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Roberto sips his wine and shrugs. “Given what Knox was told about me from his mother I understand his reasons and I commend him for it because I would have done the same thing.”
“This makes zero sense,” I growl.
“Let me make it make sense.” I pin him with a deadpan look, he smiles but continues. “As the head of the Da Luca family, I had a target painted on my back always. Clara was my world and I couldn’t let her go. Loving her was putting her in danger but I didn’t care, I needed her. Then the twins came. I was overjoyed. I had my son, my heir but I also had my little princess, my daddy’s girl,” he says wistfully.
“Why do I get the feeling you never hurt them?” He drops his gaze to his plate and shoves his pasta around.
“I did hurt them. I made Clara hate me.”
“Why?”
“I tried to get her to leave but she wouldn’t. She said we could overcome anything as long as we had each other but not this, we could never overcome this.”
“If you agree to marry me, I can get rid of Gio and stop him from going after my daughter. I need you to help me save my twins. I’m not the monster they think me to be. Help me, please, I beg you. You said that to me the night of the accident, why? Did it have something to do with you pushing Clara away?”
He nods sadly and slowly lifts his gaze back to mine. “I made her hate me. I told her if she didn’t leave I would kill her and put my own daughter out on the street to turn tricks.” I gasp and cover my mouth with my hand as I stare at him in horror.
“You are one sick fuck,” I sneer.
“I would never have done it.”
“Then why the hell would you say that?” I snap suddenly feeling so freaking angry on Clara’s behalf.
“Because my brother was trying to hurt my family so I would step down. I forced her to leave and take my children with her so they would be safe. Giovani and I have never seen eye to eye, we both had our parts to play in the crime world so no one would know we were divided. He wanted to hurt Clara and my children just to get to me and I couldn’t allow that. I didn’t give a fuck about titles or what being the don meant. If he had touched a single fucking hair on my daughter’s head I would have killed him and allowed my men to exact their pound of flesh willingly for breaking the code.”
“What the fuck happened, Roberto. None of this is making sense.”
“In my world, you cannot kill another family member no matter what they have done. I couldn’t kill my brother so I did the only thing I could, I chased her away and forced her to hate me… I needed her to. I knew as the children grew older and asked questions she would tell them I was a monster. I wanted that so they would never come looking for me. For a time, things settled between Gio and me, but I was still trying to find a way to get rid of him without costing me my life.”
“Why?”
His features harden as he stares at me. “If a Da Luca Don disgraces his family then he is taken out but not just him, the men would have hunted Clara and the children down and eradicated my whole bloodline, it’s our way.”
“That is fucking barbaric!”
“It was the only way I knew until Knox took over—he changed everything.”
“Why did he try to kill you?”
Roberto sighs. “I believe it’s because he thought I wouldn’t help him look for the people responsible for his sister's death. He didn’t even give me a chance to explain, one second I was stunned at the sight of him being in front of me and then the next I heard Gio shouting for the men to take him out. I spun around to tell them not to touch him and that’s when he shot me. I never had a chance to explain anything. He allowed Gio to live and to take some men with him as a show of good faith. Knox thought I was dead, turns out when he had his friends dump my body at the morgue, I wasn’t dead and they managed to save me.”
I stare at him in a whole new light, he gave up the love of his life and the chance of watching his children grow up because he was protecting them.
“But Gio helped Clara—” I clamp my mouth shut at the angry look he shoots me.
“No the fuck he didn’t. She thinks it was him but it was me. I hated that she thought it was my brother but I couldn’t correct her. I allowed everyone to think I was dead so I could protect Knox from the shadows. I knew after he thought he had killed me that he would take over but I also know my brother, there was no way he would allow my son to reign as the Don.”
“What the hell did any of this have to do with me?” I ask, exasperated.
“Percy was working with me, he started as my real estate developer. I had enough dirt on him that I knew he could never go against me but what I didn’t know was my brother was fronting the cash for Percy’s side business. The real estate company became a front for his more lucrative business.”
“Which is?”
“Your father has a tech company that designs apps… Those apps are used to buy women and children.” I gasp, disgust rolling through me and bile threatens to spill from my mouth. “Giovani has always had a thing for… younger girls, preferably before they have reached puberty.” I gag and cover my mouth, tears prick the backs of my eyes. “He and your father have made millions. The Irish and English still use your father’s company. The Russians used to and so did the Americans, until Tony Murdoch fell and his son took over. Bishop has made it his life's mission to shut down the skin trade, but with how Gio and Percy operate the auctions now there is no stopping it. Karl is still protecting them because through your father’s app he makes a shitload of money without having to get his hands dirty.”
“I will ask again, why the fuck were you there with me that night?” I grit out through clenched teeth. Roberto meets my angry stare with a look of sadness that has me on edge.
“You led my brother and Percy to my son.” Shock ripples through me.
