Page 89 of His Vicious Vow

Watching Sandro with our daughter I sigh. He loves being a father. I can’t believe it’s been a whole nine days since she arrived. Sandro finally gave the okay for us to come home yesterday. Yes, Sandro told the doctor he didn’t think I was ready to go home on day four when the doctor told me she was going to release us to go home.

I couldn’t help giggling, at how shocked the doctor looked. Since Rose’s delivery went smoothly, I was surprised myself at Sandro’s refusal. Although I hated the hospital and wanted to go home to enjoy Rose all to myself, I did not feel well and agreed with Sandro.

At first I thought it was the whole being cut open thing and the crazy hormones. It wasn’t. I had an infection at my incision. If I had gone home it would have gotten bad. The nurses and doctor were surprised, I was given an antibiotic in my IV the day of Rose’s birth. I remembered it and would not have even considered the possibility of having an infection. Between that and not wanting to complain when I believed it was just how an incision hurt, I would have waited until I couldn’t take it anymore before admitting something was wrong.

Suddenly our peace is shattered.

“What? Are you going to put on a dress now? I hear you’re neglecting business for a baby. I didn’t believe it. But seeing you all goo goo eyes when if you’d done what Cassandra wanted she would be here and you would be working the way you should be.” Carlo is shaking his head in disgust.

Sandro goes so still I wonder if the words turned him into a statue. Finally, he takes a breath. He puts our daughter gently in her crib. When he turns around for the first time, I’m afraid of him. Violence shimmers from him so thick there’s a haze around him. “My office. I will not have you upsetting Carina or our daughter.”

As Sandro crosses the room toward him, Carlo backs away. His jaw clicks from tension. “You don’t order me around. I run this. I run your fucking world. From the beginning I told you, you had a year to prove yourself. You get Carina and this city in line. If you couldn’t then you would lose the city. While you managed to do both now you’re pissing away your grip on the city. People are asking questions if you’re strong enough to keep your hold. You got two months to fix this. Time is ticking.”

He keeps his eyes on Sandro before finally turning and walking away.

The words are echoing in my mind. A year. Carlo told Sandro to get the city in order and me. I close my eyes against the memory of those first days in Chicago. Marrying me was a requirement to taking over Vegas. He couldn’t have the city without taking me too. You’ll do.

I don’t feel the tears running down my face. It’s only when Sandro is wiping my face with his pocket square I realize they’re there. I grip his wrist to stop him. “Don’t touch me.”

He sighs. Standing, he calls out for Meredith, our nanny. She appears in the doorway. “Please pack up Rose’s things. Clothes, and things that she’ll need for the next few weeks. There are suitcases in the walk-in closet in Carina’s office.”

I’m stunned when he walks away. Fear slams into my chest. I get up to follow him, he’s on the phone. “Michael, I need a passport for my daughter. How soon can you get me one?”

Rage sends my hand to knock the phone out of his hand. “You bastard. Now that you have what you want, you’re sending us away? How could you?”

There’s that stillness again. My stomach knots as he turns slowly to face me. he stalks me but shocks me again when he passes me. He slams our bedroom door closed with a force that rattles the doorframe. Swiping his phone off the floor he tells the person he’ll call him back in a voice throbbing with anger.

Finally he looks at me. His face is slack, no emotion at all. “I’m not sending you away. We are leaving. You, me, and Rose. I have a property in Montreux, Switzerland. I didn’t get what I want. I wanted peace, and boring, and to be left alone while I enjoyed the thing I worked most of my life for but never believed I would get. Instead I get an untrusting, petulant brat who refuses to see what it’s in front of her. I love you, you idiot. It was instant lust the moment I laid eyes on you. I refused to believe in it until I was back in Vegas and you wouldn’t leave my mind for longer than ten minutes at a time and I craved a word from you—anything. It could have been you telling me to fuck off but what I really wanted was for you to say my name.”

No. I’m shaking my head. Not all this time. All the months of pain and sadness were for nothing…how could that be?

“Yes, damn it. I have done everything in my power to show you I loved you for months. And still you don’t believe. Fine. Fuck Vegas. It doesn’t mean anything without you. If it means leaving it behind for you to finally understand, to get I’m never letting you go because I can’t let you go. Letting you go means cutting out my heart. I would rather eat a bullet than live without you. There is no me without you—I cease to exist. So we’re leaving—”

I grab him by his tie and bring him down to me and kiss with all the love I feared I would never be able to show him and get back all the love I prayed I would one day get. “I love you. I love you so much.” I whisper as he pulls away. “I’m sorry. All I heard was you saying, you’ll do. All my life all the men in it made me feel those words, they couldn’t have what they wanted so they settled for me. I was so afraid to love you and one day you would get what you really wanted and I would have to see you in love with someone else.”

The hand around my throat is too tight. I welcome it, it’s been weeks without it. “It doesn’t matter why we met all that does is we did. You belong to me. You are my woman. What you do not seem to understand is the only reason you belong to me is because all of me belongs to you. My heart, my black soul, every breath I take, it’s all yours.”

“For the record, you could have saved us a lot of time if you told me you loved me.” I whisper into his mouth.

He shakes his head. “You weren’t listening, my darling wife. But I will say it every day of our lives.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” It’s a vow, one I have no doubt he’ll keep. Like the one he made to never let me go. And now finally I believe it and him. He will never let me go. Yes, please.

* * *

Carina

My mother is stiff on the couch. Her hands are twisting in her lap. Taking a note from my dear husband I don’t say anything, simply wait. She sighs. “Okay, fine. I’m sorry.”

Sandro tenses beside me. “For what?” I’m genuinely curious. What out of everything would she say?

“My mother died. I was in on my way to California when you were in the accident.”

“And?” I don’t care if it sounds heartless. “Were you not able to fly back or something?”

“It wasn’t just that she died. My father killed her. There were a lot of…things I had to do. It wasn’t simple.”