Page 108 of Wicked Rivals

“You really think you’re going to get out of this, don’t you?” he asked. “You? No way.”

He shook his head and laughed again. A more sinister laugh than the last one.

“I just don't fucking understand you, Valerie. You’re a beautiful woman. A little thick in the hips, sure, and you need to be taught some fucking manners, but I could have done that for you. Would have raised you up from the gutter.

“You made yourself a whore when you slept with that man. Why would you go back to him now when you could be mine?”

The world around me spun, and I struggled to follow his ramblings. I pushed back another strong urge to vomit.

Luka came closer. His shoe touched the side of my hand.

“But no,” he continued. “You turned yourself into another home-wrecking slut with the fucking audacity to humiliate someone so much better than you.

“Have you looked at yourself? You think you could ever compare to Benedetta? Now there’s a real woman. Actual class. Genuine beauty. You’re just… average. You have a kid, for fuck’s sake. And yeah, I know your little secret.”

I tried to focus on Luka’s words, to understand what he said while staring at the mosaic on the floor beneath me.

My arms trembled. My ankle screamed. Now that the trunk’s darkness and silence were gone, replaced by blinding light and noise, the pain in my head pounded like a jackhammer.

By all means, weasel, go on. Keep talking.

“I’ve seen the real you,” he said. “You know, when you think no one’s watching. I see how you pretend to close the curtains at night, but you always leave those three inches open.

“You shouldn’t do that. That little pussy boy of yours ruinedyour body. Oh, your tits are great. But your ass is like a fucking freighter. And the stretch marks? Don’t get me started on how disgusting that shit is…”

I could hardly hear him over the pounding in my head.

Again, bile hit my throat, and I swallowed it.

Mother of Christ, this guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He just kept going on and on. But it gave me a chance to search for something useful, anything or anyone to help me.

I found nothing. No one.

“I wanted to do the right thing, you know, Valerie. I wanted to look past your flaws and take you anyway. We would sell the café, so you didn’t have to work anymore.

“You could spend a hell of a lot more time at the gym instead, for starters. And you would show me exactly how much you appreciated everything I would have done for you and your little bastard.”

Now he had gone way too far.

I didn’t give a damn what he thought about Con Amore or the choices I made.

As for my body, well, I’d seen how Stefano looked at me, with and without clothes. I would believe a man like Stefano any day before listening to this psychotic asshole.

And I definitely wouldn’t listen to him speak that way about my son. He would pay for that.

“I would’ve been a good father to that boy,” Luka said. “I would’ve given him the discipline he needs. Beat that quiet, creepy shit right out of him. Make him better. A people person. Not some fucking freak no one can even stand to look at. Hell, I would’ve even let him stay once you had my first child.”

I struggled to my feet. The room spun.

The vertigo had to wait. I had to kill this man.

“You threw it all away, Valerie. And for what? Just to be a criminal’s whore?”

I narrowed my eyes but kept my anger in full check.

“You’re wrong,” I said. “I didn’t throw anything away. I made love to a strong man who knows who he is. The man who will protect me and my son. His son. There’s no comparison between you and a man like Stefano.”

“You shut your mouth!” he shouted. “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

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