Children of Ambition (Children of Vice 2)

Ethan stared at him bored, before asking, “How much of our time do you plan on wasting, Mr. Gabriel with no last name?”

“For as long as it takes for your sister to marry me.” Gabriel smiled and for the first time she noticed he had a dimple in one of his cheeks. Taking the towel off his shoulder, he cleaned his hands.

“You might be here until kingdom come,” I muttered.

“That’s fine, I’ve only learned two of your favorite dishes today, anyway. Chef Carluccio isn’t the most patient teacher I’ve ever had,” he replied, shifting his gaze to me.

I looked down at the food in front of me and sure enough it was one of my favorite dishes. Salmon with sunflower-dill pesto sauce and a small side of avocado and shrimp spicy Gazpacho. I felt my mouth water involuntarily.

“Do you mind?” Gabriel asked Ethan. “She hasn’t had dinner yet.”

Coldly, Ethan looked to me. “Ever since Ivy came, you’ve been acting erratically, I hope this soon-to-be-dead loon isn’t going to add to that.”

“So far it’s just you who’s been making me act erratically; making me wonder if you’re actually my brother still? Making me wish I did pull that trigger. You just met her, and now it’s my fault whenever I stand my ground in my own goddamn home. If you were going to treat me like this Ethan, you shouldn’t have pretended to give a fuck about me at all. Pick your wife, I’ll pick myself. You’re as useless to me now as father was to all of us back then.”

He stared me and I saw his eye widen just a little bit. I hoped I hadn’t imagine the hurt in his eyes, I hoped I had stabbed something of merit under that suit of armor but I wasn’t sure. He simply tossed the knife back on the table, allowing it to hit the glass before stabbing me with his words. “And you, Donatella, are still that selfish little girl who can’t recognize the reality of the world around her.”

“Goodnight Ethan,” I replied, picking up the Gazpacho, taking a spoonful into my mouth.

Ethan didn’t say anything else before turning around and walking out the doors from which he had come. And I wanted to relax but I looked over to see Gabriel staring at me while drinking a glass of the wine he had brought.

“Can I help you?”

“Is it good?” he asked and nodded to the bowl in my hand, waiting eagerly for my reply. It was then I remembered he was the one who had made it.

“What is this?” I asked.

He frowned. “Avocado and shrimp—”

“No.” I chuckled, not meaning to. “Why are you making me food? Is this a ploy to get me to like you?”

“Kind of,” he admitted but didn’t seem sure himself. “You don’t seem like the kind of woman who’d go to anyone’s arms to cry or complain about your problems. You just want to force them down and bottle it up. Food helps the pain go down.”

I paused, swallowing the food in my mouth. Going over his words in my mind, I said, “This is your way of comforting me?”

He nodded. “You don’t have to talk about it—”

“I have nothing to talk about,” I replied, taking another bite.

“Okay,” he replied, reaching behind him and I tensed. He raised his eyebrow then lifted the book for me for to see. “It’s just a book.”

“Why my parents would have engaged me to a book nerd like you is still beyond me.” I shook my head.

“Says the novelist,” he muttered flipping to a page of his book. I tilted my head to the side to see what he was reading, praying it wasn’t my book. And thankfully it wasn’t. It was Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

He didn’t say anything more and neither did I.

I simply ate.

And he simply read beside me.

I hated to admit it, but I enjoyed it. It was like being alone and not being alone at the same time…which meant… I needed to get rid of him.

He was getting too close and too comfortable with me.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and wondered how?

TWELVE