Page 115 of Powerful Deception

“Was the check cashed?” I ask, nothing else seems relevant.

Bennett nods. “The next day. From what I know, she used some of it to pay off her parent’s brownstone and pay for the debt she acquired from the funeral and a few months of her rent. Other than that, the money hasn’t moved. Well, expect five thousand dollars.”

I don’t even want to ask how the actual fuck Bennett knows all of that information. One thing he said has grabbed my attention and it's making me question everything.

Five thousand dollars.

That was the same amount Lorenzo told be Gallo received through wire transfer.

The same amount that I blew off and thought nothing of it. Hell, I even told Lorenzo a few days after that conversation that I didn’t want to know who sent the money. That whoever sent the money wasn’t worthy of my time.

I guess I was so fucking wrong on that account.

“Does she know that you knew her father?” Bennett asks, taking my mind out of the dark spiral is going into.

“No.” I say, my voice clipped. “Never felt the need to. I guess the fact that she didn’t need money isn’t the only thing that we have to discuss.”

Without another word to the man, I down my drink and leave the man to go straight to the bar for another.

As I’m finishing up my third drink, I try to wrap my head around everything.

Yes, I didn't tell Arianna that I knew her father, but that was to protect her. I knew that if I told her, hell if I tell her now, she will have questions. Questions that she’s not ready to hear the answers to. Me keeping that piece of information to myself was nothing more than me caring about her.

And I fucking cared from the first time I saw her.

Me telling her about her father and his actions now would only open a wound that seems to be closed.

As for her lying to me about needed a job, that is something that I have to ask her about. There was, and still isn’t, no reason to lie.

I gave her the truth, all the fucking truth. Why couldn’t she give me the same/

And the five thousand dollars? I want to believe that the two parent connect. That Gallo didn’t receive the wire transfer from Arianna. I want to believe it, but there is something in my gut telling me that I’m wrong. That I’m wrong for wanting to believe that, because there was a reason why I didn’t trust Arianna in the first place. This theory just cemented that.

I drink one more glass of scotch before making my way over to the table and taking a seat for dinner. Arianna shows up a few minutes after me, still wearing that tight smile on her face.

A tight smile that I return.

For the rest of the dinner, Arianna and I don’t speak. We simply exist next to each other and only talk when one of us is asking a question.

By the time that the dancing starts, I’m not in the mood to stay much longer and hopefully Arianna feels the same way.

“Are you ready to go?” I say in her ear, my hand already on her elbow to pull her away.

“Yes.” just a simple word and I’m guiding use out of the ballroom and the hotel until we reach the car.

Once we’re in the car and I direct the driver to the hotel, we are back to the silence that encased us on the way here.

I always hate silence when it comes to her.

So I break it. “You lied to me.”

A small gasp fills the back of the SUV. I watch as Arianna turns to me, tears forming in her eyes trying to find words to say.

“Dante, I–” She starts, but doesn’t finish.

Because her words are replaced with a high pitch scream.

One second I’m looking at the woman that I love, then the next the only thing I see is glass.

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