Rejected by the Heir, She Married the Don novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: His Own Tie

"Everything he never will," I repeated.

"A house of your own in the city. Your mother's name over the door of a restaurant, if you want one." Stefano uncrossed his legs. "A seat at a table where nobody calls you the help."

"You called me that."

"I was drunk, and Dad was watching. You know I was playing a part."

"Then it was a bad part."

His smile slipped, just at the corners.

"Get out of my chair," I said.

"Elise."

"It is not a hard sentence. Get out of the chair."

He looked at me for a long time, in the moonlight, with his father's eyes.

Then he stood and straightened his jacket, and he stopped close enough that I smelled the whiskey.

"He married the seat," Stefano said softly. "Ask yourself if he'd have looked at you twice without it."

"He looked at me at your party before I said a word."

"Sunday," Stefano said, and walked past me out of the dark.

I stood alone at the head of the table until I could breathe properly.

Then I took the stairs two at a time to the bedroom at the top of the house.

The door was unlocked.

Dario sat in the armchair by the window with no light on and the dark sea behind him.

He was still in his suit from the city.

I did not think he had moved since noon.

"You told me not to follow you," he said.

"I did."

"I haven't."

I shut the door behind me and turned the lock.

"Stefano was in the dining hall," I said. "He offered me a house."

His whole body went still.

"Did he touch you?"

"No. I told him to get out of my chair, and he did."

"Your chair."

"Mine," I said. "You pulled it out for me. You can have the rest of the reasons, but the chair is mine."

He looked at his hands.

"Elise, if you vote against me on Sunday, I will stand up in front of the whole table and thank you. I will hand you the keys to this house myself."

"Why?"

"Because I never wanted your vote."

He raised his head.

"I wanted you at my right hand. I wanted you at my table, and I wanted you in my bed. That the chair came with you was luck, and I am ashamed of how glad I was."

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