Page 39 of Corrupting Lily

“I’m sorry.” Her voice trembles, and she looks away, a tear slipping from her lid before she does.

“You do not need to accept now. You can think about it first. Just because someone has said the words does not mean you have to forgive. If you do not accept, I will issue further punishment.” Lily’s eyes widen, surprise painting her gorgeous features. No one gave her this power before. I don’t think she knows what to do with it.

“Matteo!” I call, waiting for him to appear before I speak. I gave himthe night off as I thought there would be no incidents, considering we were aroundfamiglia. Misplaced notion, it now seemed.

“Take Lily upstairs to our room. I’ll be there shortly.” He gives Elena a dirty look before stepping toward Lily, her eyes darting around the room. She's probably trying to assess how the situation will play out in her absence.

With one last look at me, she leaves with Matteo.

“We should be going too. I will come by tomorrow with Luca so we can discuss my findings on NextGen Pharma Tech,” Massimo says, already extending his hand for Elena to take.

We had investigated the deposits made into the offshore account that Lorenzo had opened, which ultimately led to his downfall. There appeared to be a connection between NextGen Pharma Tech, Lorenzo, and the massive sex trafficking syndicate. The fact that our name is linked to it through Lorenzo needs to be addressed, and the best way for me to do that is to shut it down for good. If I were the one to shut it down, our involvement would no longer be questioned.

“Can I speak to you privately, Dominico?” Elena’s question brings me back to the present, and only the pathetic look on her face and pure curiosity about what she could possibly have to say to me make me nod.

I round my desk, pouring myself a drink and lighting a cigar as Massimo walks toward the door.

“I’ll be right outside,” he says, as if I might physically assault her again, thus requiring him to be nearby.

I lean back in my chair, puffing on my cigar as I wait for this woman I once thought I loved to say what she needs to say. And to think, at one point in time, for a long time, I considered her to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Next to Lily, it is like comparing Picasso to the turd that splatters the porcelain bowl before flushing. But perhaps itwas her inner self that made her seem so vile and disgusting to me now.

“You do not look at me like you used to. I miss that.” While no more tears brim her eyelids, the sorrow remains.

I cannot feel even an ounce of that. I could at one time, but what she did to me changed that—hardened me against women. Against her. I cannot mirror her emotions like I used to, and I am glad. The mirror was a gimmick, hiding what was beneath—hiding her rotten core.

“Are you seriously not even going to talk to me? We have a history, one that cannot be swept aside so easily.”

I laugh at her words; the utter delusion behind them is humorous.

“I can, and I have. Years ago. You should try it.”

“We were together for five years, Dominico. And knew each other for double that before we were in a relationship. About to be married. Are you telling me that none of that means anything?” She is pleading with me, and while I should stop it, I almost want her to push me to the edge—the edge where my anger boils over into action. Then maybe I could actually kill her for what she did. God knows how many times I have thought about doing it. It’s only my code of not killing women that has spared her. That and the fact that what she did to me would become public knowledge. The pity on everyone's faces would be fucking worse than the fear.

My silence must seem like a cue for her to continue, which she does while also getting up and rounding the table—all the closer for me to grasp her and snap her neck. I smile at the thought, which she misconstrues as encouragement.

“Remember all the good times we had together? We can have that again. I know deep in your heart you want that. You want this,” she murmurs, grabbing my hand with her good one and placing it against her chest. Where her black heart resides.

“That is why you have never married. Why do you keep going through women? None of them are your match.” She shifts my hand to rest fully on her breast—a fake one at that. Her attempt to sound sultry and sexy just sounds like desperation to me.

“You’re pathetic.” My words wipe the seductive look from her face as she steps back, my hand falling away from her body and liking it. I get up, crowding her so that she has to step back.

“You can attribute my reluctance to take a Queen to you solely because you have become the benchmark for everything I avoid and everything I despise. That is the only credit you can take for my current situation. However, I have found someone who is your complete opposite in every way. Someone worthy of me.” She stumbles backwards as I step forward, her face changing to shock at my words.

“You can’t be serious. That woman? You will take her over me? I have waited for you, Dominico. I thought by now you would have been over what happened.”

Over what happened.Over what happened. Her words repeat in my head, how she has minimized the event, the final catalyst I was looking for to push me over the edge. And fall over it, I do. She manages one scream before it is cut off, my hand pinning her against the wall as it circles her neck. The controlled grip I have with Lily is nowhere to be seen.

She claws at my arm, her eyes bulging as tears stream down her face.

“Over what happened…” I grit out, the fury I feel making the blood pound in my ears, deafening me so that I don’t hear Massimo enter, or his shouts for me to let go of his sister.

“You fucking bitch, you still think what you did deserves my mercy?!” She splutters, and spit drips down her chin, reminding me how pathetic she is—reminding me that I should not give her the power.

“I should kill you for what you did,” I growl, throwing her to theground.

“But you will not make me break my oath. No women and children.”

I hesitate, my eyes squinting as I take in her pathetic form.

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