Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 133

I head down for dinner just before six o'clock, having spent the majority of my day laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling. But unlike the last time I did that, this day's staring was fueled by melancholy, not rage, which is...way worse. Because while anger makes me

seek solutions and want to tear the world to pieces, being sad and worried just feels...hopeless.

I'm still sighing as I push open the door to the kitchen, and it only gets worse when I realize that my cozy sweater and jeans were apparently not the correct attire for the evening. Natalia sweeps towards the patio carrying a basket of bread and wearing a flowing floral dress with not a speck of pasta sauce on it, despite cooking all afternoon. She sees me and immediately smirks, running her eyes over me like the unkempt ragamuffin that I probably seem to her.

I just take a deep breath and move immediately to the big fridge in the galley kitchen that I know holds the wine. As I get there, I see that Daniel has beaten me to it, closing the door and smiling at me when he sees me. "Hey," he says, holding up the chilled bottle of white wine in his hand. "You want a glass?"

"Can you pour me two?" I ask, quirking my head to the side and blinking at him innocently.

Daniel laughs at me and just shrugs, taking two wine glasses down from the rack and pouring one much fuller than the other. "Why so blue, Fay?" he asks, bumping his shoulder against mine. "You okay?"

"I don't know," I sigh, looking up at him and opening my mouth to tell him what Ivan said about the threat to his family, but before I can begin Natalia is back, her eyes instantly on the wine glass in my hand.

"Fay," she says, clicking her tongue at me as she bends down to open the oven. "Don't you know that those classes are only meant to be filled to the widest point? You will ruin the flavor."

"I poured it, Natalia," Daniel says, leaning back against the counter and giving her a friendly smile. But just shrug and drain the glass of half of its contents, until the wine indeed only reaches the widest point in the glass. "There," I say, giving her a wide and false smile. "Better?"

Natalia laughs a little at my joke but, as she moves past Daniel and I with a hot dish of lasagna she whispers a new dig. "There is nothing worse than a drunk woman, Fay," she informs me, giving me a sad little look. "You should watch your drinking. We worry for you."

And then she's gone and I bare my teeth and snap at the air after her, making Daniel laugh.

"Damn," he says, shaking his head after her. "She is going in for you tonight."

"Is a drunk woman worse than a murderess of obnoxious Italians?" I murmur, narrowing my eyes to a lower "Let's find out." And then I drain my glass. Daniel just obligingly gives me a refill as Kent comes around the corner, peering into the kitchen.

He frowns at us as I wipe my mouth with my sleeve and Daniel pours wine freely into my glass.

"Do I want to know?" Kent asks, looking between us.

"Nope," Daniel says, giving him a bright grin.

Kent just takes a deep breath, raising his eyebrows, and walks towards the patio.

"Come on," Daniel says, wrapping a supportive arm around my shoulders. "Let's go eat. You need to soak up that wine."

"No," I murmur, stubborn and not willing to give up my melancholy just yet. "Liquid dinner for Fay tonight. The drunker I am, the less time I have to spend conscious with her."

Daniel just grins and I wrap my arm around his waist, pleased to have my best friend by my side in these trying times.

When I step outside to the patio, though, any start to a good mood that Daniel raised in me begins to be wiped away by the sight of Natalia pressed close to Kent's side. I scowl a little when I see her laughing up into his face, raising a hand to tuck his hair behind his ear like she did last night at that horrible dinner.

But I stop dead in my tracks when I see Kent smiling down at Natalia in response, his hand on the small of her back, tucking her body in close next to his.

Daniel comes quickly back to my side when he realizes that I've stopped moving, clutching my shoulder more tightly and pulling me with him this time. "Keep moving, Fay," he murmurs to me, his voice serious and low enough so that only I can hear. "Your my fiancé tonight, remember?"

And then I scowl again, realizing that he's right. That I have no reason, on the surface, to mind that Kent is looking down at Natalia like the long-lost-love she might very well be.

So I turn my attention back to Daniel, taking another big swig out of my glass of wine as he leads me over to the table and seats me down with him.

"Gonna be a long dinner, isn't it," I murmur to my fiancé as we watch Natalia put a fond hand on Kent's cheek before heading again into the kitchen to get more food.

"At least there's gonna be a show," Daniel mutters back, drinking his own wine now.

Kent comes over to the table then, taking his place at the head, not bothering to acknowledge either of us as he takes out his phone and flicks through his messages, clearly preoccupied.

"Seriously?" I say to Daniel and Kent, and both look up at me at the same time with matching Lippert stares. "We're doing this?" I ask, looking between father and son. "We're just...having dinner again? Ignoring the fact that last night she ordered my father's assassination and ended my engagement?"

"What would you suggest, Fay?" Kent murmurs, putting his phone down on the table and turning his heavy attention to me completely.

My mouth falls open, ready to respond, before I realize that...I don't have any answers. I don't have a suggestion for what we should be doing instead. I sputter for a couple of seconds before Daniel comes to my aid.

"She's right, dad," he says, sighing and leaning back in his chair as he takes another deep sip of his wine. "It's kind of ridiculous to expect us to sit here and play nice, considering what went down last night."

"Well," Kent says, leaning back and studying us. "You're free to go, if you want," he says, giving a little shrug and a smirk. "If you're feeling...cowardly."

I glare at him a little, falling for his taunt even though I know precisely what it is.

Daniel opens his mouth to protest, but Kent cuts smoothly in. "Listen, I hear you both, okay? But the Bianci family is an incredibly important ally that I absolutely cannot afford to alienate completely, no matter how much they've pissed you off. And Daniel," he says, looking at him closely now, "they are your family. Whether or not they've made you mad, you are tied to them for life. I would suggest you find a way to create a middle ground, especially with Alessi if not Natalia."

"And what about me?" I ask, curious and a little miffed that Daniel is getting personalized mafia advice when I am not.

"You, Fay," he says, smirking at me. "I'm getting the impression that you'll make your own decisions regardless of my advice."

"Doesn't mean I don't want it just so I can do the opposite," I say, narrowing my eyes at him and making him laugh. But even as Kent laughs a little, and Natalia comes back through the door, Alessi at his heels, I don't miss the fact that Daniel frowns at me, just a little. And I realize that Kent, in that moment....

Well, that intentionally or not, he communicated to both of us that he has a little more faith in me to make my own choices than he does his own son.

But there's no time to discuss this - not really - as Natalia places a large bowl of salad on the table and then promptly sits down on Kent's lap, wrapping her arm around his neck and pretending that this is a normal thing in the Lippert house. Kent, to my displeasure, wraps a steady arm around her waist - as casual as a friend but, with the way he lets his thumb rub slowly up and down against her ...

I turn away from the sight and finish my second glass of wine, doing my best to keep my face impassive.

But I place my empty glass on the table and nod at it, silently indicating to Daniel that I'm going to need a heck of a lot more wine if I'm supposed to get through this.