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Genevra’s highly polished floors have slowed me down and tripped me up many times in my life I swear she does it on purpose in case I try and escape—as if I’d go through the fucking front door if I did.
Another sigh escapes my lips as I glance at the ornate clock on the mantle. My father is now nearly twenty minutes late, and I’m starved.
“What the fuck is taking so long?” I mutter, frustration tinging my voice, and my stomach gives another growl, this time making sure I feel the hunger pangs mingling with my anger, making me hangry.
I know better than to stomp on Genevra’s shiny floor, especially in my heels. I wouldn’t do my stomping any justice in this tight pencil skirt anyway.
Sashaying my way to my father’s office, I notice his door is slightly ajar, and the room is quiet. I take a little peek inside and see James sitting there within.
So that’s where my oversized shadow’s been for the past hour and a bit. James was chatting and scheming with Daddy dearest. I’m about to walk into the office when a man’s voice, which I don’t recognize, fills the room, making me freeze.
While I know better than to listen to my father’s super secret meetings with his clients, today I want to know what sleaze bag he’s defending that has delayed my lunchtime date with my father.
“I’ve held up my end of the deal,” I hear the mystery voice say.
He doesn’t sound like a criminal or someone who would want to make Marco’s daughter starve because he’s dragged out the meeting, having probably shot someone and then bathed them in acid.
What is my father going to plea for that—a skin peel gone wrong?
Oh, the joys of being the daughter of a highly sought-after criminal defense attorney who’s probably got every mob boss on his client roster. It’s also the reason I drive everywhere in a bulletproof car and live in a heavily guarded house.
Well, part of the reason, anyway. The other part is where my father still thinks I’m ten and going to be snatched off the streets by some criminal.
I step a little closer, making sure not to be heard, and stick my ear toward the opening of the door.
“I suggest we meet in the morning before the party to finalize the details and make sure all the paperwork is in order,” my father’s business associate answers something James asked that I couldn’t quite hear as I wedged myself into my eavesdropping position. “Then announce the engagement near the end of it.”
“I agree,” my father adds. “That will make the wedding happen six months to the day after Saturday.”
Is James getting married? I push my glasses back up my nose as my frown dislodges them slightly. I didn’t think he was dating anyone recently.
Maybe he had a one-night stand and got the woman pregnant? But if that were the case, surely they wouldn’t wait six months? The woman’s baby bump would be showing by then.
Now I’m feeling guilty for eavesdropping. Obviously James didn’t want anyone to know that he dipped his unprotected wick into a woman with an overprotective daddy. It’s really going to be awkward enough trying to pretend I don’t know.
So, the less I hear, the better. I’m about to turn away when James’s following words catch me.
“Do you want me to tell her?” James’s voice is edgier than usual. “I have to say this again because I’m the one that’s going to have to deal with the consequences. But you never should’ve kept this from either of them.”
“It was in our contract,” the mystery voice on the other end tells James. “They couldn’t know until this year.”
I know what they say about eavesdropping, but tiny little pinpricks have started injecting my nerve endings with warning signals, and my feet won’t move as I lean in closer.
“I know this is going to put more strain on you, James.” My father’s voice has softened slightly. I know that tone well. It’s his soothing voice that’s like a balm before it hits the open wound and burns like crap. “But we’ll announce Isabella’s engagement to Ivan’s son on Saturday just after the final toasts in the late afternoon.”
I shove my hand to my mouth to stifle the gasp stuck in my throat as my heart starts to pound in my chest so hard I’m afraid that my father can hear it.
I bite the inside of my mouth to make sure I’m not dreaming, and in my distress, bite a little hard. The pain and metallic taste of blood in my mouth let me know I’m not dreaming. I just heard my father announce my engagement.
“And what about the most important part?” my faceless future-father-in-law asks.
“I can assure you, my daughter is still a virgin.”
What the fuck! I scream in my head. Well, I hope I screamed it in my head because now a whooshing sound is filling my ears like I’ve been submerged in water.
“I can verify that,” James adds.
Now I understand why James or Genevra always insisted on coming with me to my gyne checkups. They were probably making sure that I was still chaste. Fuck me.
