worth it if it was the one I shared
Aurora had vanished from the house, too, though I couldn’t be sure where she’d gone. I trusted her enough that I didn't keep tabs on her whereabouts. Carlo, I was sure, did.“Vas?”Speak of the devil. My aforementioned second in command poked his head through my opened door as I drained my second mu
LaylaJust like that, this strange woman had read beneath my mask like she’d torn down his. In mere minutes, this woman—who I’d spent nearly eight years hating, blaming for my heartache—had seen through my lies to the real me.You still love him.Was I so obvious to everyone around me? Was it obviou
Such an easy option. My best option. My only option.And I couldn’t touch her. I felt nothing for her—not even arousal.Maybe it was the feeling of my own fate slipping out of my control, but I couldn’t … I couldn’t do what she wanted, what I needed. What my family needed.“I’m sorry,” I murmured, a
AldoMy fingers tightened on the gun lowered at my side. I knew she spoke the truth—there was still a reckoning to be had, consequences for my actions. Debts that would certainly be paid in blood.“I bet,” Aurora continued, probably noticing the tension in my jaw, “they’ll be coming to talk to you s
I changed the course of my trajectory, diverting from the spare bedroom to the back of the house. I slipped through the back door and across the sprawling yard towards the building at the edge of the property.I’d take my anger out at the gun range.The familiar scents of the expansive arena immedia
Layla“He doesn’t love you.” Aldo’s words echoed in a flat, toneless bark through the empty hall. Stopping me in my tracks. Shocking me so much I couldn’t even think of a response before he added, “You shouldn’t waste eight years on a man like him, even if he is Eli’s father.”I almost laughed. Almo
“How … lovely!” Surprise bloomed inside my chest as I accepted the gift, but I played it off with a laugh. “Really selling it here, eh?”He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “They suited you.”“Pink carnations?” I shook my head. He was really going all out for this role, I’d give him that. Anybody looki
Layla“I need to ask you a favor.” I hated the words even before they’d left my mouth. Hated thinking them. Hated that I’d cornered Marco in the break room of the hospital to ask this of him.Marco was a nice guy; everybody knew it. He was one of the most well-liked doctors at the hospital, and here
If Carlo noticed my hesitation, he didn’t comment. Merely bowed his head again. “I’ll find out everything there is to know.”***I didn’t sleep that night.I tossed and turned in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar mattress, beneath unfamiliar sheets—but those minor inconveniences were hardly what