Victor - Her Ruthless Husband (Ruthless Triad 3)

“Hey, kid! What’s what?” Luca says. He hugs her back, obviously just as happy to see her as she is him. “What are you doing over here? I thought you and Lucky were supposed to go to the park.”

“I don’t want to go to the park. The park is for babies,” Daniella answers him like Six-Year-Olds Now Too Old To Play At The Park was the headline story on this morning’s news. “And Mrs. Dawn said I could play with her until Lucky and Jenna get back. We drew lots of pictures, and she showed me her flipbook she made of Lucky and me. It’s like a little cartoon movie but with pencils!”

“Just Dawn,” I insist to the little girl. Looking at her parents, I say, “I hope it’s okay that I let her stay here.”

“It’s completely okay,” Amber answers with a wave of her hand. “Thanks for keeping her.”

“It was my pleasure,” I assure Amber. “We had a lot of fun drawing.”

I’m dying to know what happened with Victor when she confronted him, but that’s not an appropriate subject to talk about in front of a child. Especially one who’s been through all the things that Daniella has.

Luckily, Amber is already on it. “Hey, listen, I need to talk with Dawn about a few things. Why don’t you and dad go back to the house for lunch? Then we’ll join you a little later.”

“But I already ate lunch with Mrs. Dawn earlier,” Daniella whines. “And Mrs. Dawn said she was going to teach me how to make my own flipbook next.”

Amber’s face sets just as stubbornly as her daughter’s. “Kid, you know the rules. You don’t have a law degree like your father and me, so you don’t get to argue….”

Daniella rolls her eyes in a way that makes her look like a tween twice her age. “I know, I know. I have to negotiate.”

Daniella lets out a sigh. Her expression is totally aggrieved. “Okay, can I come back here after I make Dad lunch?”

“Hey, I can make my own lunch,” Luca points out. “I’m a grown man.”

“It’s Carol’s day off,” Amber reminds him.

“In that case, super appreciate the offer,” Luca says quickly to Daniella. “One of those panini sandwiches you’re so good at making would be great. Thanks, kid.”

Shaking her head, Amber says to Daniella, “I’ll consider your terms. And after you and your dad have finished your ice cream, I’ll let you know if Dawn’s up for a visit.”

“I can have ice cream after I make Dad lunch?” Daniella shrieks. “Come on, Dad, let’s go!”

Amber’s daughter tugs her father out of the guesthouse like they have extremely urgent business to attend to. She didn’t even seem to hear the part about maybe not being allowed to come back over here today.

But I definitely noticed that Amber appeared reluctant to commit me to doing anything for the next few hours. Did it go that bad?

“Well, you missed an exciting episode of Mr. and Ms. Mafia,” Amber says as soon as the door closes behind Luca and her daughter.

She whips out her mobility stick and taps around until she finds the armchair.

“What happened?” I ask, dropping into a seat on the couch right next to the chair.

“Get this. Your asshole ex arranges a meeting with Luca. And I guess he was all set to, like, trade you as if we were back in the olden days and you were chattel or something. Luca actually had the nerve to say he would’ve taken the deal if it had been anybody but one of my clients—he can still be an asshole too sometimes, but I decided to love him anyway, so there’s no going back now.”

Amber shakes her head again like she’s still trying to reconcile that decision. “But whatever, you should have seen me walk up in there. I was like—Bam! Amber Ferraro in the house, Bitch! I would’ve murdered this case like Narcos. But I’m not serving you with divorce papers because you’re not even married. Dunh-dunh-DUUUUNNNHHH!”

“And what did Victor say?” I ask breathlessly. I’m all the way leaned forward now on the literal edge of my seat. “Did he make an excuse or try to explain himself?”

Amber lets out a disgusted sound. “Not exactly. He said real or not, you still verbally agreed to the ten years but skipped out on your contracted time before it was up.”

Even though I knew he would go here, I’m immediately enraged. “I didn’t skip out. He humiliated me. And my dad. So I left with my brother before he could do any more damage.”

“Yeah, I pointed that out, using all the legal eagle language, and threatened to sue him for everything. But unfortunately, he wasn’t that easily intimidated. He just kept on insisting that because you left your last agreed-upon date early, you still owed him one last year to make up for the one you didn’t finish. He’s basically saying he wants a do-over. He said something about a longer version of Operation Good as New 3.0?”