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"I get it. You don't have to explain to me what that means. I'm broke."

"You're not broke, Liam. You're just less rich."

"If this deal with Elisabetta's dad goes south?—"

"I mean, he can still return your money."

"Yeah, but the money I'm investing with him, I predict that it will triple or quadruple. I need this venture to go through."

"I mean, I understand. You're a businessman, Liam. I just—" He pauses. "Well, I just don’t want this to become even more complicated for you."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that all the girls feel like this is real."

"What do you mean? They know it's not real. They know?—"

"They think that you're just saying that you're doing it because of Elisabetta's dad, but that you really love her and do wanna marry her, and?—"

"What? I never said that."

"You know women, and I just hope that Elisabetta is not thinking the same thing." He sounds annoyed. "Look, you're my client and my friend, but Elisabetta is a part of my family now. She is one of Lila's best friends, and if you hurt her, you're gonna hurt Lila. And if you hurt Lila, we're gonna have a problem.

"Look, Liam, I don't wanna be rude, but I feel like you came over to the States with ulterior motives, and none of us at the firm are happy."

"I get that, and I'm sorry, but obviously, I couldn't tell you. I was going to?—"

"Look, I don't wanna hear any excuses right now. What's done is done, but you're in a mess, Liam, and you need to figure out what you're gonna do."

"Well, I'm focusing on my business like I always have. I'm gonna go to the party and become engaged to Elisabetta, and that is going to be that. You're gonna fucking figure out a way to sue Fillmore so that I can get some of my investment back if Brigade is now down the tubes."

"We're gonna do our best," he says. "That's all I can say."

"And your best better be fucking good enough. I don't employ you to?—"

"Don't speak to me like that, Liam. I know you're stressed, but you need to figure your shit out, and I have a feeling your shit's got more to do with Elisabetta than anything going on with Brigade right now."

Chapter Thirty-One

Elisabetta

The room is tense. My father strums his fingers against the tabletop, and I see him looking at his watch every five seconds.

He looks over his shoulder to his housemaid, Maria. "Is he here yet?"

"No," she says simply.

"Where the fuck is he?" he mutters under his breath.

He looks over at me and gives me a somber smile. "You look very pretty today."

"Thank you, Father," I say, but as I look at him, I can tell that this man is a stranger. This man, who I've known as my father, who I've loved as my father, is a stranger to me. He's been keeping secrets from me my entire life, and while he purports to love me, I don't feel it. It doesn't feel real, and in that, I feel like I don't feel real. I feel like I don't even understand who I am.

"So, did my fiancé stand me up then, Papa?" I ask him half-joking, though I'm nervous. What if Liam changed his mind? What if he realized that this entire thing is absurd? What if he realized that he doesn't actually wanna marry me and that thebusiness deal should have nothing to do with that? What if he doesn't really love me?

"I am going to make a call," my father says as he stands up. "Stay here."

"Where else would I be going, Papa? It’s not like there are a million other men you have waiting in the wings to marry me, to save you and your business, right?"