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“He knew this one too, this Calliope. They met as kids too.”
I frowned trying to remember. “When?”
“Wyatt and Dona’s 7th birthday party. Remember the girl who I asked what we should do for the next party?” She stared down at me.
I thought back and nodded. “Oh right. You said then she was just a silly girl—”
“She was.” She went back to the brown-haired woman on the screen. “She told me she was going to marry into our family and become Mrs. Callahan.”
“She did?”
She nodded slowly. “I thought she was silly because almost all children and the things they want are a bit silly. However, I remember her because she had this look in her eyes. It was one of pure determination. A few days after their birthday, she left for boarding school in Italy.”
She kept tabs on her?
“You rarely care about other people’s kids—”
“I never care about other people’s kids,” she said quickly and grimaced as if she could not believe I would dare think her circle of love could be bigger than our family.
I leaned back into the cushions and rubbed my temple. “Okay, love, explain. Make me understand how all of this relates. How does her wanting to be Mrs. Callahan equal Ethan pretending to be weak? Like I said, Ethan loves strength and power—”
“So wouldn’t he love a woman who builds her own strength and power to have him?” she asked.
“The opposite of Ivy.” She sighed and shot me look. “What? Calliope, with how quickly she wiped the floor with our pitiful family, is strong. We can see this. But we cannot forget his track record when it came to women before her. First Klarissa, then Ivy, both the complete opposite of her—”
“Didn’t you sleep with women you knew you’d never marry? They were the opposite of what you would have wanted—”
She really knew how to dig up the past. Fine. “No, I slept with any pretty face with a nice body because I was worried I’d be marrying an Italian cow—”
She moved for the gun, but I dashed towards it, putting my hand on top. She glared at me and I flashed a smile at her. “Just trying to help, love.”
“Are you?” she snapped, pulling he
r hand away. “Just shut up and listen to me, I need to figure this out…”
“The simplest answer…” She bared her teeth at me and I lifted my hands and sat back, but not before taking the gun with me.
“Klarissa Moretti, she came from an Italian family, but her father was trying to appeal to the other Italian families for years…”
“Should have killed him years ago…” I muttered to myself and she again faced me. “Right sorry—”
“No, you’re right.” She pointed to me.
Say what now? “Excuse me, can you repeat that?” I laughed.
She ignored me, pacing slowly in front of the television. “If it was me, if it was us and Moretti pulled any of the shit he’s pulled over the last few years, we would have had him limbless in the streets. But Ethan didn’t. Instead he dated his daughter. Why?”
I opened my mouth to speak but said nothing. Washing my hands in the ice bucket, I picked up the plate of grapes, kicking back and watching her think.
“Ethan would know that dating his daughter would give Moretti more clout, but he did it anyway. He was never serious about marrying her or he would have done it. However, killing her outright her would just provoke Moretti so why not just kill them and save yourself the stress? She wouldn’t have that much information; her father would have kept her in the dark purposely just in case Ethan was using her for intel. So again, there was no point…” She looked to me as I slid the grape between my lips. “Unless he didn’t want people to blame him for the death of the Morettis….at first. But if Ivy did it, that’s still the same…”
“Well,” I spit the seed out on the tray before adding, “he used and threw away Klarissa, embarrassing her. Then after that embarrassment, he kills her. Her father is enraged. I’m sure his old Italian heart broke for his little girl…ha…sorry. You’d think as father of a daughter I’d feel for him, but I’m sure it made it all the easier for Donatella to find out how he was betraying us with Tobias.”
I paused, my eyebrows coming together as I looked to her and she gave me the same look.
The son of bitch…fuck, I can’t say that…the bitch is also my wife. Fuck how do I curse that boy?
“He did it for Donatella.” She finished my thought.
