Page 26 of Cruel Bratva King

Giulia, on the other hand, sipped her wine quietly, looking at Lilianna with suspicious eyes. She glared at her most of the dinner, and I hated it.

Lilianna ignored all three of us as she stuffed her face with food. I knew she’d been starving. She hadn’t had anything to eat since she came in this morning. I helped her cut the turkey up, not minding that Giovanni and his daughter were sitting across the table.

Giulia must’ve had enough of me being nice to Lilianna. She scoffed and slammed her glass on the table, frowning. “Are you going to introduce us or something?”

“There will be no need for introductions.” I was going to wait until dinner was over before I said anything. My kind gesture was just to make sure Lilianna had enough to eat without any disruptions. Giovanni and Giulia were more than likely to act out after I broke the news to them, which would ruin Lilianna’s appetite. I didn’t want that to happen.

Giulia was fuming from her end of the table. “You’re my fiancée, babe. If there’s a strange woman in your home, then I should know who she is.”

I almost laughed at the way she called mebabe.I disliked Giulia as much as I disliked her father, or even more. She was superficial and insufferable. Just like the other Italians I’d come across, she had a vileness to her that I hated.

She could use all the makeup in the world and even be the most beautiful woman in the eyes of other men, but she was nothing more than a nasty rash to me.

“You’re not my fiancée, and I’m not your babe.” I looked at Lilianna. She was wiping her lips with a napkin and didn’t seem bothered with what was happening, not until I dropped the bomb. “My fiancée is sitting across the table from you.”

The napkin fell from Lilianna’s hand, and she whipped her head around so fast I thought I heard a crack. She cocked an eyebrow in surprise, appearing even more shocked by the news than Giulia and Giovanni.

“What’s this nonsense?” Giovanni asked as if the turkey had gotten stuck in his throat. “We had a deal.”

“No,” I cut him off. “You had an offer, and I arranged this dinner to inform you that I won’t be accepting that offer. The lady beside me is Lilianna Anderson, and we’re getting married tomorrow.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Well, too bad.” I looked away from her to Lilianna. My wife-to-be was oddly silent in the face of chaos. “Looks like we’ll have to find another way to resolve our conflict, Giovanni.”

“Did she seduce you?” Giulia sounded like a mad woman. “Is that it?” She faced Lilianna with her rage, wide-eyed and looking crazy as fuck. “What did you do to him? You stole my fiancée, you fucking whore?”

Lilianna looked back and forth between me and Giulia, probably waiting for me to intervene, and when I didn’t, she stood up from her chair. “I’ll excuse myself now.”

Before she could take a step away from the dining table, Giulia flew up from her seat, ran over to her, and the next thing I heard was the sound of a slap. For a moment, I’d hoped it wasn’t what I thought it was or that at least it wasn’t Giulia slapping Lilianna. But it was.

That bitch dared to slapmoy tsvetokin front of me.

My jaw clenched, and raw fury festered through my chest. I’d never hit a woman before, but I was close to killing one right now.

Giulia’s first mistake was thinking she had a sort of claim over me. Her second mistake was hurting my woman right in front of me.

Chapter 13 - Lilianna

My cheeks throbbed with pain, and there was a loud ringing in my eardrum. It took all of two minutes for my brain to process what had just happened, and when I finally came to, I was faced with an even bigger problem.

Sergey was standing next to me now, his jaws were clenched, and his eyes were darkened with anger. The veins on his hands bulged, and he looked even more scary than I’d seen or thought him to be.

The ringing in my ear finally stopped, and the first thing I heard was Giulia’s screams. Sergey’s fists were buried in her hair as he dragged her from side to side.

“How dare you lay your filthy Italian fingers on my wife.” He wasn’t screaming or shouting; he was roaring. His voice thundered through the entire room, and it sent shivers down my spine.

“You’re hurting me, Sergey,” Giulia cried, digging her talons into his arms as she struggled to break away from his grip. She was no match for him, though.

In her six-inch heels, Giulia was only a bit taller than I was. Sergey was a solid six-foot-six muscled wall, and we both only reached his shoulders. I glanced at Giovanni. He seemed less concerned about his daughter and more concerned about finishing the wine on the table.

Between Giulia’s scream and Sergey’s roar, I knew I had to do something. What I didn’t know was what to do. Sergey looked like a beast that would devour anything that came his way, and I dared not try to stop him.

It was in my best interest to turn around and run up to my room, save my own skin. Yet, I couldn’t just cower away in fear while he hurt a woman, even if that woman was a rude, uncouth wench that had just hit me minutes ago.

Before I knew it, I’d closed the space between Sergey and I. Grabbing his arm, I tried to pull him away from her to no avail. It wasn’t until I screamed that I was able to get his attention.

“Stop!” My breath hitched as if I’d just hiked a mountain. “Let her go, Sergey, please.”

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