Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Ynez is no longer a child (as so many people have taken pains to remind me), and if she does turn out to be the reason why people are still gaping at me wherever I go—-
Che sera sera.
I end up absently humming this in my head as I make my way up to our fourth floor apartment, and all I want at this point is to just sleep and forget the whole world exists. But then I see our front door slightly ajar...and my steps crash to a stop.
Questo non va bene. This is not good.
Ynez had moved out since graduating from college, and with Mama and Zio Arnoldo not due back from their cruise until tomorrow, it's just been me for over a week now—-and I distinctly remember locking this same door before leaving for work.
Shit, shit, shit.
When you're famiglia, finding your front door unlocked for no reason is never a good thing. I'm about to call 911 when I hear a man groan—-and it's not the kind of groan that one makes when in pain. Or at least not the bad kind of pain.
Che cosa sta succedendo? What's going on?
My heart starts thudding against my chest as I force myself to tiptoe inside...and the first thing I see is Ynez's best friend, Romana, out cold on the sofa, and coke-snorting junk scattered on the coffee table.
Another groan reaches my ears, but this time I realize it's coming straight from...my bedroom? The door is slightly ajar—-and what I see has me in a daze.
What is it about me and my life that fate seems determined to turn me into a voyeur, but this time of my own sister Ynez...and the man who's holding her legs up in the air while he furiously fucks her on the floor?
Stop. Stop. Stop.
I want to believe that Ynez is being forced against her will, but how can I think she's being raped with the way she's crying out as she digs her nails into his ass?
This can't be real. It can't be. There has to be a reason for this.
I run out of our apartment building in a daze, and I wheeze for air once I'm back out in the street.
How can you be so stupid, Ynez?
Does she not know who she's messing with? I mean, sure, there was that one time I did give Massimo the finger, but his girlfriend cheating on him is a whole new bloody league in itself! How can Ynez not realize that by doing this she's placed not just herself in danger but our entire family as well?
Five
Massimo
Having bodyguards tail members of their famiglia had always been a given, and this precaution was extended to anyone else whom the Marchettis considered deserving of their protection.
Ynez, however, had been the sole exception.
As Massimo was aware of the trauma Ynez had gone through in high school because of her older sister, he had wanted her to feel safe and offered his girlfriend a compromise instead. Security would only follow her around if she had work outside Marchetti territory. This arrangement, which had taken effect years ago, was now proving to be a gross oversight on his part, since his girlfriend's uncurtailed freedom had allowed her to nurse her damaged pride in the most irreparable of ways.
'Fuck, yes, baby, you feel so fucking good.'
Massimo disabled his computer from further accessing the security cameras in the Ossinis' apartment. He waited for rage and jealousy to consume him, but even the sight of another man's cock pounding his Ynez's pussy did nothing to break through the icy indifference coating his blood.
He did not even feel betrayed, and it was this, more than anything else, that set him on edge. Had he fooled himself all this time? Was Ynez right after all, when she had sobbed about him not really loving her at all, if he was so readily able to throw her out of his life in the name of duty?
'Just admit it! You never loved me! Never!'
Pride and impatience had made him deny her claims during their last fight, but only now, when it was already too late, that Massimo realized she was right all along. Ynez had intrigued him the first night they had met, and the way thoughts of her had obssessively consumed him led Massimo to mistake his feelings for love.
All he felt now was regret for wasting years of his girlfriend's life. He had known from the start that she had marriage in mind, but he had never taken the time to examine whether it was something he truly wanted as well.
I am sorry, Ynez.
Even though he had already informed her days ago about his arranged marriage, Ynez had refused to acknowledge their breakup. She had been bitter and almost volatile as she lashed out in her pain, and after what he had just witnessed, Massimo knew there was only one way for Ynez to move on.