Chapter 4

Mia offered to walk me out.

Blair got a call about a firefight down at the docks. "I have to handle this. I'll be back in ten."

That left just me and Mia in the hallway.

The air grew thick.

Mia held her teacup, the timid expression still on her face, but her eyes had changed.

"Miss Flora," she said, her voice still soft. "You really are beautiful."

"Thank you," I replied politely.

"But..." Mia's eyes glinted. "So what if you're a Don's daughter? Legally, you'll always be the other woman. The mistress hiding in the shadows."

I was stunned by the sudden change.

I thought she was a victim in this, too. But now I saw she knew everything.

I had no desire to engage. I turned to leave, but she stepped in my way.

"Have you seen this?" Mia held up her left hand. A magnificent diamond ring glittered on her finger. "Blair gave this to me to make up for not having a big wedding. He said only a wife deserves a ring like this."

I clamped down on the pain in my chest. "What exactly are you trying to say?" I asked, my voice cold.

Seeing she wasn't getting a rise out of me, Mia stepped closer, her smile turning into a sneer. "Aren't you ashamed? If your dead father knew his daughter was another man's mistress, he'd roll over in his grave."

"You—"

"And your mother," Mia pressed on, her voice dripping with venom. "I hear she's still telling everyone her daughter is about to become the Donna. How pathetic. If she knew the truth..."

That was the line.

"Shut your mouth!" I snarled, shoving her away from me.

Mia stumbled back theatrically and fell to the floor with a pained cry.

"Flora! What the hell are you doing?" Blair's voice boomed from behind me.

He rushed over to where Mia was clutching her ankle, immediately crouching to check her injury.

"Her ankle is sprained." He looked up at me, his eyes blazing with fury. "Flora, what is wrong with you?"

I met his glare without flinching. "Ask her what she just said to me."

Mia’s voice was thin and shaky. "Blair, I didn't... I just told her she was pretty..."

I wasn't going to watch her pathetic act.

"She cursed my dead father and called my mother a fool! Is that your idea of a harmless, fragile woman?"

Blair took a deep breath.

"Even if she said something out of line, you don't put your hands on her. When did you become this unreasonable?"

Unreasonable?

I watched him shield Mia behind him, and the fire in my chest was instantly doused with ice water.

"She called me a mistress and insulted my parents, so I'm the one who's unreasonable?"

I laughed, but tears streamed down my face. "And you? Lying to me for six years, what do you call that?"

"Enough," Blair said coldly. "I thought you'd accepted this. I didn't realize you were this fucking dramatic.”

He looked at me with disgust. "When will you ever be gentle and understanding, like Mia?"

I remembered a time, after I'd dragged him through a hail of bullets, he'd told me, "This is what I love most about you. You never back down."

Another lie.

"Blair," I said, wiping away my tears, my voice calm again. "There's nothing left for us to talk about."

He paused. "You said the wedding..."

"That's right. The wedding is still on," I said, my gaze shifting from his gloating little actress of a wife back to him. "After six years, I deserve a goddamn spectacle, don't I?"

Now, I couldn't wait for the wedding.

I couldn't wait for this farce to be over.