Page 36 of His Nephew's Ex
Instead, I find myself descending the rest of the stairs with deliberate purpose, my silk robe flowing around me like liquid armor. If Flavio wants a confrontation, he’ll get one. But it’ll be on my terms, not his.
He’s standing in the center of the foyer like he’s holding court, his dark hair perfectly styled despite the fury blazing in his eyes. When he spots me, his expression transforms from anger to something far more dangerous—possessive hunger mixed with bitter betrayal.
“Well, well.” His smile is sharp enough to cut glass. “If it isn’t the little virgin who couldn’t wait to spread her legs for dear oldzio.”
The insult hits its mark, but I don’t flinch. Instead, I lift my chin with the same defiance that once made me march into a mafia don’s office and demand protection.
“Flavio.” I keep my voice level, conversational, like we’re discussing the weather instead of standing in his uncle’s foyer while I wear nothing but silk and morning light. “You look well. Prison orange really would have brought out your eyes.”
His face flushes dark red. “You think you’re clever, don’t you? Playing house with my uncle while I clean up the mess you made.”
“The mess I made?” A laugh escapes me, sharp and bitter. “You mean the mess where you stalked me for weeks after I caught you fucking my best friend in my own bed? That mess?”
“That was different—”
“Different how?” I descend the final steps, putting us on level ground. “Because you were entitled to terrorize me? Because I was supposed to be grateful for your attention?”
“Because you weremine,” he snarls, and there it is—the twisted logic that’s driven his entire campaign of harassment. “Six months I invested in you. Six months of patience, of playing the gentleman, of respecting your ridiculous need to ‘wait for the right moment.’“
“Invested.” I taste the word like poison. “Is that what you call lying to someone’s face while you fuck their best friend behind their back? An investment?”
“It was strategy,” he snaps, taking a step closer. “Do you know what kind of bet I won by getting close to you? What my friends said when I told them I could make the untouchable Loriana Parlato fall for me?”
The confession hits me like a physical blow, even though part of me suspected that there was more to the story. Everythingbetween us had been a game, a cruel wager designed to humiliate me as publicly as possible. The patient kisses, the respectful boundaries, the promises of forever—all of it carefully calculated to break me down.
“So it was all a lie,” I whisper, and the hurt in my voice makes him smile.
“Not all of it.” His tone turns almost gentle, which somehow makes it worse. “I did care about you,bambina. I still do. In my own way. You were supposed to be different—pure, untouchable, worthy of the Codella name.”
“Until I wasn’t pure enough for your liking?”
“Until you threw it all away on him.” Flavio gestures wildly toward the upper floors. “Do you know what he is, Loriana? What he’s done? The blood on his hands?”
“I know exactly what he is.” My voice hardens. “Just like I know exactly what you are.”
“And what am I?”
“A coward who terrorizes women when he doesn’t get his way. A spoiled child who thinks his last name entitles him to anything he wants. A pathetic little boy playing dress-up in a world of real men.”
The words hit their mark. Flavio’s face twists with rage, and for a moment, I think he might actually strike me. Instead, he laughs—a sound that makes my skin crawl with its bitter cruelty.
“At least I never pretended to be anything else,” he says quietly. “Can you say the same about your precious Silver Devil? Do you know why they call him that,bambina?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why? Because it reminds you of what you were before he got his hands on you? Before he corrupted everything innocent about you?”
“Because it reminds me of how pathetically you used to grovel for my attention.” I smile, sharp and cutting. “Amazing how quickly a man’s true nature shows when he can’t have something he wants.”
“True nature?” Flavio steps closer, close enough that I can smell his expensive cologne and the rage radiating off him like heat. “You want to talk about true nature? Your precious protector killed my father.”
The words hit me like ice water, freezing the breath in my lungs. “What?”
“Twenty years ago, Simeone sent my father on a mission that was suicide. Kept himself safe at home while my father walked into an ambush that everyone knew was coming.” His voice drops to a whisper that carries more venom than shouting. “Myfather died because his younger brother was too much of a coward to take the dangerous jobs himself.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? Ask him sometime. Ask the Silver Devil how it feels to fuck his dead brother’s son’s woman. Ask him if he thinks about Ulrico when he’s inside you.”
