Page 40 of Broken Princess

"Is that enough for you?" he asks in a knowing tone. "Or would you like to have it in writing?"

"You lied to me," I say, turning back to her. "Why?"

That's the most pressing question in my mind. One that demands an answer, even if others should be more important.

She seems confused by the question for a moment, and it takes her another to answer. "I… I don't know.”

Not a satisfactory answer at all, but I'm only going to keep getting more pissed off if I linger on it.

"Do you think it's funny?" I challenge. "You think I'm an idiot? I was going to give everything up for you, and here you are, this whole time, making me feel like shit when you're fucking another guy. When you're fuckinghim."

Who it is just adds insult to injury. She knows that, though. I can tell she does from the look in her eyes, and the fact that soon, she won't meet mine.

"Fuck you," I spit, looking between them. "Both of you."

I turn to stalk back down the hall, and Amelia calls after me, "Lorenzo!"

I hear her father mutter something, but it's the strangled sob she lets out that stops me in my tracks.

I linger for a moment, but I won't let myself act on it. I won't let myself act on the urge to go back and take her into my arms. To comfort her and tell her that it's all right. That no matter how she has betrayed me, or what she's done, I still want to do that. I still want to be the one who protects her. The one she comes to, when she can't go to anyone else.

And that just proves I'm a bigger fool than anyone could've imagined.

Even her.

CHAPTER 19

AMELIA

Two Weeks Later

It's been two weeks since everything fell apart. If nothing else, I no longer care about the fact that I'm stuck at home, or at least, stuck at my father's house. Home really isn't the word for it, but it's hard to bring myself to care about that, either.

With resignation to my current circumstances came a certain kind of apathy, and there is freedom in that. It's easier just not to care about much of anything.

I still take care of myself health wise, for the baby's sake, but I’m really not interested in doing much of anything else.

Other than being expected to attend family dinner, which is a joke in itself, I don't leave my room much.

What the hell is the point?

I still can't believe everything that happened. I can't believe Dad forced me to lie to Lorenzo about our baby, and the most ridiculous part is that he seems to genuinely think he’s doing the right thing. I'm still not used to him giving a shit, and I'm not sure I ever will be.

In the beginning, I warred with myself over what to do. Even that day in the hall, part of me had been tempted to tell Lorenzo my father was lying, and that Stefan was in on it, for reasons I still didn't fully understand myself.

Even then, though, I had known that would be a mistake.

Lorenzo is nothing if not stubborn, and he doesn't take kindly to being told he can't have something he wants. Especially not when his baby is involved. He might think he's going to be able to get us both out, and maybe he's right.

It doesn't matter, though. Not when we would only end up on the run, pursued not by one but both families. The two most powerful Mafia families in the Northeast.

And now, since Stefan is involved, probably the Romeros, too.

This is exactly what I didn't want. It's everything I didn't want for my baby, and it's all happening anyway. I was a fool to think that running away would change anything.

Lorenzo was right about one thing—there is no escape. Not for either of us. Even if we got out, what kind of life would await us out there? What kind of life could we give our baby?

And he would be turning his back on all of it. Everything he worked and fought so hard for.

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