Keeping My Bride by Angela Snyder

Chapter 19

Verona

ILOOK AT the clock and am not surprised that only a few minutes have passed since the last time I checked. I’ve been waiting for hours for Luca to get home. I made his favorite meal today, spaghetti, using his mother’s recipe. I feel like I slaved away in that kitchen, cutting up tomatoes and making my own sauce. I mean, I even made the noodles by scratch! I spent all that time and effort…and Luca wasn’t even home in time for dinner.

Before they left, Benny promised me he would try to get Luca home early, but that clearly didn’t happen. Not that I can blame him for Luca’s actions.

“The spaghetti was amazing, Verona,” Dante says from the doorway. He must have just eaten some in the kitchen.

“Thank you, Dante.”

“I’m sorry that asshole didn’t show up to eat any,” he says with a frown.

“It’s okay. I should have made sure he didn’t have plans first I guess,” I say with a small shrug.

Dante opens his mouth to say something else, but the front door opens, and Luca and Benito walk in. Dante walks back into the kitchen, leaving me alone in the large dining room.

“What smells so good?” Luca asks when he enters the room.

I stand up slowly, and all the anger I had from earlier suddenly collects and pours out into my attitude. “I made you dinner.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t burn the house down,” he says with a dark chuckle.

I narrow my eyes and stare at him. “I worked all day on making your favorite meal,” I tell him.

His dark eyebrows rise in surprise. “You did?”

“Yes. Where were you?” I ask.

“What are you playing at?” he asks with a grin. “Are you trying to be the nagging wife in this play?”

“This isn’t a play, Luca. This is real life!”

“Oh, and a real marriage, is it?” he scoffs.

His words are slurring, and I know that he drank a lot. But that doesn’t excuse his behavior towards me.

“We’re stuck in this together whether we like it or not,” I explain. “The least we can do is try to make it work.”

“Try to make it work,” he says, laughing as if I told a funny joke. He walks closer to me, and then that’s when I see it.

“What…what is that?” I ask him. On the collar of his white dress shirt is a red smudge.

He looks down and then back at me with those piercing, gray eyes. “What is what?”

“On your collar. Is that…is that lipstick?” I exclaim. The guilty look on his face tells me everything I need to know. “You were with someone else tonight?”

He shrugs nonchalantly. “And so what if I was.”

“You cheated on me?” The question comes out in a whisper, because I’m so afraid of his answer.

He stares me down, his eyes dangerous, his brows heavy. “You think you can play wife and that I’ll just be faithful to you like a real husband?” He takes a few more steps towards me. “We were forced to get married, Verona. Hell, I don’t even like you!”

Tears fill my eyes as I lower them down to the floor. I can’t even look at him right now. I’m so angry and hurt!

“I hate you,” I whisper vehemently before brushing past him and running up to my room. I lock the door behind me and collapse onto the bed, crying. I thought I could change things between us. I thought I could make this marriage work.

But I was wrong. So very wrong.