My Mafia Husband Fed Me Birth Control, So I Took His Throne novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Terms

Vincent admits he did it and would do it again, and Antonia slaps him in front of her uncle's men. She sets her terms for coming home, and he agrees to every one before she finishes.

Nobody touched the gun on the desk.

Carmine's men stood in the doorway with their hands near their jackets and waited for my uncle to speak.

He didn't.

He looked at me.

"Say the word, kid," he said. "Say it, and he doesn't walk out of this house."

Vincent didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on mine.

"Did you do it?" I asked. "Not the pharmacy. You. Did you put it in my coffee on purpose, every day?"

"Yes."

"Did you know what it was?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

His jaw tightened.

"Not in this room," he said.

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one I have right now." He took a step toward the couch. "I did it, Toni. I'd do it again."

I stood up.

The blanket slid off my knees.

I crossed the den and slapped him as hard as I could.

The sound filled the room.

Carmine's men went still, and the doctor made a small noise and shut his bag.

Vincent's head turned with it. When he turned back, there was a red mark on his cheek, and he had not raised a hand.

"All those tests," I said.

My voice cracked and I made it steady.

"I sat on that bathtub month after month with a plastic stick, and you came in and sat on the floor and held my knee and said, 'Next month.' You knew what was in my stomach."

"I know."

"Every time, you said it. Every time, you kissed my head."

"I know."

"Stop saying you know."

He shut his mouth.

Behind me, my uncle's voice was soft and almost kind.

"That's enough, Antonia. Don't make yourself sick. You tell the word, and my men put him on the sidewalk."

I wanted to say it.

I wanted six men to put Vincent Strozzi on the sidewalk in front of the whole street.

But I had walked away from his restaurant that morning with nobody following me.

It had felt like nothing.

I wanted him to feel it.

"No," I said. "I'm not finished with him."

I turned to Vincent.

"I'm coming back to your house. Tonight. I'll sleep in the guest room."

He started to speak.

"I'm not finished," I said again. "You have terms."

"Tell me."

"On Friday I sit at your council, as your wife, at your right hand. Not Serena. Me."

"Done."

"Whatever I ask you, you answer. And it's true, every time, or I walk out and I don't come back."

"Done."

"And you don't touch me. Not my hand, not my back, not my head. Unless I ask you to."

He didn't answer that one right away.

I watched the muscle in his jaw work, and I watched him decide.

"Done," Vincent said.

That was the strange part.

He had agreed to every one of them, and the last one had cost him the most.

Carmine let out a short laugh behind me.

"A woman who can't be told no, and a husband who can't say it," he said. "Fine. Fine, kid. You'll do what you want. You always did."

Vincent picked up his gun.

He put it away, slowly, with Carmine's men watching, and he nodded once to my uncle.

"Carmine."

"Vincent."

Neither of them said another word.

I got my bag from the hall.

Vincent's driver was parked at the curb in the dark with the engine running.

I got into the back seat alone.

Vincent stayed on the porch under the light.

The doctor came out behind me with his black bag, hurrying down the steps without a look at anyone.

Then my uncle came out, and crossed the lawn to my window, and tapped the glass.

I rolled it down.

He kissed my forehead through the gap, and his cigar smell filled the car.

"Whatever he's feeding you now," Carmine said, "don't."

I looked past him.

Vincent was still on the porch.

He was watching us, and he had not moved since I got in.

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