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I had also taken over marketing, using the skills I’d gained in hospitality school to improve our search engine optimization, land the bistro on "top places to eat" lists published by influencers and manage our growing social media presence and newsletter. Our clientele was about seventy percent locals and thirty percent tourists, which meant we thrived even during the off-season.
The fact that Dante had looked down upon my job at the bistro when he spoke to his friend had hurt a lot. I’d made something here and he’d not even bothered to come to the bistro to have a meal. Whenever we went out, it was because a social event required us to; otherwise, we ate at home or went to a restaurant in one of the Giordano hotels, where the cheapest main course was priced at a hundred euros.
There had been so many red flags while we were married, but I ignored them because I was going to make this marriage work, come hell or high water.
I didn’t meet his friends. He was gone a lot, which had been fine because I worked a lot. Still, I was home every evening, just in case he was there, like a puppy waiting for its master.
We closed the bistro on Mondays and Tuesdays, but I only took Mondays off and worked on Tuesdays on all the things that needed to get done on the marketing and paperwork end of things.
Dante thought I was a server—and so what if I was? It was honest work; how dare he compare that to thebrilliantLucia?
“He wants me to attend a charity something with him…it’s something Cristina Carrera is throwing and….” I shook my head. “He said he’ll contest the divorce if I don’t attend, Maura.”
I couldn’t afford that. Sure, Maura’s aunt helped me out, but she’d charged me for her work. I’d insisted. I couldn’t expect her to spend hours and hours fighting Dante’s lawyers and not get paid for it if it came to that—which I hoped it wouldn’t.
“Why would he do that? I thought he wanted a divorce.” Maura was as baffled as I was.
“Renzo Carrera was a good friend of Dante Senior,” I explained.
Maura made a face. “Ah, and if he found out thatyou’re divorcing Dante right after his friend’s death it’ll make Dante look bad.”
And if that wasn’t the saddest thing I’d heard in a long time! My husband tolerated me on his arm to maintain his business relationship with another family.
“Eventually, everyone will find out we’re divorced, so I don’t understand why we have to pretend now,” I said sullenly.
I didn’t want to go to a party with Dante becauseshe’dbe there.
When I looked back, I winced at how Lucia would monopolize discussions with Dante while I was there, and I’d think they were talking business and make myself scarce. I was now realizing that they were in a relationship of some kind. Sure, he hadn’t physically cheated on me, but I’d bet the bistro that he and Lucia had talked about getting rid of me so they could be together.
It wasn’t a stretch.
Lucia didn’t like me. I stayed away from her because the feeling was mutual. The times we had talked, she’d been dismissive and had looked down her patrician nose at me. She wasn’t the only person in Dante’s circle to do that—but I hadn’t cared as I’d been protected while Don Giordano was alive, but now, I’d be thrown to the wolves. Dante wasn’t going to tell anyone off.
Sure, he’d been shocked that Patrizia had been so blatant and stupid, thinking I didn’t understand Italian—and a part of me liked the idea that she’d lose the Giordano business.Serves her right!
“It’s just a party.” Maura patted my hand. “Just show your face and get out of there as soon as you can. Say you’re not feeling well or something.”
I groaned. “I did that once, remember? Next thing I knew, everyone wanted to know if I was pregnant.”
Maura chuckled. “Sometimes I get the feeling that we Italians just aren’t as progressive as we should be. A woman has nausea or a headache, we decide she’s pregnant. Man is irritated with his wife in public, he has a mistress.”
“My husband works with his mistress and sees her more often than he did me.”
“Hey, it’s his loss.”
I shook my head. “It’s a nice platitude, Maura, but the lossismine. I fell in love with him. I’m still in love with him, which is why he can still hurt me. He got everything he wanted, which is highly unfair. He isn’t hurting. He’s thinking about how to use me.”
“You know he’s ruthless when it comes to his business,” Maura reminded me.
“There’s knowing it, and then there’s experiencing it like this.”
“This too shall pass, darling.” Maura kissed my cheek.
“You mean like a kidney stone?”
Maura laughed.
I grinned in self-deprecation. “Yeah, I guess it’s going to hurt like a bitch.”