Page 28 of Revenge Vows

“Antonio, please forgive me,” she says softly. Her eyes are red and tired. Her face has streaks of black on it.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Donatello mutters under his breath, looking down at her in rage.

“Where the fuck did you go?” he spits out.

She doesn’t respond to either of them. Her full attention is on me. She reaches over and clutches the hem of my pants.

“You can punish me as you wish, Antonio,” she says. “I deserve it.”

“You ran away, didn’t you?” I ask.

She nods with her face down.

“So why are you back?” I ask.

She looks up at me. “I—I had nowhere else to go,” she says.

I stand up from the chair and pace the room. Then I stop in front of her.

“I hope you understand that I really can’t let you go again because of this.”

She doesn’t reply. Her gaze remains turned toward the floor as she looks down at her hands.

Her hands are as dirty as her face. I wonder if she has had a proper meal since she left.

I look up at the guards. “Where did you bring her from?” I ask.

“From the south gate,” the taller guard replies.

“Put her in one of the guest rooms. Keep her there until I come inside,” I say.

She doesn’t resist when the men pick her up from the floor and take her away. Donatello looks at me in disbelief, and Bunny is just sullen.

“You’re taking her to a guest room?” Donatello asks.

I return to my seat. “She is my wife, after all,” I say.

“The wife that you married as a joke!” Donatello snaps.

A glare from me silences him.

“I don’t like how the situation with this woman is going. You’re veering so far from the original plan that it’s getting reckless. You’re not a man whom I consider to be sloppy,” Donatello says.

He turns to Bunny helplessly. “Can you back me up on this? Or are you still mad at him?” Bunny rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t respond.

I turn to Donatello. “You don’t have to worry about anything.”

Donatello laughs. “Fuck my life. Antonio, she just went to see God knows who. What if she got in contact with Giovanni? Have you considered that?”

“I think we should let him be,” comes Bunny’s quiet voice.

Donatello turns to him in surprise. “What?”

“He wants the girl around. He can have her. Only if he will take responsibility for whatever comes of this, though,” Bunny says, turning to me.

“Are you crazy? Do you want a second black eye?” Donatello whispers to him fiercely.

Bunny’s eyes meet mine, and I hold his stare.

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