Page 107 of Forbidden Arrangement

CHAPTER26

Imade my way down the street, thinking about what I could do to get Valentina to listen to me and forgive me.I understood that I had completely betrayed her.And I was pissed off at myself that I hadn’t told her right away what was happening.As soon as I’d seen her, I should have told her about her dad.Now I knew she wouldn’t believe I was going to tell her the truth.She would think I was just a liar and had always been a liar.My phone started ringing, and I grabbed it quickly, hoping it was Valentina, but it wasn’t.

“What’s up, brother?”I snapped.

“Dude, where are you?We need to talk.”It was Stefano.

“What?What’s going on?”

“Mom’s been in contact with the boys.”

“Sergio and Santino?”I asked.

“Yeah, and they want to go see her tomorrow.”

“What?”

“And Dad wants to go too.”

“What the fuck?She always had bad timing,” I growled.“So what are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” he said.“I feel like we’ve got two options.”

“What are the two options?”

“We go with them, or we don’t.”

I sighed.“Where are you right now?”

“I was just going to try to find Elise.”

“What?What are you talking about?”

“I need to talk to her,” he said, annoyed.

“Okay.And?”

“And I need to talk to her.You asked me what I was about to do, and I just told you.”

“You need to cancel that.We need to meet up with Sergio and Santino and Dad now.”

“Bro, you’re not going to change their minds.”

“I’m not looking to change their minds.I’m just looking to have an honest conversation with them so that when they meet with Mom tomorrow—”

“Whenthey.So you don’t think we should go?”

I let out a deep sigh.“I don’t want to go.But I think we have to go.Sergio and Santino and Dad, well, they’ll be easily influenced by her.I don’t want them forgiving her in the blink of an eye.She doesn’t deserve that.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t.”Stefano sighed.“Fine.I’ll come and meet you.I guess I can speak to Elise later.She’s getting on my nerves anyway.”

“Not this whole Bradley thing still?”

“It’s a betrayal, Sam.It’s not just—”

“Okay, okay, I get it.I really don’t want to get into that right now.”

“Are you okay?You sound odd.”

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