She’d not slept for two days. Not a wink of it. Hadn’t left the apartment since she’d moved into it in the dead of night. The only person she’d spoken to had been her cousin Francesca, to give her a brief rundown on what had happened and warn her that Siena’s apartment, which she’d given Francesca a key to, no longer belonged to her.
Her sweet, loving cousin, who’d never been as naïve as they’d all assumed, had sprung into action. Within minutes, Siena had been sent an address to go to. An apartment in Naples owned by Francesca’s fiancé, Gino. Siena could stay there for as long as she wanted.
Who’d have thought that Gino Vicario would end up being her saviour? The same Gino who’d forced his way onto the Esposito Group board and forced the Espositos into letting him buy a share in it.
That had been the moment Siena had really felt the ground shifting beneath her feet. For the first time since their father began his rise to power, the Espositos had been outsmarted.
All that energy spent on Gino when Elio had been hiding there unnoticed, waiting like a snake to strike. Gino would have to hope that Elio was amenable to working with him. As the majority shareholder of the Esposito Group by a huge margin, Elio could run it as he saw fit. He could run it into the ground if he wanted. Probably, he would.
Tommaso and Gabriella had hunkered down in Gabriella’s apartment as Siena had known they would, the same with Rico and Marisa in their farmhouse. Rico had offered Siena a home with them, but it was an offer she couldn’t take even if she wanted to. She would never be allowed to leave Naples again.
God knew where Mattia had gone. He wasn’t answering any of his phones. She supposed Elio would know. He knew everything.
The only member of her family she couldn’t let herself think about was her mother. She had to take it on trust that Elio would keep to his word and not let her suffer physically, which was a bigger irony than Gino Vicario being her saviour.
Trust Elio, the man she’d known all along not to trust, to keep his word?
Strangely, though, she did. It was the only crumb of comfort she could take from the whole sorry mess.
All her family was alive and whole. She should take comfort in that, too, but her heart was too shattered to feel anything but pain.
She’d lost everything. Her father was dead, her family fractured, their wealth and power gone. Her shattered heart couldn’t grieve any of it.
She’d known Elio hated her, had known even when they’d become true lovers that a piece of his heart would never let go of his loathing for her, but to learn it ran so much deeper than she’d ever believed lanced the soul he didn’t believe she had.
Maybe he was right about that.
Knowing she’d been born whilst her city was being sprayed in blood was something that had always sat badly in her, but learning she’d been born as Elio’s mother lay dying at her father’s hand…
Oh, God, of course he hated her for that. How could he not? Every time he looked at her, he would see his dead mother. He’d hated her since she’d taken her first breath and would carry a part of that hate until she took her last.
What made it all so much harder to bear was knowing that a part of him had developed feelings for her. He hated that she lived for what her life symbolised and hated the choices she’dmade with her life, but he hated, too, that one day he might be forced to kill her. Her once mortal enemy no longer wanted her to die.
It gave no more comfort than anything else.
The happy ending her heart had yearned for would never happen.
The happiness she’d found in Elio’s arms was gone forever.
It was a happiness built on a lie, just like the rest of her life.
* * *
Elio entered Gino’s eponymously named nightclub surrounded by his entourage. In the ten days since he’d taken control of the Espositos’ empire, his whole world had changed.
He was now one of the most powerful men in Italy. Certainly the most powerful in Naples. People treated him differently. Deference and respect were automatic.
He was still to find the euphoria he’d spent all those years waiting for.
He was at the club for a private meeting with Gino Vicario, who had a minority shareholding in the Esposito Group. Elio didn’t know Gino well, but the lengths Gino had taken to force the Espositos into selling him that shareholding proved he needed to be taken seriously. He also had contacts in their world with tentacles that ran as deep as Elio’s own.
“No Francesca?” Elio asked casually when Gino closed the door of the room their meeting was being held in.
“We agreed it would be just you and me.”
“How is she?”
Gino’s eyes turned cold. “We are not discussing my fiancée. She has nothing to do with our business.”
