Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Let them go. If I have to tell you again—”
Warily, Federico obeys, as do the others.
“All of you, sit down. No weapons unless it’s necessary. None of you pulls a weapon on my family.” I jerk my head toward Mario. “Get Gloria on the line.” Then toward Federico. “And you let us hear the conversation with Cristiano and my mother.”
Mario gets Gloria on Facetime. She answers immediately, sitting at a large desk surrounded by monitors. At first, she doesn’t speak, but when she sees all of us, she addresses Mario.
“Mario, what’s going on here?”
“We need to dig into the intel you gave us.”
When she tips her head to the side curiously, he continues. “Where did you get the footage showing Capo with Penny Marcioni?”
“From the club.”
Her fingers are already flying over a keyboard while the monitors behind her flash. “They allowed me access to their— oh. Oh, shit.”
“What, babe?” Mario’s pacing.
“We were given this footage when I asked club security, and they were pretty easy to convince,” she says with a sigh. “I should’ve known better. God. The time stamp’s been tampered with. I didn’t think to check it.”
“What does that mean?” Mario asks.
“It means the footage was from a few days prior to the day she met Marialena,” I supply. “I’d never met Castellano’s daughter. I was introduced to her as such. My mother and Cristiano arranged the marriage when I was away, and I knew it was the next logical step. As far as I knew, she escaped, and Marialena was to blame. I acted on that knowledge.”
Romeo exchanges a look with his brothers.
“You don’t have to believe me,” I tell them. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. We already know someone’s fucked with the time stamp, making it look like I was corroborating with her. So no one sent this to you, Gloria?”
“I got an anonymous tip,” she says on a sigh. “Ugh. I fucked this all up, I am so sorry.”
The message my mother sent to the Rossis is sitting right in Gloria’s goddamn inbox.
“It’s not your fault,” Mario says, glaring at me as if to challenge me to defy him. “Gloria, stand by,” Mario instructs as Federico holds up his hand.
“Go.”
He taps a button on a small speaker and my mother and Cristiano’s voices fill the small room. Cristiano has no idea we put a small microphone on him when he was still unconscious. The plan is for him to be alone with my mother to see if they’ll give us anything to go on.
“As of right now, he believes Marialena interfered with his wedding with Erica Castellano. He believes he’s justified in taking her, but he’s pissed because he knows the Rossis killed his father.”
“Right. Perfect. Rossi will see the footage soon and know that Salvatore tricked them, only he doesn’t know the Rossis believe that yet. Rossi may be holding back his trump card. Now we have the Rossis and Salvatore convinced each betrayed the other.”
The voices become jumbled, and it’s hard to hear them.
“—kill each other, we win.”
Romeo and I meet each other’s eyes as their underhanded plan unfolds before us.
“They wanted me to marry you,” I tell Marialena. “Wanted our family wed to the Rossis. I wanted that, too.” I blow out a breath. Romeo looks at his brothers. “I didn’t know your family was responsible for my father’s death. Did you, Romeo? Nothing but the truth, brother.”
“Not until tonight. Yes, I knew my father killed someone back in the quarry. We never identified who it was. I was a kid. My only concern was that my father didn’t get caught, because I knew he’d be put away.”
“They wanted you to think I set you up. They wanted to cause a war between us.” I shake my head.
“Why?” Romeo asks.
“Because his cousin wants the throne,” Marialena says through clenched teeth. “They knew it would be a lot easier to get rid of Salvatore if they could blame you. If the two of you fought each other because of revenge. Him, because our family was responsible for his father’s death. You, because he set you up.” She shakes her head and gives me a sidelong look. “What should we do about that, husband?”
I love when she calls me husband.
“We go out. We confront each other. We get them close enough to believe we’re going to do exactly what they wanted us to.” I scowl. “Then you’ll let me handle the rest.”
Romeo nods. “And in the end?”
“Let’s get to the end first.”
CHAPTER
Marialena
I knew he couldn’t trust them, but I had no idea they would stoop so far, so low. I should know better, though. These are the lives we lead. These are the roles we play. Betrayal and revenge are our sun and moon, orchestrating our days and lives.
Me, though? If I had my way? Loyalty and love will always prevail. And I will work hard to see that through.