Chapter 12

GISELLE

Nicholas was scarce for the rest of the day. It was either that, or I'd done a fantastic job of avoiding him.

When I was in the bedroom, he was somewhere else, but the minute I stepped out of the bedroom to get some food, he'd taken a shower and left the room.

The plus side to the new bedroom arrangement was that he didn't sleep in his room. Well, he chose not to last night, but I wasn't sure tonight would be the same.

Right now, I was in one of the three lounge rooms in Nicholas's mansion, curled up on the couch while a movie played in the background. I'd lost interest after the first ten minutes.

I reached for my phone on the coffee table, both surprised and elated to see a text message from Raquel.

She was my roommate and best friend in college when I went to study overseas. When I boarded a plane back to the States after graduation, she said she was going to do some soul searching and might not send me a message.

That was a month ago, and the last message between us was when I texted to tell her 'my life was getting ruined'.

RAQUEL: Always one for dramatics, I see. You want my attention so badly you had to make up something.

I could only smile at the text. She thought I was joking. If only she knew I wasn't joking this time around.

I dialed her number, pressing it to my ear. It rang twice before she picked up the call.

"Elle!"

I sat up on the couch, grinning widely even though she couldn't see me. "Babe! I've missed you so much."

"Me too! How have you been?"

"Ugh, my life has been so boring without you."

"So, what's the deal with your life getting ruined?"

"I'm married."

Raquel was quiet for a long minute before she burst into laughter. "You're joking."

"I wish, Raquel. I wish."

Her laughter seized. "You're joking," she repeated.

"I swear I'm not."

"It's barely been a month since you left. Your parents married you off so quickly?"

Raquel was the only one that knew my family was part of the mafia. She constantly made jokes about it, but when I told her about my past, she stopped making those jokes because she thought they made me remember that awful night.

She loathed my parents for believing I killed Gianna and wouldn't stop talking about how much she hated them whenever I brought the issue up.

"Yes, but on the plus side, he's hot. He's not a sixty-year-old man with sweaty palms," I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Raquel snorted. "He could be the hottest man alive, and it'd still be wrong."

"I'm fine. He's not hurting me. He's almost the best choice compared to other men in the family."

"Almost?"

"Yeah. He was my sister's boyfriend before she died."

"Holy fuck, that's insane. Why would they let you get married to him?"

The Fanellis were the weakest of the Five Families. The Rossis were the second after the D'Onofrios. After that was the Colombos, the Ferraris, and finally the Fanellis. Father needed a leg up the hierarchy, so he didn't object to the wedding.

Gianna had given him access to the Rossis until her death. Those two had been endgame. They had the type of love I didn't know existed in a world like ours, and Father had taken advantage of that.

"That's how things work here. The women have no say."

"That's retarded."

"Don't I know it?"

"Well, you had better show that husband of yours that you have a backbone. Don't let him walk all over you like your father does your mom."

Standing up to a man like Nicholas wasn't easy. I was afraid every single time I had to challenge him, but I knew if I didn't say something, my stay here would be so much worse.

His reactions to the things I did were all over the place. He didn't mind that I fired Lenny or moved into his room, but he was quick to press a gun underneath my chin when I challenged him.

"Are you listening, Elle?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What were you saying?"

"I was asking how your married life has been."

"Horrible. It's been horrible. I just hope I get out of it sooner."

"I thought you said he was better than other men."

"In terms of him not forcing me to have sex with him, he is better. Other men would have been pressing for an heir by now."

"And you think he wouldn't?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but I can only hope. I can't see myself carrying his child when he hates me." Plus, we'd have to fuck to conceive a child. I also didn't see that happening in this lifetime. "He's too disgusted by me to even try to have sex with me."

Raquel laughed like that was the funniest thing she'd heard in a while. "Babe, have you seen yourself? You're fucking hot. Just because he hates you, it doesn't mean his dick doesn't get hard for you. Plus, I heard hate fucks are the best. Even better than make-up sex."

I threw my head back in laughter. "You heard, or you know?"

I could just imagine her sitting on a chair with a coy smile on her lips. "I haven't fucked a person I hate before, but a friend of mine did say make-up sex with her last boyfriend was pretty nice. Angry sex and hate fuck are not to be mistaken for each other, though."

"Of course, babe." I giggled. "Hate fuck trumps every other fuck there is in this world." I'd heard that from her before.

"Atta, girl."

This was why Raquel was one of my favorite people in the world. She could always take my mind off the bad things going on in my life.

"Gotta go now. I met this guy in Santorini, and we're going on a date in a few hours. I have to get dressed."

"Okay. Don't forget the condom. I don't think I could deal with mini yous."

"I don't know, Elle. I'm thinking of skipping the condom. This guy's a millionaire. My baby will be set for life."

We burst into laughter at the same time, and I didn't stop until my ribs were hurting.

"Bye. Call me to fill me in later."

"Sure. Love you."

"I love you, too. Don't forget tomorrow."

I hung up, placing my phone back on the coffee table. At least something in my life was still the way it was, and I knew that was because the Family hadn't tainted it yet.

Any good thing the mafia touched got ruined eventually, and Raquel was one of the purest souls I'd ever met.

I closed my eyes, willing myself to sleep with a smile on my face, knowing I had something to look forward to tomorrow.