It's a Fugly Life (Fugly #2)(41)

“Yes. Because I can offer you a real life with a real family. Not some broken twisted devil for a mother-in-law and a lying sister.”

Oh crap. Now was not the time to be talking trash about Max’s sister.

Before I could say a word, Max charged Patricio and knocked him to the ground. This time, it wasn’t funny or sexy or entertaining. It was f*cking scary because I’d never seen Max so enraged.

He pulled back his fist and landed a punch right on Patricio’s neck.

Oh f*ck. I lunged forward and grabbed Max’s hand as he cocked his fist. “Stop! You’re going to kill him!”

Diverted by my tugging, Max’s fist landed on Patricio’s shoulder while Patricio gasped for air.

“Max! Stop it!”

“You f*cking wanna talk about my sister, you motherf*cker?” Max landed another punch right on Patricio’s jaw. “You f*cking used her! She was f*cked up and you only made it worse.”

I could see the fear in Patricio’s eyes and white-hot rage in Max’s. I didn’t know what to do.

“Stop! I’m pregnant!” I belted out.

Max’s fist halted in midair, but he didn’t look at me. Panting, he glared down at Patricio, hate radiating from Max’s every pore.

“Max, did you hear me? I’m pregnant. And yes, it’s yours. So please get the hell off of him before you make more problems.” God knew we didn’t both need to end up in jail and with arrest records. I mean, what a complete bummer that would be for our kid. Don’t mommy and daddy look so nice in orange, sweetie? We can’t wait to hug you when you’re five once we’re free!

Panting, Max remained frozen over Patricio.

“Please,” I whispered with a controlled calm, “get off of him.”

Max slowly rose, and Patricio rolled to his stomach, still gasping.

I didn’t know exactly what I expected next, but Max turned away from me.

“Where are you going?” I asked, watching him head up the stairs. “Max, say something. I’m f*cking pregnant.”

Without looking at me, he stopped mid-step. “That is very unfortunate.” He disappeared upstairs.

I felt my heart drop through a giant gaping hole in my chest and stomach and smash to the floor. I didn’t know what to say or do or…

Patricio, hacking for his life and grabbing at his neck, caught my attention.

I let out a breath and then kneeled down. “Are you okay? Can you breathe?”

He nodded. “I told you, Lily. The Coles are poison,” he whispered with a hoarse voice.

I bobbed my head. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Are you really pregnant?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered. “And please don’t call me a puttana this time, or I will stomp on your nuts.”





By the time we pulled up to the ER, about twenty minutes from Max’s house, Patricio was breathing again and insisted he would be fine. “I cannot afford the bad press right now.”

I was in no mood to argue with the man, and the grief in Patricio’s eyes guilted me into taking the same flight home with him versus the first flight out in the morning. Patricio still had family in town, back in L.A., and plans in the morning, so he couldn’t wait.

As for me, I needed to be home with people who cared about me. I was pregnant, and as I sat next to Patricio on the plane home, all I could think about was what a mistake I’d made with Max. Or maybe I hadn’t? Seeing Max nearly kill Patricio—probably similar to the first time when they were younger—and then walk away from me like that had shown me a side of him that was uglier than anything I’d ever seen before. Maybe I needed this to happen in order to close the doors on us—on him—once and forever, though that was not what I wanted.

Yeah, but you can’t pretend that that didn’t just happen. And Christ! I was going to have his baby. We’d be linked for life, one way or another.

“You will be okay, Lily.” From the seat next to me, Patricio patted my hand. He looked like hell and had bruises on his neck and face, but his green eyes were happy.

“Are you gloating?” I seethed.

He shrugged.

Eeesh. Men.

“I am not happy to see your heart broken, Lily, but I am happy that you now see the truth. Maxwell Cole is not a good man.”

Funny, Max had said the same thing about Patricio.

“Well, maybe he’s not, but that doesn’t change anything.” My heart hurt so much that it took everything I had not to cry. My mind kept replaying the image of Max walking away from me. “How can a man say he loves you and then just…turn his back like that?”

“I thought you met his mother?” Patricio said.

I waited for him to elaborate.

“She taught him to be exactly like her,” he said. “And he is. You can’t change him.”

I never believed I could. I had believed that he could.

I rubbed my face and tried to let it all go. I mean, Jesus. I was pregnant. And my life was a goddamned mess. I’d have to return to Chicago and go through a trial. A criminal trial.

When we landed, Patricio and I got in my car in silence, I paid the airport bill of nearly seven hundred dollars—ouch—and drove Patricio to his house. It was almost two in the morning, but his home was on the way.