“Your baby sister is ogling your granny’s date,” I comment.
Bianca’s eyes go wide, and she jumps up from my lap, grabbing my forearm.
“I’ll wait here. It wouldn’t be wise for me to go near your father.” I run my hand down her arm and lace our fingers together, then look up into her whiskey-colored eyes. It’s still puzzling me, how much I enjoy touching her. “I may decide that he doesn’t need his other hand, either.”
She huffs and scrunches her nose. “I’ll be right back.”
I watch Bianca hurry toward her sister, signing with her hands even before she reaches Milene. Her moves are sharp and agitated. She’s so cute when she’s mad.
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Nonna Giulia says as she takes a seat in Bianca’s chair next to me.
“Yes.”
Milene is whispering something, and I see Bianca slap herself over the forehead, then she signs to her sister, looking very annoyed. Looks like Milene wants to hire Tony for her birthday, as well.
“You two are a strange pairing, my boy,” Giulia says. “I always expected her to end up with one of the dancers from her company, or maybe an artist. Someone . . . easygoing. I thought that she would need someone less . . . hard.”
I don’t comment, because I’m not sure she’s wrong.
“I married six times, you know?” she continues. “Everyone thinks I’m a little bit whacky in the head . . . the crazy Giulia who changes her husbands like they are socks. But I was just trying to find a man who would look at me the way Vitallo, my first husband, looked at me.”
“And how would that be?” I ask.
“The way you look at my Bianca. Like you would lay your body over a field of burning coals, so she could cross it without burning her feet.”
I appraise the woman silently. Nonna is not as crazy as people think, and much more attentive than I gave her credit for.
“Bianca is different around you, you know,” she continues. “There were only two boyfriends before you. She was never really into dating, even when she was Milene’s age. But boys were always drawn to her like crazy. Allegra hated her for that.”
“She’s her sister, how can she hate her?”
“Never underestimate the power of woman’s vanity. It got worse after Marcus. Oh, Allegra really lost it. She had her eyes on him for years. He was a good catch, the son of the real-estate mogul. But Marcus only had eyes for Bianca. He and Bianca got together, and not even a month later he told Bruno he wanted to marry her.”
Deep anger starts building inside of me just with the barest idea of Bianca being married to someone else.
“Bianca said no and broke up with him.” Giulia shrugs. “I didn’t understand it then, they seemed like a nice couple. But I understand now.”
I turn toward her and cock my head. “What, exactly?”
Nonna sighs and shakes her head. “He still has one eye left, but he’s blind as a bat anyway.”
I see Bianca signing something to Milene. When she kisses her sister and turns to walk in our direction, a man approaches her and starts telling her something. He’s in his late twenties, blond, and based on the way he’s speaking to her, they know each other very well.
“Speak of the devil.” Giulia tsks next to me. “Marcus Kuch himself. He never really got over Bianca rejecting him and . . .”
I don’t hear the rest, because the moment I see that bastard put his hand on Bianca’s upper arm, I spring to my feet and head toward him while a murderous rage starts consuming me.
I manage to convince Milene that she cannot hire Nonna’s gigolo for her next birthday and head back to our table when Marcus appears in front of me. We didn’t break up on the best of terms, but I have nothing personally against him, so I stop for a moment, intending to be polite.
“Is that him? Is that the monster they married you off to?” He gets in my face. “Is it true that he bought you from your father, like the people are saying?”
I am so shocked by his words, I can only stare at him.
“Allegra told me he’s keeping you like some prisoner in his home.”
What the fuck? I’m going to kill her.
“Is it true that he’s beating you, Bianca?”
I can’t listen to this shit anymore, so I turn to leave only to see my husband coming toward us with murder written all over his face.
Mikhail passes me, wraps his hand around Marcus’ neck, and yanks him close enough that they’re nose-to-nose. “How dare you touch my wife?” he sneers through his teeth.