Page 9 of House of Lies

I have something to ask him. I try to assess his mood before I do, but I can never be sure about him.

“Could I call my sister tomorrow?” I blurt out.

His fingers freeze mid-air above the keyboard. Slowly, he turns his head, his gray eyes piercing into my soul.

“What?”

“I haven’t spoken with her in a while.” I shrug.

I miss her.

I keep that to myself. He possesses enough ammunition to hurt me without me handing him more.

“Why are you asking me if you can call her?” He inquires, appearing genuinely perplexed. I’m beginning to suspect that he has missing fragments of memory.

“Because I don’t have a phone and need your permission?”

For now, we are two confused strangers sharing a bed.

“What happened to your phone?”

I purse my lips, my eyes widening. “Is this amusing to you?”

“What are you talking about?”

He closes the laptop, directing his full attention toward me. The lump in my throat makes swallowing difficult, and my throat feels parched. I was more at ease when his focus was elsewhere, and I could fade into the background.

“You took away everything I had after the wedding.” I bite my tongue, trying to remain composed and refrain from wrapping my hands around his neck. “I have no phone, no laptop, and no belongings. You believed you were teaching me a lesson.”

“Right.” He nods, but the memory doesn’t seem to resurface. “What else?”

“What else? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Just refresh my memory, will you?”

Perhaps he suffered an accident while he was away, which would explain his recent bizarre behavior. If he hit his head, it clearly wasn’t hard enough. He’s still alive.

“Let’s see. I can’t speak with my family without your permission.” Not that I want to speak with anyone else besides my sister. “I can’t leave the property without you. I’m not allowed to speak with anyone, including your employees, and they act like I don’t exist anyway.” I don’t mention that Giuliana spoke to me recently. I’d hate to get her on his radar. “I’m not allowed to buy anything. Not that I have money or anything like it. Does any of this jog your memory, you fucking bastard?”

Past experiences have taught me nothing. I should know better by now than to curse at him. It only infuriates him further. A minute of silence stretches between us.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he finally says, cracking his knuckles one by one.

I loathe him, but I’m not stupid enough not to take advantage of this. Mattia has never shown any interest in making deals with me. He takes what he wants when he wants. And recently, he wanted nothing from me that would crush my soul.

“I’m listening.”

“Starting tomorrow, we’ll move into a bigger bedroom, and you’ll sleep in the same bed as me.” He smirks. “We’ll have breakfast and dinner together.” I’m about to object, but he shakes his head. “I have to attend some upcoming events, and you’ll accompany me.” The urge to tell him to go fuck himself is overpowering, but I keep my mouth shut.

“Anything else?”

“Some replies to my questions would be nice, even if it’s just to tell me to go to hell.”

“What would I receive in return?”

He’s asking for a great deal for a man who has treated me like the dirt beneath his shoes since we married.

“A phone. A laptop. Money to spend on whatever you want. I’ll speak to our employees. They’ll start treating you as you deserve, or we’ll find others. You can come and go as you please, but you’ll have a bodyguard, not because I want to control you, but because this family has too many enemies. And since I’ve noticed that you’ve been reading the same book repeatedly, we’ll transform half of the house into a library. You can have whatever you want. Whatever you need. Just ask, and it will be yours.”

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