Page 58 of The Agreement

Val took her seat again, this time ignoring both of his parents and eating her meal silently. Unless she was asked, she wasn’t engaging in conversation. And even that depended on the topic. But it seemed that everyone had the same thought because no one had anything else to say. She glanced over at Vinny who fought to keep a smile back. She finally leaned over and whispered to him. "Is this normal?"

"Never. But I won’t object. My mom silent is virtually impossible."

"So something happened while we left?" Val just shook her head at her own question. She knew better, this was the calm before the storm. Sofia asked her here for a reason and she hardly felt like that reason, sad as it may be, had happened yet.

"Giovanni?" They both looked up as his dad called him while tossing his napkin on the table. "Join me in the study while the ladies talk." Vinny nodded, placing his own napkin on the table.

"I'll be back," Vinny whispered to her and kissed her cheek. She nodded, not wanting to be left alone but she was strong, and she could handle the lions.

Vinny followed his dad into the room, closing the door behind him. His dad sat behind his desk and waved for Vinny to take a chair, which he did with caution. He could only imagine what his father wanted to talk about and he had no answers still. And his dad would not like that in the least.

"I'm glad to see you and Valentina are okay, that nothing has happened." Vinny narrowed his eyes slightly but shook his head.

"No, for the moment things have been quiet. Not that Val has left a lot since we’ve been home."

"Quietness is not always a good thing, you know. If she is quiet maybe she is planning." Vinny stared at his dad, trying to figure out just what he meant. What did his dad think Val would be planning? Better yet, why did he think Val was behind everything? There was no proof and very slim logic to base that on.

"I don't understand, dad, what...." His dad slammed his hand on the table, cutting Vinny off.

"Don’t be blinded some dumb bitch with a great ass that you are fucking! Val makes sense to me to be behind all of the happenings going on." Vinny’s jaw clenched and he wasn’t sure what part of that statement he wanted to respond to first. Either way, he went, his dad would be fuming at him.

"We have talked about this, father,” his voice clearly showing his displeasure. “First of all, Val is not some dumb bitch and I would ask you kindly to respect my fiancé..."

"Nothing to respect when she’s trying to destroy things in our world just to get out of a contract!" his father roared, cutting him off again. How could he explain that was the furthest thing from her mind without exposing the truth? Vinny shook his head and stood up.

"I don’t know why you want to blame her, but I know she wouldn’t do those things. It's not as if Val had the means to pull it off anyway. She’s not close to the mafia side of things."

"Oh wake up! Just because she fucked you doesn’t mean she can’t charm her way with other people. Val is a woman, which means she’s a snake so don’t be blind just because she allowed you to fuck her. You might think her giving it up is sealing the deal, but it's not. It’s making you a cuckold and I know you are smarter than that. Do not let her fool you just because she’s some pretty airhead." Vinny reigned in his temper as best as he could before he jumped over the desk and punched his own dad. He buttoned up his jacket and grabbed the door handle, not caring if this shit storm of a meeting was done or not, he was done.

"Val is dumb, you claim, yet you just accused her of being smart enough to blind me with sex. Val would never do something like that. And you can blame her all you want but don't get pissed off at me or her that we have grown to like each other and that the child we will have will belong to your enemy as much as it will you.

"You’re the one who threw me on the altar; she’s right on that part. Neither you nor her dad tried to stop this war so don’t blame her because she’s doing exactly what was asked of you. I bet, sir, if you opened your eyes, you’d find out who was behind this a whole faster than I would, but you wouldn't dare get your hands dirty now." With that, Vinny stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him, in search of Val to get the hell out of there.

-----

Val watched Vinny walk out of the dining room and put on her extra thick skin because she knew she was going to need it. She licked her lips and sat her own napkin down, trying to offer a pleasant smile to Sofia who stood up as well. Val followed her, walked out of the room, and sat down in the family room.

"Have you thought of colors, Val?" Celeste asked and Val mentally rolled her eyes. Was everything going to be about this God damn wedding?

"Yes, I have. I want all the same style, a one-shoulder style. But I think I want different colors. And since it seems to be more of a spring wedding," Val said, casting a glance at Sofia, "I was thinking a variety of pale blues and greens...."

"No," Celeste said, cutting her off again. Val clenched her teeth for a second before relaxing her jaw. She had to remember this was not her house and punching someone was not a good idea.

"I'm sorry; I don’t understand what do you mean by 'no'. No to what?"

"Those colors, I refuse to wear them. They clash horribly with my skin tone, so pick something else. Pink looks good on me, go with pink." Val just stared at Celeste, blinking once and then twice before shaking her head.

"That's a hard no. I don't like the color pink and will not want anything pink at my wedding. And I'm sorry Celeste, who asked you to be in MY wedding?"

"I did. I also told you it was a must that she was in the wedding," Sofia said. "And I think pink would be best. Let's start looking at the shades of pink you think would look good on you, Celeste."

"No!" Val said, looking between the two ladies who were looking at something on Celeste’s phone, ignoring her.

"Oh I like that one," Celeste said and Sofia nodded.

"That would look gorgeous on you. And you would outshine anyone else. And that's the maid of honor dress. Valentina," Sofia said, now looking at her, "you need to make Celeste the maid of honor." Valentina bit back the bile at the thought of having Celeste anywhere near her like that.

"I'd love to since I'm so close to Vinny..."

---