Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
I hadn’t even considered the possibility that he’d moved on. It had only been one month and I thought he was as in love with me as I was with him, but maybe I’d been wrong. Or maybe this was how he coped, by hooking up with other women. The woman, who looked a little familiar, turned to Nico and laughed at whatever he said, then looked in my direction. We locked eyes and I felt like I was going to throw up. She smiled at me and walked the other way.
“Lenora,” Nico said. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I wasn’t.” I looked at the door, at the woman walking away, and finally, at Nico. “I see that he’s busy. Please don’t tell him I came by.”
Nico’s brows pulled and I turned around to walk the opposite way.
“Lenora,” he called out, then cursed as he jogged over and grabbed my arm. “Wait.”
“What?” I snapped, looking up at him.
“I don’t know what you think you saw, but that was Veronica,” he said, searching my eyes. “You know, Dom’s Veronica, the one married to a woman. . .”
“Oh.” I blinked and looked again, but she was long gone.
Of course, I knew Veronica. The last time I saw her, she had her hair in a blunt bob. Now she had it to her elbows and was suddenly blonde. There was no way I would have recognized her. She’d been working for my brother, running Oui for years. I’d heard Rocco say something about her helping with Scarab while we’d been at the safe house, but I hadn’t put two and two together. It didn’t matter, though. That experience was enough for me to snap out of it and realize I shouldn’t have come here. Nico looked over my head and stood straight.
“Lenora?” At the sound of Rocco’s voice, my heart stopped.
“Did you tell him?” I whisper-shouted.
“No,” Nico said, keeping his lips from moving. “I came after you. How could I have told him?”
I closed my eyes.
“Lenora?”
I took a very deep breath and let it out as I closed my eyes. New clarity broke through my thoughts. I’d been walking around without a purpose for so long that I’d forgotten the most important thing. My newfound freedom didn’t just extend to my future in business decisions. Freedom allowed me to choose who I wanted to be. Not that De Luca girl whose life was planned out, not Giuseppe’s untouchable virgin daughter, not the woman with the unbreakable arranged marriage. I’d chosen Rocco. Me. I’d done that. Now I had my own business, my own apartment, and was free to make my own choices. I’d chosen to walk down the street today instead of getting in a car. I’d chosen to walk to Scarab. With that in mind, I opened my eyes and reminded myself that I was whoever the fuck I wanted to be. I turned around and wished I’d given myself a little pep talk on how to react to him, because the moment I saw him, my insides began to play tug of war. He looked tired and in need of a haircut, with bags under his eyes and a shadow on his face. If possible, his muscles looked more pronounced, as if he’d been living at the gym. As I walked over, he looked at me like he wasn’t sure whether I was real or a mirage.
“How’d you know I was here?” I asked, stopping a couple of steps from him.
His eyes took me in from head to toe and back, his mouth slightly parted like he still wasn’t quite sure I was here. “I saw you on the cameras.”
I gave a nod and looked away, smiling at a mother walking by with her little girl.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, clearing his throat.
“Oh, I was just in the neighborhood.” I shrugged. “Figured it was a nice day for a walk.”
His brows pulled as his blue eyes went up and down the block, searching for security detail, no doubt. I hoped the man my mom had following me was well hidden.
“You’re here alone?”
“Yep.”
He looked like he didn’t approve, but he didn’t say anything as his eyes studied every inch of my face. “Were you going to come inside?”
“I thought about it,” I said, “Then I realized that if you wanted to see me, you would have reached out by now.”
“How?”
“Via phone, like everyone else.”
“I don’t have your number.”
“Dominic said you were the one who bought the phone and put in everyone’s numbers.”
“That doesn’t mean I took the liberty of saving yours in mine,” he said.
That hurt but I didn’t react. “Why?”
“Because if I had it, I would have called you every single day.”
I swallowed. “And you didn’t want to?”
“Of course I wanted to.” He ran his fingers through his hair and let out an unamused chuckle.