Page 73 of Twisted Obsession

‘Our marriage was real on my part… You were more than just revenge to me! You know that. I explained that to you.’

‘You did, I agree. But the trouble is, the more I look back to all those years ago, I have trouble trying to identify where the lies ended, and the truth started? Answer me that…’ I watched as Giovanna, looking unstable once again, reached out to hold the back of the chair nearest to her.

‘I have no fucking idea why we’re rehashing all of this crap.’ I exhaled loudly, shaking my head at her. ‘But if you really need to know… the lies ended, and the truth started when I took you to the bar at Sera’s home and looked into your eyes. Even if I didn’t want to recognise it.’

A pained filled laugh left her, and she shrugged her shoulders at me, making the dress she was wearing shimmer in the light. ‘Always the player, Dante.’

I could hear my sister Mia accusing me of the same, the day I’d reached out for Giovanna and had taken her hand in mine for the very first time.

Just agree, let her know she’s right and you’re a complete bastard… it’ll be less painful.

But I couldn’t, whatever else happened here tonight, even if it fucked me up for the rest of my life, I couldn’t make her think what had happened between us was a lie. Stepping forward, I reached out and took hold of the same hand I’d just made such a show of bestowing a kiss onto.

‘I’m telling the truth, Giovanna. I told you the truth in London. I tried to play the game I thought I needed, but it backfired.’ No longer able to help myself, I reached up with my other hand and trailed my forefinger down over her jawline, and hoped she could feel the truth in my touch.

‘If you did, why did you walk away? We’d taken our vows less than ten minutes before. Salvatore arrived like we assumed he would, and after I’d spoken to him you didn’t come back.’

‘I went nowhere.’ I shook my head at her. ‘It was you who changed your mind. I understood you were young. I even understood that perhaps we’d rushed into it, and you felt we made a mistake. But you could have told me face to face.’

‘I didn’t change my mind, it was you!’

Chapter Eleven

Giovann

‘Why the hell would I have changed my mind? Ask yourself that.’ Dante gripped my hand he was holding a little tighter.

I focussed on his strength for a few seconds. I had to. With all the emotions I was experiencing, I was beginning to feel a little hot and lightheaded. Perhaps it was because he just touched me?

‘Salvatore told me that with your papa now exonerated and your family once again in a secure position within the family, you were happy to let me go.’

‘Happy to let you go?’ His voice increased in volume. ‘That’s a fucking joke.’

Dante released my hand suddenly and strode back to the drinks cabinet. Feeling his anger, I watched as he poured himself out a large whiskey and downed it in one, before he lit up a cigarette, and took a long drag. Then he turned and studied me, making goosebumps appear under his perusal.

‘Where’s my manners?’ he asked sarcastically. ‘Would you like a drink, Miss De Luca?’ I had no idea if it was what he was asking, or what he’d just called me, that made me feel so instantly ill. But sudden realisation hit me at my stupidness, andI dug my fingers into the back of the chair I was holding hoping it would give me the support I needed.

‘Don’t,’ I reprimanded him.

‘Don’t, she says.’ He laughed, but it didn’t reach his face. ‘Giovanna, would you care for a drink?’ he questioned again.

‘Yes, okay. Non-alcoholic please.’

‘Of course,’ he voiced, showing me that he still remembered.

Unlike me, it appeared, who thought I could get away with the beer I’d just had with the bodyguard I’d had to drug to get here. I watched as Dante stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette and poured out a glass of wine for me and another whiskey for himself.

Oh God! You fool. Hold on Giovanna.

It seemed to be Karma for the lies I’d told to get here. Now, it appeared, I really was ill.

If I hadn’t been so emotionally overwrought and struggling to keep what felt like a possible allergic reaction at bay, I would have laughed out loud at my predicament. I looked down for my handbag and checked it was within reach, in case I needed it.

‘Tell me more about what fucking Salvatore told you?’ He slammed the glass he had drunk from again back down on the tray, making everything on it clang together, and me jump in the process, before moving over to offer me the wine.

‘Don’t call him that.’ I took the glass he was offering.

He laughed loudly. ‘There are many, many more colourful things I could call that bastard. Can’t you see what he’s done?’

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