Chapter One

A Marriage of Convenience

Eduardo Vincetti's fist landed squarely on my nose, breaking it and spraying blood on the white curtains of my bedroom. I had learned long ago not to fight my "loving husband's" rages. Fighting made it worse. So I landed on my butt on the carpeted floor and brought a hand to my nose at a failed attempt to stem the blood flow. "I told you Christa! I fucking told you, you stupid irish slut! But did you listen? No you fucking didn't! You never fucking listen, you dumb bitch!"

I kept my mouth closed and listened to his rant at me. I wasn't sure what I did wrong. I never was. My husband was a big Mob Boss in the italian mob. As was my father. He had decided to purge me of my Irish Catholic habits by shoving me into a marriage of convenience. Convenience for everyone but me. Usually Eduardo's rants had nothing to do with me. I was just a convenient conduit for his rage when something went wrong.

He raved on as I sat on the floor bleeding. I just looked at him but didn't listen to what he was saying. Inside my head I was praying. Praying someday I could get out of this marriage. I barely noticed when his voice went soft and hardly listened when he told me something about a "business trip." He leaned down and grabbed my face and placed a rough kiss on my lips. I didn't kiss back. I never did.

Watching in silence as he left my bedroom, I then got up and went to the bathroom to clean myself up. I studied the damage he had done to my face. My nose was definatly broken. The area surrounding my stone blue eyes was a dark purple and the white bloodshot. Plugging my nostrils to prevent further bleeding, I ran a cloth under the faucet to wash the semi-dried blood from my face. When I had fixed myself as best as I could I went to the bedroom and grabbed the phone. My fingers dialed Erika Givanni without a thought or command from me. I counted the rings, 1...2...then: "Hey Christa."

"Is Marco leaving with Eduardo?" I asked immediatly.

"Yes," she answered me. Then, "He hit you again didn't he?"

"No biggie, he just broke my nose," I answered. "Come over, we need to talk." I hung up and went to take a shower.