Page 106 of The Viper

“You’re looking well, Eliza,” Marco says.

She can’t bring herself to look at him. “Thank you,” she responds in a small voice.

Alba appears with two silver trays. One has hotcakes, the other scrambled eggs and cooked mushrooms. “Coffee?” she offers.

“Yes, please,” I say.

“I’ll have an orange juice this morning,” Dominic says.

Surprised, I look over to him. I’ve not seen him have anything other than coffee or scotch. Marco snickers. “What’s going on?” I ask as I eye Dominic and Marco.

“May I have a juice too, please?” Eliza asks. “Would you like me to help you in the kitchen?”

“No, dear. You stay here and enjoy your breakfast. Bacon is coming out in a moment.”

Eliza lifts her chin and smiles brightly toward Alba. “Thank you.” I narrow my eyes at Dominic, who’s completely ignoring me. “May I start, Dominic?” Eliza asks as she eagerly awaits his approval.

This breaks my heart. What the fuck did that jerk do to my sister? “Absolutely.” I’m going to tear him apart. Fucker. Dominic looks to me, the same thought must occur to him because he looks like he’s about to overturn the table to get to Adrian.

“Thank you,” she meekly replies and reaches for the scrambled eggs. She places some on her plate and looks over to Dominic. “Is this okay?”

Dominic’s jaw tightens, but he quickly relaxes it and smiles to Eliza. “Eat whatever you’d like, Eliza. My home is yours.”

“Thank you.”

I want to yell at her to stop thanking everyone, but I suspect this is the conditioning that fucker beat into her. Even Marco shakes his head. I don’t think it’s because of Eliza, more because of the pain and trauma Adrian’s inflicted on her.

“Okay, onto business,” Dominic says.

“Business?” I look over at him.

“Here you go.” Alba appears in the dining room holding a serving tray. She places it on the table and hands out everyone’s drink of choice. “The bacon,” Alba says. “I forgot it.” She ducks out of the dining room, and returns within seconds with a plate piled high with bacon before taking the serving tray and leaving.

“Here.” Dominic opens a calendar. “Pick a date.” He slides it on the table toward me.

“What for?”

“Pick a date.” He taps the calendar, and I see it’s open to the following month.

“Are we going on vacation or something?”

“You could call it that.”

Marco snickers. “What’s happening?”

“Pick a damn date.”

“For what?” I lift my hands in frustration.

“For our wedding.”

I stare at Dominic and shake my head. “Whatever.” I push the calendar aside, disregarding his ludicrous statement as I reach for the bacon.

“Pick it, or I do.” He slaps a box on top of the calendar. “What day?”

I look around the room, waiting for them all to start laughing. Marco is chuckling, Eliza has her chin down as she nibbles on her food, and Dominic is relaxed, sitting back in his chair, casually scrolling his tablet. “Is this some lame ass proposal bullshit?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Rosa.”

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