Page 211 of Made in Love and Blood

“Sure.”

“When did Sissy get hired? I can’t remember, it just felt like she was always there.”

“Because she was—well, from the time you were about two and half, I think.”

Frankie couldn’t remember that far back. Her earliest memories of Sissy started around four, maybe. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“So, where did Daddy find her?”

“He didn’t find her; she was given to him.”

Frankie’s finger froze in the lock of hair. “Given?”

“She belonged to a woman who provided girls to work—cleaning, nannying, sex, whatever someone needed. Whatever a man needed,” Carina clarified, glancing over at Frankie. “She came into Giorgio’s hands just shortly after Nico was born, but she wasn’t to his tastes.”

Frankie thought about all the young, female staff who had done the heavy lifting at the Russo holiday party. “When you say...belong...you don’t mean...”

“If you can’t say it, then that’s exactly what I mean.”

“But—”

“Do you know why your father has PTSD?”

Frankie went with the obvious. “I mean, his parents, my mother’s parents, his brothers...they all died within a couple of years of one another. Right?”

“That’s one reason, but Giorgio killed them,” Carina corrected, “to punish your father. For some. Others, that was just part of the plan. Anyway, when Sissy wouldn’t behave to Giorgio’s preferences, and he saw your father going through a particularly difficult time after your mother’s accident, well...he thought Sissy would fill the void.”

Flies could have found a home in Frankie’s mouth. “What?”

“I think Sal told me once the words Giorgio used were...something about taking care of the brat and warming his bed.”

“And he probably did need someone to help with me,” Frankie said quietly.

“Desperately.”

Frankie didn’t ask more questions about Sissy if only because Carina made another face, and her palm pressed hard along the side of her swollen stomach.

“I think we should call a doctor, or something,” Frankie stated firmly.

Carina nodded. “Yeah, they’re about seven minutes apart right now.”

“I knew it.”

Her stepmother only smiled weakly.

“It’s too early, though,” Frankie pointed out.

Carina just shook her head. “Not for twins, it isn’t. Thirty-five weeks and beyond is standard for a pregnancy with multiples, not to mention, my last birth came early because of a rupture in my placenta that required surgery to repair a tear in my uterus. I’m already behind the ball with this one.”

It took Frankie way too long to understand what she just heard.

“Twins? What the hell? Does Daddy know?”

Why didn’t he tell her?

Carina eyed her again, but now, her jaw trembled a bit like that pain she’d been feeling had started to intensify. “Here’s that thing I needed to tell you, okay?”