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“What is it, Romeo?”
He doesn’t meet my eyes as he hangs up but works his jaw and shakes his head. I sigh. How am I going to be his wife if he doesn’t agree to let me in? “Romeo…”
“Sometimes it’s better you don’t know things.”
“Ha.” I laugh mirthlessly. “And that’s up to you to decide?”
His eyes light up with the challenge I’ve thrown him, and his voice goes deeper. “Yeah, Vittoria. It is.” He draws in a breath, then lets it out again. “But give it time and you’ll know everything.”
Romeo raises his voice and everyone goes quiet, tucking into sandwiches and pizza.
“Mama was found with another man. He came to take her away from Papa,” he explains. “She wasn’t taken as it seemed but left voluntarily.”
“But the video footage…”
“Was staged, to make Papa think she was taken.”
Oh.
Oh.
I blink in surprise.
“Can’t blame her,” I mutter before I can stop myself. Marialena snorts. Mario grins at me.
“Vittoria,” Romeo says warningly. Then he seems to think twice about his admonition. Bending down, he braces himself on his arm and leans over me. “I’m so glad you’re alright.” He traces the edge of my jaw with his fingertips. A tingling sensation skates down my chin, down my neck, to my spine. I shiver and close my eyes when he kisses my cheek.
“Marry me, Romeo,” I whisper, for his ears only, when he kisses my other cheek. My body rises to meet his, so eager to touch him, so eager to be touched by him, I wish I could make everyone and everything else around us disappear.
“I’ll marry you right now, Vittoria. I will make you my wife. I will put my ring on your finger and give you my name. But you know what I expect. No, what I demand.”
I do. I nod. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I can handle it.
“I know,” I whisper.
He traces his finger down the side of my cheek, gently, and I can tell he’s wrestling with himself. Finally, he nods. “That call just now. I’ll tell you what it was about, and then you tell me if your answer stays the same.”
“Oh, God, you two, get a room,” Tavi says, but Rosa shoves a slice of pizza in his mouth to silence him.
My heartbeat races. What’s he going to tell me? I squirm uncomfortably, unsure of what he’ll say next. I hold my breath.
“We got a lead on Ashton Bryant. Sent one of my men to secure him.” The cool, deadly look of a man who’s not afraid of cold-blooded murder makes my mouth dry.
It was the last thing I expected him to say.
“Did you?”
“We did.”
He found him.
“You… told them to let you deal with him. You said to make sure he had a pulse.”
A muscle twitches in his jaw. “I’ll let you know more when I have details, but yeah. He’s not dead, not yet, and he’ll suffer before he dies.”
I’m overwhelmed with the knowledge that my two worlds have collided. Until now, my world before the Rossis and my world after them were two different things. And now…
He found him. He found the man that swindled me and ruined my life. He’s going to make him pay.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. Is it right that I’m relieved?
“There’s more, Torri.” I glare at Mario, but he’s giving me a brotherly grin, as if to remind me that if I’m family now I’m subject to his taunts.
“Mario,” Romeo warns. “Name’s Vittoria.”
Mario holds up his hands. “Yeah, yeah, alright. Vittoria, we’ve been looking into why you were here, why you were written into the inheritance. And the truth is, you weren’t.” I feel strangely cold. I’ve wondered this myself, but now that we’re discussing it, I’m not sure I want to know the details.
Everyone’s listening, and I realize then that Leo and Tosca aren’t here, and Nonna is missing as well; they’ve either left or been sent away by Romeo. This right here, sitting in the vast expanse of the reception room, is the next generation.
I nod. I wondered that myself. Why me? I may have an Italian name, but I didn’t know this family until recently.
I stare at Mario, trying to comprehend what he’s telling me. I don’t speak for long minutes, processing. I’m not the only one that does. Romeo is as invested in this as I am, but the look in his eyes tells me this is not the first time he’s heard this. He reaches wordlessly for my fingers and interlocks his with mine. I feel as if it’s a silent testament of solidarity. We’ve been through so much, we can get through what comes next.
“When you told Romeo about what happened to you,” Mario continues, “we began an investigation. We joined what we knew with what Orlando did, and behind the scenes we’ve been looking into why you would be written into an inheritance, when it’s the first time that’s ever happened. Up until this will reading, the inheritance of the Montavio family and anything involving the Rossis has always gone strictly to family. But this time, things were unprecedented. There were other pieces to the puzzle that we had to sort out, such as why my grandfather would bring someone else into this home. And it’s pretty simple, really.”
