Page 21 of Frayed Bonds

Her head swings to me and my spine stiffens. “By who?” I ask and she shifts.

Her head turns to the door and back to me. “The boss,” she says plainly.

I scrape my chair back loud enough for the entire restaurant to fall silent.

Natalia's hand slams over mine. “Val, just leave it.”

“No, I don't want their stupid money, at least not like this.”

If there's one thing I hated in this world, it was pity. I hate people doing things for me out of pity, and right now all I can think about is how I'm going to rip Antonio's head off his body for doing this.

I grab my bag and walk towards the door that is still guarded by the two large men from earlier. As I'm walking over, I realise I have no idea what I'm going to say.

“I need to speak to Mr. Vitale,” I say as politely as I can

The one barely glances down at me before shaking his head. “No can do Miss.”

“But it's an emergency,” I say, pushing my shoulders back further both in an attempt to appear more confident but also in the hopes my boobs can be used as bribery.

Not even a flinch. “I don't care what the reason is, we can't just let you in–”

“Listen here you overgrown chicken nuggets.” I raise my voice and by the way both their eyes widen, I know I have their attention. “I need to get inside right now–”

Chicken nugget number one picks me up and tries to throw me over his shoulder but underestimates how close we both are to the door which allows me to kick against it.

Chicken nugget number two realises his error faster than I would've liked and quickly grabs my legs. I know I'm causing a scene and in all honesty, a part of me is wondering if this is even worth it, but my pride screams at me to continue.

“What?” The door flies open and Adriano appears, seeming highly irritated. His face softens instantly when he takes in the scene in front of him.

“Val?” He asks confusedly before his eyes flash between the two guards. “What is going on? Put her down,” he says and the chicken nuggets oblige reluctantly.

He stands in the open doorway, completely blocking me from seeing anything inside.

I push past him and slip into the room. “Cazzo,” he whispers before both he and the security nuggets rush in.

“I don’t need your fucking pity money, Antonio,” I yell as I step into the room.

It feels as if ice water falls over me, and I freeze, as at least eleven pairs of eyes land on me.

Ambrose and Diego are both standing, both seemingly annoyed.

My eyes land on Antonio's and they are wide in shock. I have interrupted something big, and I want to crawl into a hole and die.

Chapter eight

Ambrose

The red that clouded my gaze is suddenly tainted pink as Valerie stands frozen in the centre of the room, like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes scan the room before they flash in Antonio's direction, and then my own.

Normally, I would welcome any interruption, these meetings tended to draw on for longer than they needed to. But, for the first time in years, that was not the case tonight.

Diego decided tonight, a casual board dinner, was the best time to bring up how the entire board feels that my brothers and I are unfit to run Vitale Holdings, and before Valerie decided to burst in, I was seconds away from telling him the only unfit thing was his suit.

I guess I owe her a thank you for stopping me before I said anything too damaging.

“Can I help you with something?” I ask, my tone is cold and clipped. She needs to get out of this room as fast as she came in.

She falters, her earlier confidence melting into a puddle around her as she gazes rapidly between Antonio and me.

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