Page 197 of Made in Love and Blood

“I see it.”

“No, you don’t. What you do is challenge and torture him for the smallest mistakes and then offer crumbs of approval and praise after he’s done the very most to make up for whatever you saw as wrong in the first place. Marco, on the other hand—”

“I’ve had about enough of your Marco tirades tonight,” the boss interjected darkly.

Salvatore clasped his hands at his middle and chose to have the last word. Even if it meant he would pay for it later. “I get it, Giorgio. Marco’s your favorite. You look at him and see the life you wanted with the woman you chose, killed for, and then you killed her. And he was all she ever gave you. You look him, and you see yourself. He is the reflection you enjoy. And then there’s Nico. And we both know who you see when you look at him, don’t we? You know because he’s proof, and you tried to love him, you did for a while, but she wouldn’t come back to you, and he took the brunt. But that’s not his fault, Giorgio. You did that to her, too. And you love to make him pay for it.”

“Okay, that’s quite enough.”

That subject did typically bring the end to any conversation with Giorgio. Even if the topic of his abuse of Carina as a girl, and later, woman, was only talked around.

“I agree,” Salvatore said. “This is getting tiring.”

Marco, and his unfortunate date, reappeared at the sitting room bar for another round of drinks. Despite the party winding down and guests beginning to leave, those two appeared to be just getting started.

“She’s not even legal age,” Salvatore pointed out.

“Who cares?”

And then Carmen skipped into the room, Vanna following close behind, to say goodnight to her father. He reached for the tiredly smiling girl as if to pick her up and put her in his lap.

“No thanks, Daddy,” Carmen said, not ashamed or scared to refuse Giorgio, “Mama says I shouldn’t sit in anyone’s lap anymore. Even yours.”

“Did she now?”

Vanna said nothing, just stared. Daring him to...do something. She could cut glass with her gaze.

Giorgio sighed as he put his attention back on Carmen. “All right, a hug, then?”

That, he got.

“Night, Daddy.”

“Night, baby. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Don’t forget to say goodnight to your brothers.”

“I will,” she promised, turning back to her mother.

Once the two had gone from the sitting room, Giorgio reverted to his previous position, watching his son. Except now, he watched Marco and the date he brought along.

“Even she’s proof of what I said, she’s a way to hurt his brother; to humiliate him, to remind him of what he’s done to Nico.”

“I know,” Giorgio murmured.

The confession just about knocked Salvatore straight off his feet.

“But he’s going to need that, isn’t he?” Giorgio asked after a moment. “He’s going to need the kind of skin not even someone like Marco could bite through. Hell, he might even thank me for it,” the man added. “Someday.”

Salvatore remained quiet.

“Go dance with your daughter,” the boss said, then.

Finally, the dismissal he’d been waiting for. He certainly fucking earned it.

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