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“I’m doing what’s best for my family. That’s the end of it. I don’t want to discuss it anymore.”
With that, I turn and look out the window as I begin to brood.
I’ll deal with Cian in my own way…
Whether Wren likes it or not.
37
DMITRI
Even when I accept and hear his voice, I can’t believe the motherfucker is calling me.
“Vittorio.”
His breath stalls for a moment. “Dmitri. I didn’t expect you to pick up.”
“I am the one you wanted to speak to, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but you’ve been so… unavailable recently.”
“Only for people I consider a waste of my time.”
“Really, now,” Vittorio says with a familiar chuckle. “How could you say such a thing to a man who was going to be your father-in-law?”
“I dodged a bullet there,” I snarl. “Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for your daughter.”
“I don’t understand why you’re so angry. I did you a favor.”
If he were in front of me now, I would wrap my hands around his throat and release pressure only when his eyeballs have exploded from their sockets.
“Now,” he continues, “you don’t have to be married to a raging dyke. You can fuck whoever you want, whenever you want. You’re welcome.”
“That was always the plan, asshole.”
Vittorio laughs, though it sounds more like a dying man’s wheeze. “Ah, I see. You were going to marry her, pass off that whore’s baby as my grandchild, steal my empire under the guise of inheritance… and then what? Kill me off after a year or two? Maybe just poison me in my sleep?”
“Oh, it was going to be a lot more painful than that.”
“I appreciate the innovativeness. I bet my daughter came up with it all on her own?”
“Your daughter was fucking brilliant,” I spit. “She was smart, funny, capable, and ruthless—but only when she needed to be. She was everything you are not. She would have been twice the don that you are.”
“She was a fucking woman.” His friendly, wheedling tone slips for a moment—but only a moment before he pulls it right back in place. “She couldn’t have led men.”
“Just goes to show you didn’t know a fucking thing about her.”
“I’ll give her this much: she didn’t make a sound when I lashed her. There were men who screamed and begged me to stop… but Beatrice? She risked biting her tongue off rather than betraying an ounce of pain. She was strong that way.”
“A lot fucking stronger than you know.”
“I don’t get it.” He sounds genuinely baffled. “What did you get out of that arrangement? Was it all for my empire, my legacy?”
I snort. “In your fucking dreams. I didn’t need to take anything from you. Anything I decide I want, I build myself.”
“So then, you and Beatrice, it was just?—”
“It’s called friendship, Zanetti,” I hiss. “It’s called family. Not that you’d know anything about either one.”
