Page 52 of Cruel Heir

It could undoeverything.

“You should consider how much worse things could be for you.” I glare down at her, lacing my words with as much anger as I can to tamp down the rising emotions that I refuse to give in to. “I have spoiled you and made sure your life in this home with me was as luxurious as you could possibly hope for. I have given you everything I could possibly think of to make you comfortable. Hell, I had the goddamn yoga teacher you asked for coming next week. But instead, you sit here conniving with your maid—”

It was a guess, that the maid I’d assigned to Lucia—Celeste, I think her name is—was the one who helped her get the pills. The way Lucia’s head snaps up when I say it, her poker face dissolving in a moment of pure fear over someone who she clearly cares about, tells me that instinct was right.

“So it was her.” I press my lips together, a fresh anger burning through me at the knowledge that it’s not only my wife who has betrayed me, but a member of the staff I’ve hired and paid as well. A person whoshouldowe me loyalty. “What should I do with her, then?”

Lucia’s face goes white as bone, and she looks up at me from where she’s crumpled on the rug, wide-eyed and terrified. “No,” she whispers hoarsely. “Please don’t hurt her. Please—”

For a moment, I’d considered it. My rage needs a target, and I can’t seem to bring myself to take it out on Lucia, who, in truth, is the real culprit in all of this. But I see Lucia’s terrified expression, the fear in her eyes for this girl that she clearly cares about, and I grit my teeth.

“I won’t hurt her,” I tell Lucia flatly. “I’ll send her to another estate. One where she can’t connive and collude with you—”

“No!” Lucia cries out, her hand wrapping around my leg, and something twists in me at the sight of my wife begging in front of me on the floor.This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. I’m supposed to be aroused at the sight of her begging and pleading, enjoying the power I have over her, the way Don Fontana’s daughter is reduced to tearsand pleas for herself and for the maid that she’s dragged into trouble with her. But all I feel is discomfort and disgust—not with her, but at how entirely out of control all of this has gotten.

“I can’t leave her here to continue plotting with you.” I pull myself out of Lucia’s grasp, reaching down to lift her up off of the rug and guiding her back towards the bed. My every movement is stiff and tense. I want to touch her gently, to soothe her, and it takes everything in me to avoid doing just that. “You can’t imagine that I would let you keep your maid after what you’ve done.”

“I’m notkeepingher.” Lucia glares at me, her eyes still full of tears. “She’s my friend. She’s the only friend I have—”

I let out a sharp breath. “You are pushing me to the brink, do you know that? What do you expect me to do, Lucia? Did you really think that you could betray me like this, plot to deny me the one thing that Ineed,lieto me, and I would tell you it was alright? That there would be no consequences? I have doneeverythingI could to ensure that this was as easy for you as it could be; I havetried—”

“None of it matters!” Lucia shouts it into my face, the words tearing hoarsely out of her throat as fresh tears spill down her cheeks. “None of it matters, because you never gave me a choice in any of this. You dragged me into this marriage andforced—”

“You were never going to be given a choice, no matter what.” I step back, looking at her with as much coldness as I can muster, trying to think only of what she’s done, and not how she makes me feel. “Your father was never going to give you a choice. I only did what all men do in this world.”

Lucia lifts her chin, and the scathing glare that she gives me is so full of defiance that it sends that twisting sensation through me again, that feeling that I’ve found more in this woman than I could possibly imagine.

That I found my match, and I no longer want to break her. I want to make her the other half of myself.

“Then,” she says icily, turning her head away. “Maybe you should have tried to be better.”

I open my mouth, but there’s nothing I can think of to say. Shedoesn’t look at me, and for a long moment, I stand there and look at her—the mafia princess that I captured, the woman I meant to break and destroy…and who has somehow managed to bringmeto my knees, despite all of that.

But I can’t let her know, or I lose it all. So, instead, I turn and stalk out of the room, slamming the door as I lock it behind me.

The sob that I hear from behind it feels like a knife in my gut. But I keep going.

If I stop now, it was all for nothing. I tell myself that would be the worst outcome of all.

But I’m not entirely sure I believe it any longer.

17

LUCIA

I’m not sure how long I sit in the bedroom, crying. Everything feels as if it wells up and bursts out of me all at once—my fear and grief, the hurt of knowing my father has questioned whether or not to save me, the terrifying possibility of having a child with Andre, the grief for the future that I lost when he took me. I curl onto the bed, sobbing until there are no more tears left, and only then does the confusion wash in on the heels of my breakdown.

I had expected Andre to hurt me. I had expected shouting, threats, for him to choke me or bind me or roughly fuck me to show me that I can’t stop him from taking what’s his. I had expected everything except restraint.

And when I’d threatened to kill myself instead of giving him what he wants—

I could have sworn I saw real fear in his eyes. Something that almost looked likehurt. As if he couldn’t stand the thought of losing me—not because I’m his valued prize, but because hecaresabout me.

That’s not possible.

My heart wrenches at the thought. The memory of the night we spent together in front of the fire creeps back in, the memory of the dinner date in the dining room, of talking with one another, oflearning more about the man I married. The way he touched me, admitting that what he wanted was ridiculous, but doing it anyway. I remember the flowers and the notes apologizing for what he did. The ways he tried to meet me halfway, hoping I would give in.

But how can I possibly do that?

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