Page 50 of For Pleasure Or Worse

"Your sister is right," my mother said. "She took time from her busy work schedule to do something for you, and you're not taking it seriously."

"I never asked her to," I said, choking on the words as they fell weakly out of my mouth.

"I didn't know this is something you wanted." Mateo was still speaking directly to me, trying to draw my attention, but I was frozen in place. I couldn’t look at him and bear seeing the hurt in his eyes that was evident in his voice.

"We never had a prenup when we were married," Anna chimed in. "It's considered a bit of bad luck where we're from."

"Where we're from, there's money and reputation involved, and I’ve seen things get really dirty when you don't take proper precautions," my father slung back. "It's not bad luck; it's common sense. Mateo might be smart to sign on the dotted line. He's got a business I'm sure he's keen on keeping if it ever comes down to it."

"It's nothing if not a safety net," Mom added.

"This is something I think we'll have to talk about privately," Mateo announced to the room. His plate of food was untouched and going cold, his knee bouncing underneath the table. I finally found the courage to look him in the eyes and they were frantic with the anxiety I was trying to keep tame. “Right, Natalia?”

"Well, it’s no use now," David said. “Everyone has an opinion.”

"I told you, I wasn't interested in the prenup," I said to Isabella, louder and more confidently.

"No, you said you would look it over."

"You were pressuring me. It was to get you off my back.”

"Oh, Natalia, don't be a child," my mother scoffed. "Take some responsibility. You’re twenty-six years old."

"It's very typical," my dad chided, amused in the most condescending, drunk, and arrogant way. “Not everything has to be a fight. You’re getting married and you can’t even make a responsible decision for yourself. Not even when it’s given to you on a silver platter.”

“There’s no decision to be made if it’s not a choice.” I stood, my chair scraping hideously across the floor as I excused myself gracelessly from the table and headed directly to the exit with my gut churning.

There was a rustling behind me and Mateo's voice calling my name once before I turned the corner into the long corridor, made eye contact with the glass double doors at the end of it leading into the backyard, and took off running until I was bursting through and out onto the concrete pavers.

It was raining, soft warm rain that mixed with the humidity and fell like sweat as it came down on my head. My short sprint took more out of me than I expected and I keeled over to catch my breath. The longer I stood there, the more soaked my clothes became, until the material was stuck to me in everyuncomfortable place. My feet throbbed inside my heels and I shucked them off and wiggled my toes on the wet ground.

There was so much noise going on inside my head, and though it wasn’t reasonable the world might as well have been collapsing in on me. No matter what I did, it was wrong. Mateo’s parents thought so, and mine only confirmed it. When I thought I was doing the right thing in keeping the proposed prenup from Mateo, it came back and bit me when I least expected it would. Every single turn I took, I hit a fucking wall, and the maze was only getting deeper and darker to navigate myself out of.

I was begging for the hits to stop coming and the chaos to quiet down.

A few feet away the pool was lit up and glistening aqua blue but the pitter-patter of rain made it nearly impossible to see the bottom clearly. I stepped forward, right to the edge. As a kid, it was so peaceful to submerge myself in the water and shut off the world around me. I wanted that right now, and so I did the only thing I could think of, and jumped in.

chapter seventeen

Mateo

I called out her name,but Tally was already through the tall open doors. Not stopping for anyone or anything. Not even me.

“Just let her go. She throws her fits and then she'll be over it in an hour like always.” John resumed working on his plate, dusting off the mess he'd made in front of everyone. As if Tally was the issue here, and not our business being broadcast for the entire table to analyze.

Yes, I was extremely taken aback by the turn in conversation. There was never any mention of a prenup, and Natalia had a conversation with Bella that never made its way to me. I had questions, and I wanted to believe there were simple answers to them.

I tossed my napkin on the table and went after her. As I passed her father sitting unbothered at the head of his grand, lavish table—in front of his wife, and my parents—I took him by the collar of his rumpled dress shirt and pulled him close enough that I could smell the stale whiskey on the catch of his breath.

"Get your fucking hands off me," he barked.

"Make no mistake, John, she'll have my name soon. A name she's going to be damn proud to wear every single day of her life.So think about the kind of impression you want to leave behind on your daughter about how a man acts, and treats his wife and his family. The kind of father she wants for her own children.” I paused. “One day there might be a baby that will never know a John Russo because I won’t allow you to hurt them the way you've hurt her."

His eyes thinned and the cord of his throat struggled against my knuckles as I tightened my grip. I was playing it cool but my heart was working hard in my chest, adrenaline taking over for the anxiety I had been tamping down after my parents started talking about relocating.

A nerve had been struck, and the arrogance John usually carried with his daughters was undetectable now. I had scared him for the first time in his life. He glanced cautiously around the room and his jaw tightened. “You’re out of line.”

I let him go with a shove back into his seat. “There’s no line I wouldn’t cross for her.”

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