What my wife wants, she gets
Luca’s voice cut through the chaos instantly, he moved toward me at once in worry, his eyes narrowing as he reached for my hand.
I tried to steady my breath, but the pain lingered, throbbing in waves that felt out of place for a necklace that should have been nothing more than harmless metal and stone.
My palm trembled as I pressed it against my dress, unable to hide the faint tremor in my fingers.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his tone demanding more than just an answer, it demanded the truth.
Before I could respond, Calla’s voice broke in. Her expression, once so bright and expectant, had crumpled into something almost wounded. She pressed a hand to her chest as though I had struck her instead of the necklace.
“If you didn’t like the necklace I gave you, you could have just said so,” she said, her voice cutting despite the softness of her words. Her eyes flickered between me and the shattered gift on the floor, brimming with a mixture of hurt and accusation.
I shook my head quickly. “It wasn’t that. I…” My words faltered as the pain pulsed again in my hand, curling up my wrist. “I felt something. It was like a sharp pain, something in the necklace cut me.”
“Cut you?” Calla’s brows drew together. “That’s impossible. There’s nothing sharp on it. It’s a simple chain with a pendant. Maybe you’re… too sensitive?”
Luca ignored her. He bent down, picked up the broken necklace from the floor, and turned it over in his hands with the precision of a man used to searching for flaws, traps, and lies.
The chain dangled loosely between his fingers, his thumb brushed across the pendant, testing for anything out of place. His jaw tightened.
“There’s nothing sharp here,” he muttered, more to himself than to us. His eyes lifted to me again, piercing and unreadable. “Where exactly did it hurt you?”
I turned my palm upward, embarrassed by the faint redness blooming across my skin. There was no cut, no visible wound, nothing to prove what I felt. Just the phantom ache of something that didn’t belong. “Here. When I held it.”
He stared at my hand for a long moment, his fingers brushing against mine with surprising gentleness as he examined it.
The touch sent a jolt through me, not from pain this time, but from pleasure. I quickly pulled my hand back, curling it into a fist.
Calla gave a small, almost triumphant laugh, though her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “See? There’s nothing there. Maybe she imagined it. It’s fine, stress can make the body do strange things.”
Her words dripped with casual dismissal, yet I could hear the undertone. It was either a warning or a challenge. She wasn’t just saying I was mistaken, she was also suggesting I was too fragile, which was unacceptable for a mafia’s wife.
“I didn’t imagine it,” I said firmly, lifting my chin.
Her smile faltered, but only for a second before she composed herself again. “Of course not. Maybe it’s just… coincidence.”
“Coincidence?” Luca cut in, his voice cold enough to freeze the room. His gaze flicked between Calla and me, lingering on her for a moment too long.
She looked back at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Luca, I only wanted to welcome her properly. You know how much your mother always spoke about the importance of gifts. I thought this would make her feel part of the family.”
I nearly scoffed at that. The way she emphasized part of the family sounded less like inclusion and more like a test I had already failed.
Luca didn’t answer her directly. Instead, he held the necklace out, dangling it by the chain. The pendant swung like a pendulum, glinting faintly in the dim light of his room. “Where did you get this?”
Her lashes lowered as she smiled faintly. “From a boutique in the city. A designer piece, nothing more. Why? Do you think I’d hurt her?”
The question hung in the air like smoke. My heart skipped a beat at her brazenness.
Luca studied her silently, but then his eyes softened, his tone clipped but non-accusatory. “I don’t think anything, Calla.”
Trying to ease the tension, Calla stepped closer, her smile brightening with an effort that almost looked strained. “Lana, I just wanted you to know that I accept you. I’ve been by Luca’s side since we were children. We grew up together. To me, you’re not just his fiancée, you’re someone I want to be close to. This necklace incident, let’s just forget about it.”
Her words were sweet, almost too sweet, but my instincts screamed that there was venom behind them.
“Thank you,” I forced myself to reply, though my voice came out colder than I intended.
Her smile wavered, but she quickly recovered. “How about
this? I’ll get you something else instead. I promise that it’ll really look beautiful on you.”
I glanced at the necklace still swinging between Luca’s fingers. Every part of me wanted to say no, to reject it outright. But something in her expression told me that refusal would mean more than just rejecting a gift, it would mean starting a war I wasn’t prepared to fight.
Luca must have sensed my hesitation because he spoke before I could.
"Till then.” He placed the necklace on the desk, deliberately out of reach. “For now, Lana needs rest.”