The Trophy Wife

SEVENTEEN: Ball

Sorryyy for attaching a Billie Eilish song to almost every chapter but I think they just fit soooo well

Also, I don't think it copied exactly as I had it written in google docs but at least I tried to censor it this time 👍🏻

Things were oddly quiet for the next couple of weeks. Dante and Skyla hadn't left, and Lucas and I obviously had no choice but to stay. Each day was more painful than the last. Silvio's giant estate was so incredibly lonely and lifeless, I didn't blame him for desperately wanting his son or Enzo back.

He spent the majority of the time in his office with the doors tightly closed while all of his workers worked in absolute silence.

We watched movies, played cards, and sat by the pool, but nothing cured our boredom or anxiety. Even Lucas realized that the mansion wasn't as magnificent as he originally thought.

Three days went by before Silvio finally crawled out of his cave, but it was only to announce that he was going to host a masquerade ball and we were all invited.

Ugh.

"We don't have a choice, do we?" There was a hint of hopefulness in Lucas's voice.

Dante laughed in his face. "I wish."

"What do you think it's for?" Skyla asked.

"I have no idea." Dante shrugged his shoulders. He hadn't said a word to his father in almost a week and I didn't think he planned on ever saying another word to him again.

Dante and I were usually the last to go to sleep at night. We'd raid his father's bar and sit on the balcony until we could no longer keep our eyes opened. I must've asked him a hundred times why he decided to stay in Italy if he wasn't going to talk to Silvio.

"I'm waiting for him to tell me exactly what he wants. I want to see if he has the balls to come out and say it."

"What are you going to do if he does?"

"I have no f*cking idea." Dante took one final sip of whatever was in the bottle and tossed it into the bushes.

I opened a new bottle and laughed. I couldn't stop laughing and eventually he joined me. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and tears clouded our eyes. "We are so f*cked up!" I finally managed to say. "And it's so f*cking funny!"

He couldn't stop laughing long enough to speak so he just kept nodding his head.

"This is the third night in a row that we've drank ourselves to sleep!" I cackled. "And we'll probably do it again tomorrow!"

"Who are we kidding?" He wiped the tears out of his eyes. "We're not gonna survive this sh*t!"

"You're going to kill your father and I'm gonna end up as Alberto Santoro's whore!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't catch my breath. "How much do you think he'd rent me out for?"

Dante never answered me. Instead we just laughed and laughed and laughed even though there was absolutely nothing funny about it.

That had happened the night before, but neither one of us brought it up again. We went on with our lives and acted like he wasn't going to do something he'd regret. We pretended that at the end of it all, I was going to be okay.

Thankfully, Silvio's staff laid out what we were expected to wear to the ball so I didn't have to think about a thing.

Although his maids went as far as to help me put on a bra, I was still wracked with worry. A masquerade ball... when has anything good came from a masquerade ball?