Page 47 of Obsession

I have a chef on staff, so Madi could never cook a day in her life if she didn’t want to, but something about her not only cooking, but using my nonna’s recipe tugs at my heart.

“Mangia,”Madi says once we’ve sat down across from each other.

It smells just like my nonna’s and my mouth is watering as I bring the first bite to my lips. And then immediately, it takes everything I have not to gag at the taste. How the fuck does it smell so good and tastehorrific?

“What do you think?” Madi asks with bright eyes.

I can’t tell if she’s fucking with me. She has to be, right? I chew slowly on the gummy noodle, avoiding having to answer the question. The pasta is overcooked, the texture tough. The sauce tastes bitter, as if the tomatoes were bad, not sweet like mynonna’s. But the look on Madi’s face is so innocent, so pure. And it feels like it took us ages to get to this moment where she’s not fighting with me, so I’m not about to tell her that her cooking is atrocious.

“Fantastico,” I say, swallowing the thick wads of noodles.

Madi’s smile is bright at the compliment. “Really? Is it just like Nonna’s?”

“Mmhmm,” I tell her as I chug from my glass of wine. Her happiness makes me feel good. Except then I look down at my plate and realize how much more of this slop I have to eat. “Delicious,” I tell her as I take another bite, doing my best to chew quickly and swallow.

Madi picks at her plate, taking a few bites and drinking from her wine. I don’t stop until I’ve eaten the entire thing and my stomach feels like it’s filled with lead.

“Are you going to help Sam?” Madi spits the question out like it was burning a hole in her tongue, shocking me. I swallow the bit of wine in my mouth and take a breath.

What do I tell her? Surely not that I’m playing both sides until it leads to the downfall of her family name. But she looks at me expectantly, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. I need to give her something.

“Do you want me to help Sam?”

Madi chews on her lip for another moment, avoiding my eyes. “Yes,” she answers, but there’s a look on her face, like there’s more she wants to say, something else she’s not telling me.

“I filed the paperwork today.”

“Really?” Her eyes light up.

“Really.”

“Do you think…”

“I’ll get him out.” I answer the question that’s on the tip of her tongue. “I don’t lose, Madi.”

She rolls her eyes at my overconfidence. “Trust me, I know.”

I can’t help but laugh; it bubbles out of my throat, and soon enough, she’s giggling with me. It feels light, this moment. Like she doesn’t hate me, and I don’t hate the family she was raised in. Like we could be normal. But that’s not true, nothing about this situation is normal. I forced her hand to marry me and now she’s trapped here. Even if I give her a long leash, it’s still a leash.

“Why do you want Sam out?” I ask, taking another sip of wine.

Madi shrugs. “He’s always been there for me. Unlike my family.”

“You don’t like your family?” I question, even though the answer is clear as day, has been since the day I saw her at Marcus’ house.

She mulls over the question, taking a long sip of wine and swallowing slowly. “It’s not that I don’t love them…”

“But you don’tlikethem.”

“No,” she says on a sigh. “Not really.”

I nod like I completely understand, even if I don’t. My family has always meant everything to me. But then again, I’ve met her brother. I know how awful he was. “Why?” I find myself asking before I can stop the word from leaving my lips.

“My mom…she just doesn’t like me very much. I’m not the daughter she wanted, and I can’t change that.” She shrugs, but the look on her face is filled with sadness.

“And Marcus?” I ask.

She blows out a long breath. “Marcus was…cruel. I don’t think he cared about me, just what I could do for him. And that was never enough. He was a jerk.” She seems surprised that she said that out loud.

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