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“Put it on speakerphone,” he barked as he walked over to me, then knelt at my feet and waited, his eyes not blinking. “Now.”
I cleared my throat and answered on the third ring. “Hi Dad.”
“Hi Dad?” he roared. “HI DAD?”
I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears in. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, I don’t—”
“—Sorry?” he roared even louder, breaking my heart into tinier pieces. “Sorry that you picked a side or sorry that you let him screw you!”
I burst into tears and choked out the words. “It’s not true!”
“So the video of you two in the show—” He stopped talking. “There was evidence, your mom watched a small clip, it didn’t show—” He cursed. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I sniffed. “I’m not an idiot. It’s not like I thought he’d kiss me, then murder my brother-in-law!”
“He hates you, Bella! HATES you! And suddenly he wants to kiss you? That’s complete bullshit! He’s more attracted to his damn reflection than he is to you! That’s weak, you were weak, all it took was one moment, do you understand?” I can’t believe my dad was saying that to me in that moment, I couldn’t believe that even when I said, hey it’s not true… He brought up the kiss and well… I knew I was naked with him but nothing happened. How do you deny such damning evidence? How do you deny that a part of you was weak and did want a moment for yourself? It’s not like I thought it would turn into this!
How do you tell your dad that you’ve never had sex while he’s still dealing with the loss of someone who was like a son to him?
He lost his son.
And his daughter was partially to blame. I looked down at Ivan, his gaze was stoic, his posture tense. “Dad, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not safe.”
Ivan smirked.
I kept talking. “I’m not safe, do you hear me? He has me and I’m not safe, I need you to send men, I need you to burn the world and take me with you, I can’t be by him right now. I can’t!”
Dad sighed heavily into the phone. “Bella, rules are rules, you gave yourself to him, to a boss, willingly, and then you left with him, you didn’t fight, you didn’t call me, you didn’t call your mom, you stayed with him, you went back to campus with him, you rode in the car with him.” I wanted to scream that I was too shocked, too traumatized, too upset, but I knew how damning it was when he kept saying it out loud. “You chose him,” he finally said. “In the end, you know the bosses would have killed for you, would have died themselves.”
“So, I sacrificed myself!” I yelled. “I walked!”
“No, you helped start a new war, because you gave in to a fucking twenty-one-year-old piece of shit who should have never touched you in the first place.”
Ivan shrugged. “He’s not wrong.”
“Ivan?” Dad asked.
“Nixon,” Ivan said smoothly. “You know you really shouldn’t blame your daughter for wanting to come with me, some women just can’t resist. I promise I won’t touch her again though, after all, business is business. I’ll marry her and let her do whatever she wants—you know other than killing or betraying me, and then the Abandonato Family and De Lange Family will have a truce, doesn’t that sound nice? No more bloodshed, and your beautiful daughter…” He reached for my face and grazed my lips with his thumb. “…stays perfectly untouched by my sin-stained hands. Isn’t that what you want for her?”
“Swear you won’t touch her.”
“I swear on my life. After the party, I won’t touch her again. Ever. You have my word, after all, we need a united front, the last thing you want is for people to see the Five Families start to crack, imagine what depths they would go to. How tempting.”
“Why after the party?” Dad asked. “Why are you still having a party, we have a funeral to plan and a broken family to fix because of you!”
“Broken families…” Ivan sighed. “Yes, I have experience with those. Then again, they can’t complain since they were all killed in cold blood, or what did you call it? Cleansed, yes, that’s right, cleansed.” Ivan shuddered. “Such a pretty clean word for something so horrible. It’s like you think you have a leg to stand on. I’m the new boss, so unless you want to call a commission before the funeral, this is how it’s going to go. You took from me, from all of us, now I’m going to take what’s most precious from you—oh wait, sorry—I already took, devoured, licked, and destroyed every shred of innocence, but don’t worry, the hard part is over. Now, we just play nice and get along. I’ll send you a wedding invite.”
He hung up the phone to my dad’s screams.
Ivan cupped my face with his smooth hands and leaned in until his mouth was almost touching my lips. “Even your own Family has abandoned you.”
“At least I have one.” I snapped.
He jerked back and smirked, then rubbed his hands together, his heavy rings clanging together. “I kind of like it when you hurt me.”
“That’s sick.”
“I thought you knew. The De Langes are sick, that’s my family line, get used to it. And try to show some leg, your tits aren’t impressive enough to get a second look.”
