Havingbid the other Dons goodnight, leaving them to their Gurkhas and idle chatter, I enfold my sister’s ice-cold hand in mine and tug her toward the stairs.
She had sat silently at my side during the entire process, not even batting an eyelid when the arrangement with Cesare had been finalized on her behalf.
I turn to her with a confused frown when she tugs her hand from my grasp. “It’s time to retire.”
Her eyes flash with mutiny, and she steps back, putting distance between us as she shakes her head swiftly. “I need some fresh air, Rafael.”
I have no reservations about allowing her to wander the compound during Conclave. The rules of the alliance merging our families are ironclad.
To fuck with one family, you now fucked with all four. And besides, our home is more secure than ever before in terms ofSoldati.
But even so, I hesitate until she steps farther back, and a crease forms between her eyebrows. It’s the first indication all evening that she’s felt a single emotion, and I feel a tentative hope spring inside my chest.
Aurelia’s eyes flicker between mine, telling me that she wholly expects me to deny her request. When I nod my assent, the deep brown of her irises sparkles with delight for a brief flash.
“Grazie.” A minute smile accompanies her thanks before she turns and walks out the front door. I watch her close the doorbehind her before ascending the stairs and walking straight to Elodie’s suite, stopping outside the ajar door when I hear her conversing softly with Alessio.
Their mutual connection from the cruelty they’d experienced at the hands of Domenico Conti had meant that they’d bonded exceptionally quickly. Not to mention, Elodie seemed to be the only one of us able to get more than two words out of him at a time.
“The memories will fade as time passes, Alessio. Trust me. Youcanhave a normal life.” I can hear the smile in her voice when she speaks again. “I’m proof.”
“Do you move past the physical and psychological torture at some point, or do you just learn to live with it?” There’s an edge of desperation in his deep voice. “Starvation. Sensory overload. Sleep deprivation. Isolation. But none of it affected me like the waterboarding.”
I hear him take a shuddery breath as my forehead draws together in a deep frown.
“I can’t even take a damn shower, Elodie. How fucked up is that?”
ELODIE
Despite the more thanten-year age difference between myself and Rafe’s older brother, I’d felt an almost motherly protectiveness over him since the first morning I’d found him sleeping on the pantry floor.
After some gentle probing, he’d told me his own suite was far too big and the bed much too soft, following what he’d grown accustomed to whilst in captivity. And once I’d imparted someof my own Nico-related trauma, a tentative friendship had been struck up between us.
But hearing him say he couldn’t even take a basic shower without suffering flashbacks chilled me to the bone, and I quickly cross the space between us to squeeze his shoulder affectionately.
“We’ll all help you through this, Alessio. That’s what family are for.”
I can feel some of the tension drain out of his shoulders, and when he looks up at me, his eyes have a sprinkle of hope that wasn’t there before.
He rises to stand with a small smile. “Grazie, Elodie.” And as he moves to leave, the door of my suite opens to admit Rafe.
I rush to his side, going up onto my tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his scruffy cheek. “Is it done?”
Rafe nods, tugging me against his side as he addresses Alessio. “All four signed the Conclave Treaty that joins our households through marriage alliances. And it’s been decided that you will uphold the original contract Papa arranged with Salvatore.”
Alessio shrugs indifferently as I continue. “Aurelia will join with DeMarco…though not Santino as we’d presumed.”
My shocked gasp fills the room, and Alessio’s jaw grinds together before he hisses, “Cesare DeMarco as herhusband? The man is old enough to be her father, Rafael. She can’t?—”
It’s the most words Alessio has spoken in anyone else’s presence since his return, but even so, Rafe holds up a quelling palm. “It’sdone. There’s no going back now.”
Both brothers watch each other warily before Alessio nods, straightens his shoulders, and strides from the room without another word.
I close the wooden door behind him and then turn to Rafe, catching his hands in mine. When I lead him to my bed, he sits heavily before I climb up behind him to rub his tense shoulders.
“He was never going to take that well, was he?”
Rafe shakes his head. “The complexities of this fucking arrangement will give me a motherfucking stroke. Trying to keep everyone happy. Ensuring no one feels slighted.” His shoulders tighten even further. “And giving my siblings away in loveless marriages while I get to keep you,Stellina. How is that fair?”
