Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“She was?” he asked in surprise.
“Yeah, but I totally get it, she and Isabella are friends. It’s complicated.” I didn’t take it personally. If you hoped your best friend and brother would end up together, of course you wouldn’t like the other woman. But they’d been broken up for almost a decade, so I wasn’t sure why she hoped they would reconcile. They’d even slept together again, and they still didn’t work it out.
Constantine cocked his head the other way and continued to stare at me, continued to stare hard.
“It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”
But he continued to look at me in a way he never had before.
“Maybe she’ll come around. Just needs some time.” I didn’t want him to be angry at his sister. She couldn’t help the way she felt. She couldn’t compromise her loyalty if her best friend was in pain.
But he continued to stare me down . . . like he was mad as hell.
Chapter 14
Aurelia
The drive home was spent in silence. His anger was palpable.
I started to wonder if it was directed at me instead of Beatrice.
We were dropped off at the front, and the walk inside the villa to the stairs and to the third floor felt like an eternity. When we reached the corridor, Medusa ran down the hallway to greet us, but she halted halfway.
Constantine had made a quick hand gesture, and it seemed to be a command for her to heel.
She darted into the study and jumped on one of the couches.
“Constantine?”
He took the lead and stepped into the bedroom.
His anger was like a cloud of smoke that suffocated us both. Every breath burned my lungs. I stared at his back as he moved away from me and ignored me. Everything had been fine at lunch. He’d smiled brighter than the sun, and now, he was a living earthquake. Every step shook the earth. The world trembled at his feet. “Constantine—”
He turned to me with a quickness that showed his strength, strength I forgot he had because he was always delicate with me. “How did you know it was Isabella?”
It took a second for the terror to strike me. To realize the hand I’d shown without thought. I’d known it was Isabella since the beginning, and the occasional times he’d spoken of her, that was exactly who I pictured. I didn’t even realize he hadn’t referred to her by name.
“Because my mother didn’t say her name. My sister didn’t. So how did you know?” He was furious exactly the way he’d been in my apartment after Enzo left, the moment before he’d walked out on me and everything we had. Red in the face, cords popping in his neck, he looked deranged. “Answer me.” He didn’t yell at me the way he had with Enzo, but it was pretty fucking close.
I didn’t want to tell him that I’d eavesdropped on their conversation, but I knew not to lie. For Constantine, a small lie to mask the truth was infinitely worse than any crime. “When—when you had me over for dinner at your family’s house, I noticed your sister was a bit cold to me and I didn’t know why. And then I noticed the woman she was with. Everyone was drinking and laughing and having a great time, but they looked so miserable—”
“And you just figured out it was her?” he asked incredulously. “Walked up and asked for her name?”
“No.” I wanted to tell him off for cutting me off, but he was so mad I didn’t dare make it worse. “I went into the house to help your mom, and you two were talking on the patio . . . and I could tell there was tension there.”
“But my mother wouldn’t have told you that—”
“Let me finish, Con. This is the part of the story that makes me look really bad, so let me just get it over with.”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“I noticed there was an open window near where you were standing, so I walked over there and listened.” I closed my eyes because it sounded so much worse when it came out of my mouth. I’d violated his privacy and eavesdropped like a nosy bitch. I kept my eyes closed because I didn’t want to see his pissed-off reaction. “I heard everything you two said. I know that you slept together like a year ago. I know there’s this tension between you that doesn’t go away. I know she’s still sorry . . . after all this time. And the reason I didn’t tell you is—”
“Why?” he snapped. “Why the fuck did you sit on this for so long?”
I opened my eyes and saw him staring at me with pure disgust—and it killed me. “Because you told her you were worried about me seeing the two of you together and you didn’t want to fuck it up. You didn’t want to have to explain why you were talking, and I didn’t want to put you in that position by telling you. And honestly, we didn’t need to talk about it. Because I wasn’t upset you used to be with her and I didn’t care that you were talking and I didn’t care that she still wanted you—because I don’t blame her.”