Page 124 of Unravel Me

Put together, the two pieces would almost certainly form a heart shaped like an ornamental leaf.

"Where did you get this?" I ask, because there's still one thin veil of uncertainty standing between me and the answer.

Mauro types a single sentence.

"My dad gave it to me when I was seven years old, after Uncle Renato had gifted it to him. It was the same day my parents died."

I swallow.

"But…" I whisper. "But… how?"

How could he possibly have that necklace?

My trembling hand rises to the one hanging around my own neck, and I clutch it tightly.

There’s only one fucking possibility.

"Are you… him?"

The question tears itself out of me in a shaking, breaking voice as my entire world begins to spin.

Mauro slowly nods.

Darkness crashes over me in the very next instant.

I collapse, but Mauro lunges forward fast enough to catch me before my head can hit the floor.

◆◆◆

I come back to myself little by little, emerging from a fog so thick it feels almost sticky.

The truth is, I don't think I want to wake up. I don't want to face everything that's just come crashing down on me.

But eventually I have to, because my body insists on living. I slowly open my eyes and find Silvio's face leaning over me.

Mauro is right beside him. Both of them are watching me with obvious concern.

Everything slams back into me in a single heartbeat.

So Mauro isn't simply the heir to a man who owns lumber mills and a construction company…

He’s a mafioso.

I knew before that Renato's omega brother married someone in the mafia and had four sons. But that knowledge was somewhere in the back of my mind, vague and distant. Now it hits me on the head.

What is he, exactly? A soldier? An associate? Or something even closer to the crime family? There are different mafia families in the States, but as for Sicilian ones… I’ve heard of only one, the most famous and powerful.

The Ferros.

The thought nearly freezes the blood in my veins. I pull myself free of Silvio's arms, sit upright, and clench my jaw.

"Sweetheart, how are you feeling?" Silvio asks softly. "I know this must be a terrible shock. And the way we've acted from the very beginning, as though we already knew who you were and had been waiting for you, must have been incredibly confusing."

"It was," I say through a throat so dry it barely lets the words out.

But now that I finally see the bigger picture, the confusion gives way to frustration. I have to let it out. I have to.

I turn toward Mauro.