Chapter 190

Frankie tightens his arm around me. “Iris, please.”

“Frank,” I snap, casting a hand out towards Giana’s private plane. “This is…this is not by chance.”

“Did you arrange this!?” he gasps, staring down at me.

“No!” I shout, giving him a little shove. “Frankie, this is like…fate! Intervening! The…universe, or whatever like…put her here!”

“Bambi,” Frankie groans, letting me go and dropping his face into his hand. “This is not the time to reveal to me that you’re an astrology girl –“

“I’m not, I’m –“

“Hey, Iris,” a dry, very familiar voice says behind me. “Got a minute?”

Frankie and I both go still and then I turn towards Giana, who I see standing about ten feet from me, looking…unfairly glamorous in her flowing dress. Especially in comparison to my novelty sweatshirt and flipflops.

“Just…let us go, Gi,” Frankie calls out to her, begging, reaching out and taking a hold of my upper arm, tugging me gently towards him. “We’ll disappear if you try to stop us – we can make new plans – we can –“

“Oh, I’m not here to stop you,” Giana says, raising her chin towards the cargo plane. “I want you to get on that thing. I just…” she shrugs, turning her eyes to me now, a small smile on her mouth. “Want to say goodbye to my sis.”

“Frank,” I sigh, turning towards him with a shrug. “Just…let me talk to her, okay? I feel like…I have to do this.”

“Two minutes, Iris,” he growls, tightening his hand around my arm for a moment before loosening it and dropping it to my side. “And if she says anything about telling Christian – we bail. Immediately, we bail.”

“Okay,” I whisper, nodding to him. And then I move towards Giana who stands with her arms folded, watching my every move.

“So,” she says, her wicked cat’s grin stretched across her face. “Imagine my surprise to see you here.”

“Don’t ask where we’re going, Gi,” I say quietly, crossing my own arms and looking evenly at her.

“Iris,” she laughs, leaning forward a little, “I honestly don’t want to know. Seriously? I’m…” she hesitates now, her face softening, “I’m glad you’re getting out. This world…you can’t handle it.”

My lip trembles a bit to hear her say it because…I mean, even if she’s just confirming everything I already knew…

God, I don’t know. I just…still don’t know that I’m making the right choice. But if Giana thinks that I am?

“Listen,” she says quietly, taking a step towards me and putting a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not going to tell anyone I saw you here. I’ll keep your secrets.”

“Why?” I whisper, shaking my head at her, not understanding.

“Because Christian killed my husband,” she says quietly, shaking her head, “and took my world from me. But you…you were unfailingly nice to me, babe.” She gives me a little smirk. “And despite the fact that I think you’re kind of a pushover and a sissy I…I like you, Iris. I want you to be happy. And I know that you loved him but…”

Giana starts to shake her head as tears spring to my eyes. She tightens her hand and sighs when she sees them.

“Still love him, then,” she whispers, shaking her head. “Well, then there are some things you should know.”

I straighten up, looking at her with surprise.

Giana drops her hand and crosses her arms again, steeling herself. “I talked to Lucy.”

My shoulders go rigid with shock.

“And I know everything she…offered Christian. Iris, I know how these mafia bosses work, and I know how their girlfriends work too. Lorenzo – he had them. He had plenty of them. And the way that Lucy was telling me the story? Iris…” Giana shakes her head. “The way you were acting that day, after Lucy made her…offer, I could tell you’d forgiven him – that he probably told you he rejected her. But babe,” she bites her lip and shakes her head, “he didn’t reject her.”

My mouth falls open, appalled, shocked.

“I don’t think he said yes?” Giana says quietly, looking straight into my eyes. “But baby…he didn’t say no. Lucy had it well in her head that she could get to him – and if he’d really shut her down…she wouldn’t have been saying that.”

I just stare at my sister-in-law, whatever faith I had left in Christian beginning to bleed away from me because…

Because he lied to me. And not small lies for my own good anymore…big ones. Ones to manipulate, to intentionally mislead.

I stare into Giana’s face, trying to process this and realizing that she has absolutely no reason to lie to me about this. I mean, what does she gain from having me go away? What, really? I am, after all, the one advocating for her in that house.

“Look, don’t hate him,” Giana says, stepping closer to me and putting both of her hands on my shoulders, giving me a little shake. “It’s…his world that made him this way. I think he really does love you, Iris – he’s just spent too long in a world that’s taught him how to destroy the people he loves. That he can – and should – use women to get what he wants. That he can love you and still entertain offers from a girl like Lucy. And quite frankly…from a girl like you…”

I look up into her face with a frown now, not understanding.

“Well,” Giana says with a little shrug. “You were…kind of Violetta’s Lucy, weren’t you?” Giana says, as gently as she can. “The…girl down the hall who was kind of…there if he wanted her. I mean, it was different – he was in love with you in a way that he never was with Violetta or will be with Lucy. But Christian…was never going to resist forever, he never had to. He’s a man who…likes to have his cake and eat it too. And a sweetheart wife like you was…always going to forgive him.”

The tears start to slip down my cheeks now as I realize the truth of Giana’s words. I wrap my arms slowly around myself, feeling cold and lonely, realizing…perhaps as I haven’t before how deeply flawed my entire relationship with Christian was, right from the start.

That I was his girl on the side.

That he was, perhaps, always…going to have a girl on the side. That even if he loved me and I was his wife…he may not have known how to resist that. Or perhaps the world in which we lived wasn’t going to let him.

“Now,” Giana says, forcing some cheer into her voice as she steps closer to me and quietly turns me around so that I face the steps up to the cargo plane again. “I think, now, that it’s your turn to have a little cake, Iris. And gobble it all up.”

I laugh a little, probably because I’m totally confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Look at that adorable piece of cake just…waiting for you,” she says, tossing a hand out towards Frankie, who is sitting on the bottom step of the cargo plane’s stairs with his head in his hands, clearly completely freaking out.

A little smile takes my lips.

“A super cute, slightly murderous piece of chocolate cake,” Giana whispers.

“Tiramisu,” I correct underneath my breath, though I don’t know why.

Giana laughs, light, full of joy. “Go on, sweetheart. Have your cake. Frankie is…” she laughs, giving me a gentle push forward, “so fucking in love with you.”

I turn in shock to stare at Giana because…

I mean…

But Giana just laughs at me and rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on,” she calls out as she sighs, “everyone knows it. Except, apparently, you and Chrisitan. Now go.”

“Seriously?” I breathe, still staring at her, not ready to walk back yet. “You’re not going to tell anyone?”

“More fun this way,” Giana says, giving me a wink and then drawing her fingers across her mouth like a zipper before twisting them at the corner, fastening the key. “My own…tiny revenge.”

My lips curl into a smile as I watch her turn and saunter away.

And then I turn too, walking back to Frankie, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He looks up at me, I think a little in disbelief that I’m still here – that she’s gone.

“Did you hear that?” I ask, nodding towards her.

“Iris,” he murmurs, “my fucking heart is pounding so loud I can’t even hear the plane engines.”

I smile at him, raising a hand to his cheek. “So? Are we going on board?”

His eyes widen. “Are we?”

I glance over towards Giana’s private plane, watching her disappear inside of it. “Honestly, Frankie…I don’t think she’s going to tell a soul.”

“This information is worth…a great deal of money. She could cash in on it,” Frank murmurs, looking over towards her plane as well.

“I think Christian already took away the one thing that really mattered to her,” I say quietly, likewise looking towards her plane.

But then I squeeze Frankie’s shoulder and glance around, aware that we’re on a timeline and probably coming up to it. “But come on,” I whisper, giving him a gentle push. “I think…I think we need to go.”

He stands, a little shaky, I think completely unnerved by that experience. “You sure?” he asks, reaching out and taking my face in his hands. “We can start again – make sure we can’t be traced.”

“I think I’d rather trust her, Frank,” I say quietly, looking up at him. “Plus…I want to go to Europe. With you. Right now.”

He smirks at me. “What, no more strip clubs and gas station food?”

I make my eyes go wide and innocent. “They don’t have those in Europe?”

He bursts out laughing, smiling down into my face and taking a step closer as he shakes his head at me. But something about that laughter, I think, breaks him out of it and Frankie sighs, turning towards the stairs and heading up them, pulling me with them. “All right, Bambs,” he says with a sigh, still shaking his head as he climbs. “Faith it is. Let’s hit the road.”