Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Oh no.”
“Lucia is my best friend. I’ve known her since we were kids. I’m not worried about our friendship. She kept her silence out of loyalty to her daughter, but her eyes told me she knew Isabella was wrong. How could anyone argue otherwise.”
“I don’t want the dust to be kicked up like this.”
“Well, that’s how life is,” she said simply. “The skies will be clear one moment, and then a cloud of dust will approach the next. It’s always changing, never the same, not even for a day sometimes.”
“Yeah.” That was how my relationship with Constantine suddenly felt.
We finished our dinner, and she left the room and returned with a photo album. She sat beside me and opened to the first page. “Would you like to see pictures of Constantine when he was a boy?” she asked with a smile, as if nothing would make her happier than to show her collection.
“Absolutely.”
“He was just as handsome then as he is now, just much less testosterone,” she said with a chuckle.
We flipped through the pictures together, seeing him as a baby and then as a toddler, and then he was a young boy at the beach. There were pictures of him with his hands dirty, helping out at the restaurant. Pictures of him with his father in the living room. I studied his life in pictures, watched him grow into a teenager and then a young man, every part of him growing bigger and stronger. The only thing that didn’t change was his eyes. He wasn’t the muscular man I knew now in any of the pictures, as if he didn’t bulk up until he left Taormina.
“You raised a wonderful man, Sofia,” I said. “I know how lucky I am.” Even now, when I was pissed off at him, I still loved him with all my heart. My jealousy burned me alive, and I was wounded by the way he’d caught me off guard. But my feelings for him had not changed, and they would never change.
Her hand moved over mine. “And I’m lucky my son brought home such a wonderful woman to be my daughter.”
Chapter 16
Constantine
I woke up the next morning with Medusa beside me. Opened my eyes and saw her head on the pillow next to me, snoring quietly right in my face. I’d slept like shit last night. Kept checking my phone to see Aurelia’s location. She remained at my mother’s house, not that I expected her to go anywhere. They were in the kitchen a long time, so I assumed my mother had cooked a feast that my woman could never possibly finish.
I reached for my phone and immediately checked her location. She was already at the restaurant, prepping in the kitchen for the throng of tourists that would burst through the door the second they opened.
She hadn’t texted me last night or this morning.
I knew we’d get through this, but it still fucking sucked.
I knew I deserved this too. I’d always been secure in who I was, but I quickly learned, with Aurelia, I was an extremely possessive man. I’d barked at Enzo when he’d come to her apartment, even though I never felt threatened by him. It was just the principle of the matter, that he stepped on my turf, that he came close to my woman.
So if this situation had been reversed and she’d gone on a date with some guy even though it meant nothing to her, I would have reacted worse than she did. There would be a pile of bones in my wake.
Medusa stirred when I moved around, and she opened her eyes to look at me. She inched a little closer, wanting to cuddle the way we used to when it was just the two of us.
I rubbed the back of her ear. “I miss her too, baby girl.”
I hit the gym but couldn’t really focus. Music blared through my headphones, and I watched myself lift in the mirror, but both my mind and body weren’t invested. I eventually ditched the attempt and hopped in the shower instead.
I headed downstairs in my sweats and had a cup of coffee. I would normally turn on the TV, but I continued to glance at my phone, like she might text me during her shift. I checked her location over and over, seeing her move around the restaurant.
She’d better come home today. Otherwise, I’d lose my fucking mind.
A message from Tommaso popped up on my phone as I was staring at the screen. Gina said she enjoyed your company.
I released an irritated sigh and closed out of the message. A wave of guilt hit me when I read those words. If Aurelia saw that pop up on my screen, she’d stay at my mother’s for another week.
Guess I was an asshole.
Guess I really did fuck this up.