Page 60 of Final Installment
As if he could hear my inner thoughts, Luka angled his head in my direction.Our gazes clashed.I noticed the slow drift of his eyes over my face and then down my neck to my chest.
Why was he staring at me like that?Why was he looking at me like he wanted to see what I had on underneath this dress?Flushed, I glanced away, and when I looked back, he had turned his attention fully back on my sister.
Speaking of sisters, Rina eyed me with distrust.I couldn’t figure out why.It wasn’t as if I had ever done anything to her personally.
Suddenly, my phone started to ring.Face burning, I stammered my apologies while trying to get the tricky clasp of my clutch opened.I finally managed it and ignored my mother’s glare as I retrieved my phone.
I was sure I had set it on Do Not Disturb.There were only two numbers I allowed to reach me at all times—my stepdad and Cheyenne—but they each had specific ring tones.This was a number I didn’t recognize that had called multiple times in a row to override the settings.
But then a message flashed onto my screen.And another and another.
I tapped my screen—and inhaled sharply at the sight of Luka receiving a lap dance from a naked woman.
More photos popped into my inbox, each one nastier than the previous one.Luka and the dancer were kissing passionately in the last one, and her hand was inside his pants, obviously stroking his erection.His fingers were between her legs, and the ecstatic look on her face told me everything I needed to know.
Heart racing, I swallowed hard and quickly powered off my phone.I refused to make eye contact with anyone, but my spectacle was quickly forgotten as the wedding coordinator entered and walked straight to Dafina.She spoke directly in Dafina’s ear, alarming my sister with whatever she had to say.
Dafina’s face reddened.“I’ll be right back.”
“Dafina!”My mother called after her.“Where are you—?”She turned to Luka, her scowl morphing into an icy smile.“I’m sure it’s only nerves.I’ll be right back.Excuse me.”
My mother chased after Dafina, and I took a nervous step back as every eye in the room turned to me.Some were curious, others accusatory.Rina was the first to speak.“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted feebly.
“You don’t know?”Rina asked archly.“You expect us to believe you have no idea what’s happening when I saw you checking your phone, like, one minute before your sister ran out of here?”
“It’s not like that,” I insisted.
“No?What was it like then?”
“Rina,” Kristo scolded softly.We’d only spoken briefly a few times yesterday, but he had been sending me encouraging smiles today.At least I had one friend here.
“No, I want to know what’s going on!”Rina shrilly shouted.“These bitches are up to something, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and get murdered!”
“Rina!”Luka harshly chastised his sister.
“What?”Rina gestured to me, and I gulped anxiously.“Look at her!She looks ready to vomit!”
“I think she’s nervous,” Kristo cut in, “and you’re not helping.”
“I’m not helping?She’s nervous?”Rina scoffed.“I’m standing in a room with the people who killed my father!”
“Rina!Enough!”I flinched at Luka’s angry voice.My adrenaline spiked, and I wanted to bolt.
In the distance, muffled by walls and closed doors, my mother shouted, “What have you done, Dafina?”
Besian, who had been observing the scene from the corner of the room, pulled both Rina and his wife behind him.My grandfather staggered away from my mother, leaving her vulnerable.Skender snatched my arm and shoved me behind him.
The door burst open, and a big, lumpy meathead stormed into the dining room.Dafina raced after him, clutching at his muscled arm.His black Givenchy tee was stretched to the limit, and I didn’t know how the seams were holding.He could probably lift me with one hand and not even break a sweat.
“Dusan?”Luka gawked at the man.“What are you doing here?”
“We were going to tell you,” Dusan said, his accent thick and foreign to my ears.I thought definitely Balkan, but I couldn’t say where exactly.“We didn’t mean for it to happen like this.”
“For what to happen?”Luka growled suspiciously.
“Stop!”Dafina begged tearfully.Her breaths were shallow and short, and I worried she was about to pass out.Her too tight wedding dress was not helping matters any.Earlier, I’d watched my mother lace her into the thing with vicious tugs and pulls.“Stop!Don’t!”
