has the ability to ease both Fien’s and my disappointment.
“I’m sorry, sweetie, Mama had to lie down. She was feeling dizzy,” India says before she playfully chews on Fien’s outstretched hands, sending her girlie shrills bouncing around the kitchen. “Yummo, that’s the most delicious sauce I’ve ever tasted.” She rubs her belly before she shifts on her feet to face me. A devious grin is stretched across her face, and her eyes are gleaming with a sparkle I’ve never seen before. “Do you think we should feed Dada some more spaghetti?”
Before I can object, or at the very least, request they use a fork this time around, India scoops up a handful of spaghetti in her hand, then splats it down one side of my face.
My first thought is to reach for my gun, but the clapping cheer of my daughter stops me. She isn’t giggling about India’s unexpected gall, she’s clapping her hands while cooing ‘Dada’ on repeat. It’s the sweetest fucking noise in the world and has me responding in a way my crew would never expect.
“Oh. My. God. That’s warmer than I realized,” India says on a squeal when I upend my untouched bowl of spaghetti onto her white blouse. “Tastes good, though.”
Laughing, she flings half the spaghetti on her chest into my face before playfully rubbing the other half into Fien’s hair. Like all toddlers, Fien loves the mess. She adds to the sticky goop flattening her already dead-straight hair before she tosses strands of pasta off her highchair, joining the food fight India instigated.
We go at it for the next several minutes, laughing, cheering, and making a mess. Before we know it, a week’s worth of spaghetti is on the floor, India’s sauced-coated body is being cradled in my arms, her lips are an inch from mine, and Roxanne is racing for the closest exit.
31
Roxanne
They have no connection.
No spark.
No chemistry whatsoever, so why the hell am I pacing the floor of my room like Dimitri’s ‘mistress’ comment was accurate?
Because it isn’t the fire brewing between him and his wife you’re worried about.
Ugh! I can’t believe I stood by and watched India fawn over Dimitri like a freak. They weren’t kissing, but they may as well have been. The intensity between them was ferocious enough to overcook the spaghetti they were tossing around, fully aware their mutual hierarchy would mean they’d never have to clean up the mess.
My heart, on the other hand, can’t be passed onto a member of Dimitri’s staff. He made it the mess it is, so it’s up to him to fix it.
If that’s what I still want.
I truly don’t know anymore. The past three days have sucked. I was called a liar by the very woman Dimitri is playing house with, had my child’s life discredited by a doctor the community believes is morally ethical, and found out even if I could somehow forge a way back into Dimitri’s life as weirdly encouraged by Audrey the past three days, I could never give him what he so desperately craves—his missed months with Fien.
It appears as if my mother didn’t have a change of heart. She merely knew handing me over to Rimi would have cost her more than my life. Rumors are he didn’t take kindly to people who deceived him.
For future reference, selling a woman incapable of breeding to a baby-farming entrepreneur isn’t recommended if you’re fond of breathing.
I won’t lie. It hurt discovering the real reason I was spared that day. I thought my mother had finally protected me, that she had saved me from the harm my father tried to inflict on me since I was three.
Sadly, Rimi wasn’t the only person she fooled.
Rocco assured me I have the means to fix the injustices she made. I just have to work out how far I want to take it. At the moment, that isn’t something I can do. My head is too muddled trying to work out what the fuck is going on with Dimitri to add more shit into the mix.
Audrey swapped seats with me twice the past three days to ensure I was seated across from Dimitri at dinner. She hasn’t worn the wedding ring found amongst the carnage of Rimi’s crew once, and she’s been nothing but genuinely kind to me.
Even with her having every right to hate me, she truly doesn’t.
Dimitri, in contrast, hasn’t followed her lead. He’s been avoiding me like I have the plague, and it’s killing me more than I care