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“Like you don’t know. Anyway, this is Lily Valentine. Lily, this is Elena Bitchy, I mean Elena Bianchi.” Elena rolls her eyes at Amelia's obvious jab, not even bothering to respond.

“Valentine? I don’t know the name. You must not be from one of the Three Families then.” Obviously. Everyone here knows it, including her, but she is saying it out loud as a reminder of how I don’t belong.

“No.” I smile sweetly, not giving her the benefit of seeing how much her words bother me.

“I wonder then why you are here? How did you worm your way into a world so exclusive that people would kill, have killed, to get into it? You don’t look like you can kill anything except maybe yourself. Or maybe you failed at that, too.” She laughs, pointing to the large scar on my arm while her hand covers her mouth coyly.

“Stop being a bitch, Elena. You know she is with Dominico, right?” Amelia says quietly, looking from me to Elena and then around us. Some people have started to eavesdrop on this interaction.

“For now. It’s only a matter of time until he gets tired of you. Like he did with Veronica. Like he did with Lucille. Like he did with so many others before you,” she says smugly, the dip of her eyebrows feigning sympathy.

“Like he did with you.” My words wipe the expression from her face and replace it with anger. I don’t know where my boldness comes from. I can only imagine that jealousy is making me brave.

“I will always be here while you and others like you come and go. When the time is right, he will come back to me. You do not belong here. The sooner you realize that, the better it will be for you.”

Her words sting, but I remember what Dominico said before we entered the hall.

“Well, I may not belong here, but I am here. Living in his house. Sleeping in his bed. And it's my legs he is kneeling between, not yours. For someone who deems themselves to be so important to him, he has not even mentioned you. Perhaps he didn’t have time while he was eating me out.”

Elena's face turns red with rage, and before I realize what is happening, the sound of the slap echoes around the room, followed by the stinging sensation, as my glass cracks and shatters on the ground.

I start laughing.

“Really. That’s the best you’ve got? A slap in the face is child's play compared to what I have endured.”

My reaction shocks and infuriates her, and she raises her hand to hit me again, my eyes closing in preparation. But it never comes.

Instead, a loud crack of a bone followed by a scream echoes around the room.

Then I feel him beside me, the whisper of his finger against my cheek makes my eyes flutter open.

Dominico.

Chapter 24

Dominico

“You broke her wrist.” Massimo’s words are as sharp as the daggers his eyes throw at me.

Elena sits beside Massimo, cradling her arm already in a cast. The perks of being part of the mafia. She was X-rayed, assessed, and all wrapped up in just under an hour.

“She hit Lily. And was about to do it again.” I look at my flower, sitting beside me on the large armchair in my office, holding an icepack against her cheek. She tried to refuse, telling me that it wouldn’t bruise, with a certainty that can only stem from someone who has been hit more than once in her life. It just made me angrier. She was in my house, under my protection, and still, someone deigns to lay a hand on her. If I didn’t make an example of someone, especially someone like Elena, people might think it was acceptable.

However, it would place an even bigger target on her back. If people knew I cared about her enough to hurt what many consider my first love, she could become valuable leverage in the wrong hands.

But who better to set an example than a piece of my past who believed they had some misguided claim to me? Admittedly, I never intended to break her wrist. Nevertheless, that accident would serve as a warning to others.

“Say sorry.” Massimo’s words shock more than the sister he is speaking to. Lily’s eyes widen as she looks up at me, perhaps searching for a reaction. But my poker face is impeccable. Massimo knows me well. He knew I would demand this of his sister and has preempted it.

Elena’s eyes flare in defiance as she looks at Massimo, but the slight tilt of his head and the subtle nonverbal warning he gives her nullify her resistance.

Her eyes drift over to me, betraying that she has finally seen the light, if the broken wrist didn’t already indicate that. “My Don, I did not mean to offend you. I apologize.” Her eyes dip to the ground, concealing the insincerity within them.

“Not to me.” My words snap her gaze back up, and the slight shake of her head reveals how much what I am asking is costing her. Her pride. Her hope for us.

“Now.” The warning in my voice is clear, and her eyes water with the emotion and turmoil my demand creates.

Her gaze drifts to Lily, the hurt overshadowing any anger or hatred she might feel toward the woman beside me.