The Don's Lie

"Enough. All of you, shut your mouths."

"Sonny. Book Swan Castle. Everything for the wedding, only the best. You hear me?"

Silence on the other end. Then Vivian's voice, half a scream.

"Angelo, have you lost your mind?"

"You only chased her to spite me. How far are you gonna take this? You're actually marrying her?"

Angelo bent down, picked the ring out of the trash, and looked at me, steady.

"Of course I'm marrying her. You saw I had the ring ready, didn't you?"

"A bet's a bet. The funding for your new movie will hit your account tomorrow."

He hung up, ruffled my hair, blew the dust off the ring, and slid it onto my finger.

"Hey. What are you crying for? You're thrilled and you know it."

Before I could answer, he stepped back to admire the ring, satisfied.

"When you were looking at that magazine, your eyes were glued to this ring. Couldn't look away."

"So I bought it for you."

There was a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. He had no idea I'd only stared at the ring so he could pay off his debt faster.

The cold of the diamond crept up my finger and into my chest. I shivered.

But he didn't need my help. Did he?

The voice on the phone had just called him Don.

The Angelo I knew was a broke kid drowning in mob debt.

What a joke.

"Three whole years," My voice came out cold. "A Don playing dirt-poor with me. Was it fun?"

He smiled and reached for my hand like nothing had happened.

"Hey. Being the Don of the Ferro Family, it's not that big a deal."

But there was pride at the corner of his mouth.

I stepped back, out of reach.

"So the bet with Vivian — that's why you put on this act for three years?"

"You've got the talent. Why not head to Hollywood with her?"

Finally, the careless mask slipped. His brow tightened.

"Don't get the wrong idea. The bet was just whether you'd believe this ring came from a sweepstakes."

He pressed his lips together. "She didn't mean any harm. She just thought it was funny. Don't take it to heart."

He skipped right over Vivian's line about him only going after me to spite her. He played dumb.

I stared at his face. I wanted to be stubborn, but the tears wouldn't stop.

Three years. More than a thousand days.

To help Angelo pay off the million he supposedly owed for his mother's illness, I'd counted every cent.

My mother was sick too. I knew what it felt like to love someone and be helpless.

Hard didn't matter. As long as I had him, I'd take it.

Now I knew. Everything I'd given was just seasoning for him and Vivian's little game.

The talent agency had assigned me to Vivian as her assistant, and she'd hated me from day one.

All because some trashy tabloid ran a photo of me holding her umbrella, with a snide caption saying Vivian needed to take better care of herself, that even her assistant was prettier.

After that, she found a new reason to bully me every week.

And now her friends got to drag me around like a toy?

When Angelo played broke and split a pizza with me, how did he keep from laughing?

When he held an umbrella over me on rainy nights to save cab fare, was he counting down the minutes till he could leave?

He was still talking. "Indoors or outdoors for the wedding?"

Calm voice. Like we hadn't just fought.

I worked the ring off my finger and pressed it back into his palm. "Angelo, let's call it off."

His brow furrowed. "Don't be difficult."

There was an edge in it. The edge of someone who isn't told no.

I let out a cold laugh and tried to pull away. He caught my wrist.

He gripped my chin, forced my head up.

"I said. Don't. Be difficult."

He looked down at me. "I'm not used to people refusing my orders."

I looked into those cold eyes and finally understood. He was not the boy who shared a Starbucks cup with me.

He was the Don of the Ferro Family.

All of it was a lie.

The tears blurred his face.

Angelo sighed and wiped them away. Tender, like before.

For a second, he was the old Angelo.

But I couldn't believe it anymore.

Right on cue, his phone rang.

A frantic voice spilled out. "Boss, Vivian's threatening to cut her wrists. Get over here, now."

Angelo glanced at me, almost apologetic, and cleared his throat.

"On my way. Tell her to sit tight."

I watched his eyes in silence. The corner of my mouth pulled into something that wasn't a smile.

His face was full of guilt. But his hand let go of mine all the same.

Outside, the black Rolls-Royce idled. He slid into the back seat and was gone, swallowed by a world I'd never been part of.