Semua Bab It Kills Me: A Forbidden Dark Romance: Bab 111 - Bab 120

We walked out, and the real estate agent locked the door.“I don’t think this place is right for us,” I said. “We’d like to keep looking.” We said our goodbyes, and then Axel and I walked down the street, past the little shops, as we headed to our car a couple blocks away. “Who?”“Theo.”I rolled my eyes. “You’ll tell him to like it.”“I won’t.”“And even if you don’t, he’s not going to insult his best friend’s wife.”“He’s not my best friend. He’s my brother.”“Isn’t that the same thing?”“I’m not the kind of guy who has a best friend.”“What about me?” I asked. “I’m not your best friend?”“You’re definitely not in the friend zone, baby.”“You know what I mean.”“Trust me, I don’t see you as a friend. Never have and never will.”I smirked slightly. “Well, I feel like in order to have a good relationship, you need to be friends. If that weren’t true, then all we would do is fuck and do nothing else in between. We’d just sit there in silence.”“If it were up to me, we would be having m

The valet tried to open the door for me, but Axel got there and shooed him away. “I got it.” He opened the door and gave me his hand, helping me from the low seat to my feet. When we stepped onto the sidewalk, Axel tossed the valet the keys and then guided me to the entryway. There was a line of people, another party with champagne and gowns and tuxes.“You ever get tired of these?” I asked him.“Not when you’re with me.” His arm moved around my waist, and he pulled me close, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth.We entered the villa, the grand entryway turned into a large party with waiters and a quartet filling the room with a symphony of music.“Whose house is this?” I asked when the waiter handed us glasses of champagne.“Arturo Balannie. He was the mayor of Florence for many years until he retired. My parents and I used to see him all the time.”“Will your parents be here?”He shrugged. “Who knows?” He moved forward and spotted Arturo. “Happy birthday, Arturo. Not too many p

“He would never…” The tears grew so heavy, they skidded down my cheeks.“I know this is a lot,” he repeated. “But I wouldn’t lie to you.”“And my father would never do something so heinous⁠—”“It comes down to this.” He came closer to me. “One of us is lying—and it’s not me.”“You could have made all of this up so I would forget about Cassandra.”He gave an annoyed sigh. “Quite an elaborate lie.”I stepped away, needing more space from him.He winced when I moved away from him. “I’m not lying, Scarlett.”“Then let me confront my father⁠—”“No. I told you what he’ll do.”“But if he tries to kill your father, I’ll know it’s him⁠—”“And he said if that happens, he’ll lose you, so I may as well lose someone too.” He came closer to me. “You promised me you wouldn’t say anything. My father’s life is literally on the line right now.”“It’s an amazing coincidence that you’re accusing my father of all these things, and I can never question him about it.” My eyes shifted away. “That he can neve

It took only a few seconds to piece together what had happened. Aldo had betrayed me. That man was supposed to be my secret keeper. If I killed someone in the house and he was questioned by authorities, he was supposed to keep his mouth shut. “That little traitor…” I sat in the armchair across from Theo, the window behind me.Theo massaged his knuckles as he stared at me, as if he’d recently got into a fistfight in a bar. “He hadn’t seen you in three days…started to get worried.”I looked at the fire, not in the mood to talk to anyone, not even him. The last three days had been spent on the couch. Hardly ate anything. Skipped the gym every single day, which was a new streak for me. I simply had no motivation to do anything. Every time I looked at my phone, I hoped to see a message from her…but there was nothing.“You want to talk about it?”“Does it look like I want to talk about it?” My eyes stayed on the fire.Theo leaned forward and helped himself to one of the cigars on the tray.

ScarlettInstead of waiting for my father to decide to give me the loan, I went to the bank and applied for one myself. I qualified for just enough to get a small place near Pino’s. I decided to go back to the place that Axel and I had first visited, the one he’d described as a hole-in-the-wall.I signed the lease agreement then got to work, spending hours in my apartment creating recipes that I would serve. My time was spent traveling back and forth between my apartment and the market, picking up more groceries to prepare meals in my kitchen. My days were packed from dawn to midnight, cooking or speaking with vendors who could supply all the products I needed to operate the restaurant. I didn’t even have a name for it yet, but I had created nearly the entire menu by the end of the week.I wasn’t sure if I was excited for the restaurant or just desperate to stay busy. With a packed schedule, I barely had time to reflect on anything, so that meant I hardly thought of Axel, which was ex