It had been over a week since the last time I had seen Carson. A week since we slept together, and we still shared a room together. The first two days, I had tried to talk to him, to see him, but he would always be busy, or never around.

I rubbed my sweaty palms on my dark jeans and looked down at my nude heels. My legs were trembling at the fact that I was about to see Carson. I could hear his low voice on the phone from inside of his office. I brought my shaky fist up and knocked, barely audible, but Carson heard it. "Come in." He grumbled out and I opened the door, but his back was to me. "What do you want?" He inquired, without turning, which meant that he still didn't know it was me.

"Um, I was j-" I barely go to say what I was here for when Linia barged through.

"Intruder!" He said out of breath, his gun in his hand as he grabbed my arm. "Come one, Silvano will take you upstairs." Linia had begun to drag me out.

"I'll take her." Carson stepped forward and I was glad he did. I didn't want to be with Silvano anymore, he talked too much. All I got from spending time with him were bad ideas and doubts about my stay here. "Take them downstairs and tie them up, then wait for me." He ordered and took a hold of my arm, bringing me upstairs in a rush.

"Carson, we need to ta-" I felt his hand clamp down on my mouth to prevent me from speaking.

"Someone's here." He whispered against me and pulled me up the stairs while still clamping a hand over my mouth. I felt a scream get caught in my throat when I saw a large shadow coming towards me and I lifted my leg to kick with my heels when a large hand wrapped around my ankle completely.

"Chill, woman. You almost pounded a hole in my leg." Silvano appeared beside me and Carson cursed as he let go of my arm and unclamped his hand from my mouth.

"Carson!" I hissed as he made his way downstairs. "We need to talk!" I raised my voice, and he turned to me.

"Ayva, stay quiet and let Silvano take you to the room." He snapped and continued trudging down the stairs.

"The intruder is caught, what's the deal?" I hissed to myself, but Silvano answered.

"We still don't know if he's the only one." He pushed my back to force me to go up the stairs.

That happened the day after my gun lesson with Silvano, two days after we slept together. The third day, my second attempt at trying to talk to him, also failed.

"Ayva, I'm in an important meeting, what do you want?" Carson stared down at me from outside his office. I was caught aback by his rudeness and suddenly, I heard my backbone drop.

"It wasn't important." I replied quietly as he grunted before turning back around and shutting the door in my face. I could hear his loud voice boom from the inside, and I cursed at myself. Why couldn't have I just confronted him, and gotten over his rudeness?

Now, as I sipped on my margarita, I looked around the casino. Despite the fact that it was the middle of the week and that it was pretty early, it was still full of people gambling and drinking. After my shopping trip with Linia, he left me alone to put up all of my clothes away, but I left the room and came down here. I wasn't sure why I did, maybe because I wanted to drink, or maybe because I wanted to cause panic among Carson, Linia and Silvano. Perhaps that'd make Carson try to talk to me.

I had quit trying to get his attention, at least directly, because I kept going at it in a more discreet way. Not that it was working, Carson only seemed bothered to have to deal with me, and to even see me. I couldn't understand that man. First, he was all up on me, or maybe it was me, I don't know anything anymore.

"Another one?" The young bartender that had served me the night of my engagement asked again.

"Please." I gave him my empty glass. I wasn't trying to get drunk, just trying to forget about a couple of things. Why oh why was I not drunk the night Carson and I had sex? That would've made things easier. "Hey, can I ask you a question?" I called to the young man. He nodded, and I frowned, "tell me your name."

"George, Mrs. Vescovi." He said politely and I laughed.

"Well, George, I'm not a Vescovi yet, but call me Ayva." I winked and he nodded, a small smile appearing on his thin lips. "Tell me, if you slept with a girl, then left, and never paid attention to her, what does that mean? To you, as guys, I mean?" I downed my third margarita, feeling my vision blur a tiny bit. "Whoa, I need some water." I gripped the counter as George obediently placed a water bottle in front of me.

"It was just a fling. Just a one-time thing." He shrugged and I frowned.

"But you're marrying her."

Realization dawned on his face about who I was talking about, but I didn't care. "Maybe he's just busy, per-"

"Why would you do it?" I asked. "We're talking about you, of course." I reminded him and opened my water.

"Of course," he nodded, smiling as he dried a glass. "Well," he paused and grabbed another one. "I'd do it because I don't have time to pay attention to her an-"

"Don't sugarcoat." I narrowed my eyes, and he sighed.

"The truth?" He raised his brows, warning me that I wasn't going to like the answer.

"I only asked for that." I pleaded, sure that I'd get over it. It was just sex.

"I didn't like it. I don't want to do it anymore." He didn't look me in the eye and I felt my heart drop. "Lost interest, is a better way of saying it. Doesn't mean she was bad j-" he babbled, but I finished for him.

"Just found someone better." I glared at the view across the casino.

Carson was sitting on a sofa with men surrounding him with drinks. They were all laughing, but there were folders on the glass table in the middle. That's not even what I was getting all worked up about. It was the whore on his lap. The blonde woman pushed her big boobs in his face and he didn't even bother moving her away. Why would he want to? I laughed humorlessly, she had everything. A slim waist, big boobs, blonde hair, I could almost see her big, blue eyes and imagine her tiny nose with the big, plump lips.

Here I sat, all pathetic with my plain, black hair. My eyes didn't shine when the light hit them like brown and blue eyes did. My body was slim, but I didn't have the overbearing bust she had. Much less her confidence. The way she leaned down to kiss his jaw as his arm was wrapped around her made me want to cry. Cry out of anger that while he was sitting over there with a beautiful blonde bimbo, I was wondering what I had done wrong the other night.

I watched painfully as Carson leaned up and said something in her ear as she nodded eagerly.

Fine, I tore my eyes off them and lifted myself off my seat. He can fuck her for all I care. I hope she runs of out breath and dies. Or maybe his dick can break inside of her.

I rushed upstairs and ran into the bedroom. "There you are." Silvano ran a hand through his hair. "You had me worried. I was just about to call the Boss." He said, his phone in his hand.

I turned around and scoffed, "yeah, don't do that. He's busy." I snapped, hastily ripping off my purse from a hanger so hard that the plastic broke in half. "He told me to go find something to do, so we're going to go eat lunch."

"Where is he?"

"Working! I already told you this Silvano, let's go!" I snapped and rushed out of the room. "From all of the talking you do, I'm sure you've forgotten how to listen!" I walked out to the front of the building where a black Escalade was parked.

"Someone's moody." Silvano muttered and got inside, turning it on. "Where to?" He said, leaving the parking space as the guards gave him a nod and let us out.

"You know that cafe down where the mall is?" I said, trying to find the cafe farthest away.

"All the way down there?" Silvano groaned, but I didn't respond. I didn't want to talk anymore, I wanted to be far, far away from all of this. I didn't care how I achieved it, but I wasn't planning on sticking around.