Page 76 of Cardinal

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing." I mused against her lips before stealing another kiss, earning a smack on the shoulder and a pout from her in return.

"On any other day, maybe." Her smile seemed a little reluctant, and she sounded a little crestfallen.

Concern washed over me at her low demeanor. "Juliet, sweetheart." Taking her hands in mine, I rubbed the back of them with my thumbs. "What is wrong?" Had I done or said something without knowing? Was it my fault?

"I just… I'm trying not to get my hopes up with us right now." Her answer did nothing to soothe my growing worries. "But we'll talk about it later." I didn't like her brushing me off like this either—I didn't like being dismissed by anyone.

Juliet turned to leave, but I refused to let her walk away from this right now. It took some holding back to not violently jerk her back with my tug. "Why can't we talk about it now? It's obviously a bother to you. And what do you mean get your hopes up about us? You sound like you might put an end to our relationship." She couldn't even look me in the fucking eyes when she spoke earlier, and that really worried me.

"Because it's a lot, and I don't want to get into it before we deal with my parents." She still refused to meet my eyes as she spoke, her head turning to avoid me when I tried to maneuver my head to make eye contact. "Luca, please… It'll be the end of us if we find ourselves incompatible after tonight. I want to think and believe that you will be fine with later, but I don't want to be crushed if things go south." Sighing heavily, she wrestles her hands out of my vice grip, hugging them to her chest as she scurried away from me to the doorway.

Pressing her and arguing with her right now would do us no good. Annoyance and irritation clenched at my jaw as my lips pulled down into an aching scowl. Leaving it for later did not sit well with me, and I made my displeasure known with my brooding silence the whole trip to her parents' gaudy mansion. Seeing the damn place irked me more and pulled at the cork I had over my bottled violence.

A part of me wanted to set a bomb on the place and sit back and relax in a lawn chair right outside the gates to watch the chaos of the flames engulf the place to ashes. The other half wanted to charge in head first with my fists and beat every living being in the place six feet underground to run all this pent-up ire out before I exploded in an unhealthy way.

Once I pulled up to the front of the place, I threw the car into park and got out, rounding the vehicle to get Juliet's door for her. I was peeved at her, but that didn't mean I would treat her any less than perfect.

Taking my hand, Juliet let me help her out and take her to the front doors. "Kick the door down, I want a grand fucking entrance." With how she glared at the doors, I was surprised the thing didn't disintegrate into ashes.

This new side to Juliet unnerved me a little. Since our argument, she's changed so much, but definitely not for the better. I never thought I'd say it, but I wanted my sweet Juliet back—the one I killed with my words. This power-hungry, blood-lusting woman standing next to me right now might have been the kind of woman I imagined ruling with me, and it was the type of woman I wanted for the longest while until Juliet. She had been too soft and innocent for my world, but she was perfect in a way with how intelligent, cunning, and deadly she was in her own right.

Juliet might not be the type of person to knock a grown man down onto his ass or pull a gun out to put some bullets into him without a second thought, but she could wreck a different kind of havoc with her hacking and technical knack. She never made any kill shots with her drones, but she was willing to shoot at a person. Well, I don't know if she was a bad shot or wanted the person to live, but the few times I have seen her use her drones, the person always lived until me or my men swooped in. Of course, she told me it was on purpose, but the uptick and hesitation in her voice whenever she answered me made me a little suspicious.

I wanted that Juliet back. I wanted my Juliet back.

Sadly, I had no one to blame but myself.

Shoving my thoughts away, I let go of Juliet and pushed her behind me before kicking the doors in and throwing them open to make them slam against the wall.

"Mother! Father! I'm home!" Juliet's menacing shout echoed through the nearly empty mansion. "Don't you want to see your dear daughter!?"

A distressed voice cried from above the stairs, "You little! How dare you do this to us!? After all we have done!" Juliet's mother stumbled down the stairs hastily, looking worse than ever.

She already didn't look good before, but at least the twenty pounds of caked-on makeup and ridiculous hair updo made her less of an eyesore compared to now. To say she looked like an unhinged mess would be a gross understatement. Somehow, she looked like she'd lost quite a lot of body weight, gained more wrinkles, lost half her hair volume, and overall looked very shitty.

Mrs. Chau lashed out a hand to slap Juliet, but she quickly sidestepped it, pathetically letting the older woman fall to the ground. "I see you missed your botox and hair appointments." Juliet casually mentioned in a voice full of fake sympathy as she looked down at her mother. "Where's my sperm donor?"

A voice came around the corner of the hallway downstairs, following a frail-looking Arnold. "Juliet, oh sweetie, I knew you would come back around to us." I didn't know whether to laugh at how hopeful he sounded or puke at how fake he pretended to be.

When Mr. Chau showed no signs of stopping his path toward Juliet, I quickly placed myself between them and stopped him with a dead glare. "Juliet, please tell Mr. Agosti that I merely want to hug my dear daughter." Okay, maybe puking in his face and making him eat it sounded like a good plan, or maybe an elbow to the face to break it.

"Mr. Agosti? You mean my husband? Who you sold me to, like how you sold me to that damn brothel for your debts?" Juliet spat out with a snarling scowl, her words dripping with so much hatred that even I felt a little wary.

"J-Juliet, please, let us explain. That's not how it is. He's been lying to you." Mr. Chau tried to take a step forward, but a flinch from me stopped him dead and made his face pale with fear.

Scoffing and chuckling dryly, Juliet reached down, hauled Mrs. Chau up, and shoved her toward Mr. Chau, who didn't even bother reaching a hand out to catch his stumbling wife. "Oh? Then please entertain me with your lies." Juliet pressed Mr. Chau in a sardonic voice.

Like the spineless fool he was, Mr. Chau was quick to tell Juliet everything about my visit to them that day and how I made them sign the contract and lie. I wasn't phased by any of it; I had already told Juliet the full truth and showed her the contracts, both the adjusted and originals with that day's date.

"Huh." Juliet stammered out with some surprise as she looked at Mr. Chau amusingly. "I honestly thought you were gonna lie to me or some shit. Well, you still are going to feed me shit to try and get me on your good side, but that won't work." Juliet let out a whimsical sigh and smiled emptily at her parents.

Looking around the place, Juliet seemed to revel in its emptiness. "Either they were quick to repossess everything, or you had to sell off so much before that." She mused with a low chuckle as she looked back at the older couple. "You know, I want to feel sorry for you, considering you were my parents, but I just can't seem to muster anything up." She sounded a little crazed with her expressionless face.

Pathetically, Mr. Chau dropped to his knees and looked at Juliet pleadingly. "Juliet, please, just let us apologize. Give us one last chance, please." Darting his head over to his mess of a wife, he offered a shaky smile to Juliet. "Please, honey, look at your mother. Don't you feel bad about her withdrawals? Please, just give her something to help."

This poor acting started to bore me faster than I anticipated, and I almost wanted to put the man out of his misery by stomping his head in. Too bad that was a mercy he didn't deserve.

Letting out a sarcastic laugh, Juliet shook her head at Mr. Chau. "Like how you felt bad for me knowing the place you sent me to? Knowing what those disgusting pigs in there will do to me?" Calming herself down with a few deep breaths, she put on a stoic face again. "I am merely disregarding you as you did me. Whatever shit hole you find yourselves in from here on out is none of my concern. Besides, you blame me for draining your accounts and leaving you more broke than a hobo, but you had little to nothing by the time I got access to your accounts."

---