Page 65 of Poisoning Ivy
"Cody."
Saying his name feels like swallowing sandpaper. Truthfully, I've avoided my husband a lot, ignored his disgust for me, and tried not to suffocate on his disdain. I've borne his dissatisfaction for me with the same careful apathy I gave my parents for the most part, and while I never welcomed his abuse, I never gave him enough power over me to make me fear him. But watching him with a gun in his hand, covered in blood after he was supposed to have been dead, I can say that fear truly strikes me. The weird thing, though, is that it's not fear formyself. It's fear for them. Monty, Killian, and Theo... whose face is covered in blood.
A startled scream tears through the air, and it takes a moment to even realize it was mine as I stare at Theo and he stares back at me in shock. He looks like the villain from Batman comics, half of his face perfectly beautiful, the usual color of his skin, and then directly down the middle, the other half is splattered with blood. I'd think it's a mask if I didn't know better. I scramble to my feet and move toward him automatically, needing to see the source of all that blood, to save him. I can't lose him.
"Stop right there, bitch!" The venom in Cody's voice is unlike anything I've heard from him before. He doesn't hate me the way they do. He just doesn't fucking care about me... normally. But I think tonight may have changed that. When I turn to see him, the gun is still pointed at Monty, but his vitriol is for me.
"Cody," I shake my head, not sure how to de-escalate him. Nothing's ever worked before. I usually just let his ire run it's course. But he also doesn't usually have a gun on him, and there aren't ever people that I would die for in the line of fire. I'm not naive enough to think that Cody will let them go free if I were to die for them, but it won't stop me from trying. "Don't do this. You're not a killer."
"Are you sure,Poison?" He snaps, throwing the nickname in my face. "Maybe just like me, you don't know who you married!"
Monty takes a step toward Theo, who Killian pulls to his feet. Cody follows him with the gun, a jerky motion that makes my heart leap into my throat as I imagine him pulling the trigger without even meaning to. His family is powerful, wealthy, just like mine, but we leave the security to the guards. I doubt he's ever so much as held a gun.
"Stop, Cody." I try again, bringing his attention back to me. "Your anger is at me. It's always me, remember?"
"You're a fucking whore." He spits his agreement. "You got us into this mess! Did you plan this?"
"I didn't--" I shake my head, glancing out of the corner of my eye to see Killian wipe the blood off Theo's face, inspecting him for damage. It's a surprisingly tender moment, a gentleness I've never seen from him. "You weren't even supposed to come!"
"You were just gonna run off and fuck the mountain men for the rest of your life? How would I have explained that to everyone, hmm? You think I would have just let you go?"
"Why not?" I swallow, tears burning the backs of my eyes as I struggle to keep it together despite the panic in my chest. "You never cared about me. Why not let me go and find someone who does make you happy?"
"I can't let you go, you dumb bitch." His fingers twitch on the gun as he laughs, like I've said something funny. "I need to make sure you never have an heir."
Silence falls between us, or maybe it's just the fog of my confusion. "An heir?"
"A fucking brat. A spoiled little shit who will be just as worthless to me as you are." When I only stare at him, he laughs louder than before. "Christ, you really are dumb. A fucking baby."
"A baby?"
I don't understand any of what's coming out of his mouth. Is he really trying to tell me he's stayed married to me for years because he doesn't want me tohave a baby?
I'm not sure I ever wanted one to begin with, but I sure as hell never wanted one with Cody. Sure, it would be nice to have some companionship, I suppose, and babies take a lot of work, so it would give me something to do. But the idea of raising up a human and subjecting them to the same shit life I had is an unusual type of cruelty. Even if I thought I may be the maternaltype (which I don't), I don't think the love of one parent would be enough to make up for the violent apathy of another.
"Even if I think you're repulsive, you're still a warm, wet hole for my dick." He laughs, and it's so unhinged that a violent shiver rolls down my spine. "I could have put a pillow over your head and used it more if I wanted to. You know that, right? I like women... pussy. Don't worry, I got plenty of it during the tenure of our marriage, just not from you. I don'tlikeyou. And I like the idea of putting a baby in you even less. But I knew deep down you were a whore, even if they said you were a virgin. If I let you go, you'd get knocked up by some other man eventually."
I can't even comprehend what he's trying to say, because it is so asinine that I can't begin to wrap my mind around it. I've all but forgotten Monty, Theo, and Killian in this moment, too steeped in confusion by how much he cares about my potential to reproduce. "Why does it matter?"
"It's the whole reason I married you. My responsibility... as your husband, to make sure you don't produce an heir for the Blanchetti family."
Blanchetti.
The name rings a bell somewhere in the back of my mind, but I can't imagine what he means by it. He's not a Blanchetti. Cory is a Rossi, the only son of Vittoria and Carlo. It's how they got his name, by combining theirs.
"I don't understand." I shake my head. "Was your mother a Blanchetti?" I also don't know why they wouldn't want the Blanchetti's to reproduce, but one thing at a time.
"No." He sneers. "I'm not supposed to tell you, but seeing as you're about to die, I guess there's no harm." Cody licks his lips, savoring whatever information he's been holding from me. "You are."
"I'm... what?"
"A Blanchetti. Your whore mother got herself knocked up by Lorenzo Blanchetti, twenty HOWEVER MANY years ago. Your father wasn't your father. He was just the man who was smart enough not to beat you out of your mother's womb. You're the ace up his sleeve, his secret weapon. Your father had the entire family killed when he took power-- all except you. You, he kept, as a bargaining chip... just in case."
"Just in case of what?"
"Subterfuge. Mutiny." He shrugs. "I don't care much for the politics of what our families do. All I know is that I was paid well to make sure you could never have an heir. I was going to gift you a hysterectomy for our wedding, but my father refused. He said he knew you'd be loyal."
Loyal. I would have been, but it's not like my father-in-law gave me much chance, as often as he came to me when Cody was gone. I can't help the laugh that bubbles out of my throat, my mind refusing to accept the absurdity of his claims. "You're insane." I shake my head, trying to clear it of his lies as he steps closer, enjoying my confusion. "You lost too much blood and it's made you--"
