Prologue Part II
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Choking on a sob, she waited until she heard Thisbe stomping up the stairs to the bedroom she kept in the mansion where January lived with Gulliver and then tiptoed her way to the front entrance. Grabbing her handbag from where she’d dumped it on a side table she took shaking breaths as she left the house and walked. resolutely down the driveway.
She walked as far as she could down the street of the affluent neighborhood and then sat down on a curb and
called her father.
“Daddy.”
Immediately from the tone of her voice he knew
something was wrong.
“January, honey, what’s wrong?”
“It was all a lie. Can you come get me?”
“What was a lie?”
12:30
We were never married. Apparently he’s engaged to be
Prologue Part II
married to someone else in England.”
“What? What are you saying?”
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“The ceremony where you gave me away to him? It was a fake. It was all fake.”
“Where are you?”
“About fifteen minutes walking distance away from his house. I can’t go back there. I can’t.”
“It’s probably a misunderstanding, January. You need to talk to him.”
“I heard him and Thisbe. Thisbe was angry because he’s lying to me. He wants to be vovoi, I don’t know what that means, but in order to get that title he has to do what his grandfather says and marry some woman named Duchess. I didn’t misunderstand Dad. She was giving him shit for wanting his cake and eating it too. I’m the other woman. Our marriage certificate was fake. He wants me to have his babies,” she gagged as a thought hit her. “Oh god, Daddy, I’m pregnant. The whole reason I went home instead of to my afternoon class was to tell him I’m Bregnant. I can’t do this. I can’t.”
12:30
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“Sweetheart, I want you to do me a favor.”
“What?”
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“Tell me your exact address and then I want you to put your phone down the nearest drain. Then I want you to walk six more houses in the opposite direction of where you came from and on the opposite side of the street.”
“Daddy?” she was really confused at the panicked tone of his words.
“Honey, vovois the Greek word for head of a mafia family. Like the word Don for Italians, yovoi is for Greeks. I know this because your uncle was a detective with NYPD for many years and he worked the joint cases with the feds for crime families. I know the lingo. I never would have thought,” his voice fell off. “Tell me where you are and I’m coming to get you.”
Her brain was reeling but after he snapped at her angrily, instructed her again on what to do, she was dropping her cell phone down a storm drain, crossing the street, and sitting next to tall hedge, waiting for him to show up.
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12:30
Prologue Part II
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When he did shop up, she was surprised by how quickly
he drove away.
“Dad, you’re driving really fast.”
“Yeah, I’m driving like the fucking mob is on my ass.”
“You think he’s really a mobster?”
“I don’t know but if he used the word vovoi, it’s possible. I have one of your uncles old friends meeting us at the house.” His eyes drifted to her belly, “you’re really pregnant?”
“Yes. I heard Thisbe say if I ever had his kids, they
wouldn’t be allowed to inherit anything because I’m the other woman. My kid is a bastard, Dad. We’re not even
married.”
“First. The term bastard is bullshit. I never want to hear that come from your lips again. Second. Fuck him and his money and his inheritance. You don’t need it.” His cell phone rang, and he patched it through his blue tooth in the car. “Hey Davis. Thanks for calling me back.”
Are
you fucking kidding? Tell me you’re joking. Tell hỉė0
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that the voice mail you left was a joke?”
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“I wish I could. January walked into the house she was living in with her husband and sister–in–law to overhear a conversation about how her marriage was not real, her husband wants to be vovoi and she will forever be the
other woman.”
“She had no idea?”
“None. I had no idea. Davis, when I tell you I met this guy a hundred times over the last eight months and not once did I think anything other than young man wanting to be CEO of his father’s company someday, I’m not lying. He’s clean as a whistle, down to earth and made me believe he loved my daughter more than anything in the world. He asked me for permission to marry her. He promised to give her a good life and to treat her well. Now he’s apparently a fucking gangster planning on keeping her a dirty secret.”
“Does he love her?” the question was quiet from Davis.
January sobbed as her father commented quietly.
Yes. I think he does. There’s no way to fake what I saw:30
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He loves her but I think he is the kind of man who is selfish in his love. Obviously.”
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“Then he will do everything in his power to keep her. If he is backed by the mafia and a wealthy family, he’ll never
let her leave. What is his name?”
“Gulliver Crane.”
Davis was quiet a beat too long.
“You know his name?” Terrance Fields looked sideways at
his daughter.
“His full name is Gulliver Crane Raptis. His father is the richest man in England. His grandfather is the most ruthless son of a bitch to ever come out of Greece. If she is married to him,” Davis trailed off.
“Not married. It was faked.” January’s raspy words echoed in the quiet of the car.
“If he went so far as to fake a marriage for you January, he’s not letting you go. He could have simply put you up as a mistress and been done with it. He gave you the Show. You need to disappear. Men like him don take 2:30
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rejection well. It’s your life on the line, January.”
“How do we disappear from the mob?”
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“Get to your house, Terrance. I’ll have a full crew there to pack your house up. I’ve had to move a few people in the past for witness relocation. We’ll do the same thing. I’ll call in a few favors. You’ll keep your first names, but we’ll change your last. I’ll get your relocate to a smaller town. Any preference in state?”
“If it’s keeping my daughter safe, I don’t give a shit where we go.”
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes, Terrance.”
January wrapped her arms around her belly and began to sob pitifully. What had started as the best day was now officially her worst.
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