Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I shut my eyes, unable to watch, but when all I heard was dead silence, a sense of masochism washed over me, and I turned back to the scene, forcing myself to see this once and for all, no matter how much it would shatter me.
But contrary to what I had expected, Elena and Gio weren’t locking lips in a devouring frenzy of passion. No, instead, there was a chill that brushed against my skin.
Gio’s hand was pressed straight onto her mouth, keeping her from getting anywhere near his face as he glowered down at her.
“Gio?” she started, pulling back with wide eyes. “What….”
“I did not give you permission to call me that,” he snapped.
She flinched from the venom in his voice.
“Only my family can call me that.”
I held a hand over my mouth in silent awe, joy bursting forth from every crevice of my heart.
“But I thought….” Her eyes watered in downright astonishment. Dismay crept along her face as she took in the anger in his eyes.
“I don’t know what you thought, but you have crossed a line, Miss Greco.” Even I was stunned by the sheer ice in his voice. He took a few steps back, setting a clear boundary between them. “My love and care are reserved solely for the baby you are carrying for me and my wife. We set clear boundaries during the beginning of our arrangement, and you agreed to them. The only thing between us is a contract, Miss Greco. Now, please leave.”
Despite the burning anger in his eyes, and the sheer coldness he had spat at her, Gio remained respectful and polite toward her. He had given her a way out, a way to correct her appalling behavior.
But Elena didn’t see the out he was giving her, only the devastation of the rejection.
Her face fell, the distress in her eyes overwhelming everything else, and an endless pool of tears poured down, dripping onto the floor below.
“I…I….” She backed away, her whole body trembling before finally, she spun on her heel and ran out of the room. The door hit the wall with a bang and soon enough, I heard the front door thrown open.
There were shouts in Italian from down the hall, and I swallowed uncomfortably. I still couldn’t digest what had just happened, still couldn’t process everything, but my mind settled on the one thing it could understand right now.
I had been right.
I pushed open the door, stepping into the sitting room. Gio’s eyes met mine, his whole body still tensed up for a fight.
“Olivia,” he breathed, taking a step toward me.
“I was right….”
The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.
That wasn’t what I wanted to say, and regret filled me as soon as the words came out. But I couldn’t catch them in mid-air and redo it. Gio’s whole face dropped, and a sneer curled up on his lips.“Is that really all you’re concerned about? Are you happy now, Olivia? You were right! I’m glad you enjoyed the show!” he snapped, turning on his heel and storming back to the bedroom.
“Gio, I didn’t mean–” I chased after him, but he whirled on me with an angry, exhausted, and bitter look.
“Yes, you did,” he spat out. “You meant exactly what you said. Do you want me to put up a banner… hire planes to spell it in the sky? You want an award, Olivia?”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I bristled, hating the unhinged way he glared at me. “I warned you about this, but you only called me paranoid! The least you can do is admit that I was right about Elena! That’s all I want, just a little validation that I wasn’t as crazy as you thought.” I stabbed my pointer finger into his chest. “Not as crazy as you made me out to be!”
“Well, congratulations, you got what you wanted. Good for you.” He threw his hands in the air, turning his back on me as he stormed into the bedroom.
“Gio!” I yelled, frustration brewing. “Don’t walk away from me! We have to talk–”
“What do you want from me, Olivia?” He whirled on me again, his anger dropping.
I could see the exhaustion and hurt flash across his face. “I’m sorry, okay?” he said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t listen. You were right, and I was wrong. Is that what you want to hear?”
We stared at one another in the silent suite that had once been filled with so many happy memories.
Now, all I could feel was resentment.
“No,” I murmured quietly, feeling like our words were filled with more barbs than understanding, more anger than compassion, and more hurt than love.
What had happened to us?
I deflated all at once, and I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat no matter how hard I tried. Shame, regret, guilt ,and fear just lingered there.
I didn’t want this. I just wanted to be in his arms again, to have everything okay and all of this to be over with and done.
But the flash of her lips whispering his nickname, confessing her love, and the words he’d spat at me in the heat of anger had buried themselves into the ground and sprouted into thorns. And with every issue that we managed to resolve, two more had popped up in their place.
I felt absolutely hopeless, the divide between us growing with every minute, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
“What do you want, Olivia?” Gio said quietly, vulnerable as he gazed into my eyes.
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “I just want everything to be okay between us. But I don’t know how to make that happen.”
All of the festering tension had exploded around us like acid rain falling from the sky and burning into our skin. We would have scars soon if we didn’t get to cover.
But, as I glanced at the hopeless, exhausted expression on my husband’s face, one that mirrored my own, I realized that it might have been too late already.
Maybe there wasn’t a way to fix this.
I asked him a simple question, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer to. “Do you even still love me?”
I held my breath waiting for him to answer.
*Giovani*
It was too damn loud.
The clock on the wall continued to tick with every second, reminding me of the continuous passage of time–how much of it I was wasting and how little of it I had left. The old wood of the compound creaked and groaned under the storm outside, the rain pelting against the glass harshly.
There was a flash against the window, illuminating the dark room of my study and then fading away like it had never been there. The bottle clutched tightly in my hand was nearly empty, the liquid lukewarm and refusing to do its damn job.
I took a swig of the bottle, downing the last of it and grimacing at the poor taste. All of the best alcohol from my stash had vanished, leaving me with this piece of shit.
I leaned back in my leather chair, letting my hands fall over the sides. The glass scraped against the floorboards, an irritating sound that only added to the chorus of Satan’s orchestra. The mother of all migraines had taken hold of my brain, and I grit my teeth together as a loud boom of thunder struck outside.
Considering the delay between the lightning and thunder, the storm was still pretty far away, not that it did much good when I was barricaded up in my office for the foreseeable future. The knocking had gone away sometime in the afternoon after I refused all meals.
And eventually, even her voice had left, slunk off to who knows where. It had taken great effort not to open the door as she begged me, choking on her words as she tried to bite back her sobs.
I hated it when she cried.
But I couldn’t open the door, not this time.
