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“He didn’t want your father to have a role anymore,” I say softly. “Right?”
“He wanted Romeo to be the boss. The Don.”
“We all did,” Tavi says softly.
“So what does this all have to do with Ashton? I don’t understand.”
Romeo continues to stroke his thumb over the top of my hand, but he doesn’t look at me this time.
Mario clears his throat. He continues. “You know there was no Ashton. You know the man that pretended to be with you was no real person. You know that he swindled you, but what you don’t know is that he was working with our enemies.”
“Let’s cut to the chase.” Romeo’s voice pierces through the darkness in the room. All eyes are on him, but he’s looking at me. He will not shy away from difficult conversations.
“I’m going to be the one that tells you, Vittoria. Our enemies were in league with a lawyer who fabricated everything, including my grandfather’s will. It was an elaborate, detailed plan, but there’s a reason why even my mother and grandmother didn’t know about it. You were set up. They used you as a pawn.”
My voice is hollow. “So the swindling didn’t end with Ashton.”
He shakes his head. “We believe the plan was for the man who pretended to be Ashton Bryant to set you up to get my grandfather’s money, take the throne away from my father, and then to use everything against him.”
“So I’m not in the world. That was part of the whole farce.”
Romeo blows out a breath and nods. When he speaks his voice is pained. “Yeah, baby. They set it up so they had access to your accounts, and if they could make you inherit the money, they’d take that, too.”
“Who is this?”
Romeo looks at Mario. “We’re still deciphering that, but we’ll find out when we question the man we brought here tonight. The same one you were once engaged to. The man called Ashton worked with my family’s rivals.”
“They used me.”
“They did. As far as we can tell, there is no connection between you and my family, you were only used to separate us. The lawyer’s been found to be working with them as well.”
“Isn’t it a federal offense to tamper with legal documents?”
Romeo’s sad smile has a sadistic, chilling edge to it. “Vittoria, he has a lot more to fear than the law.”
Of course he does. Oh, God. He double-crossed the Rossi family.
I look at Orlando, the gentle giant with his huge muscles and intimidating frame and see the glint in his eye, the way his fists curl by his sides. I look at Tavi with his ruthless mile-yard stare. He’s wearing glasses tonight, and it only makes him look that much more intimidating. I look at Mario, and the usual jovial expression’s faded to something dangerous and lethal. Even Rosa’s jaw tightens and Marialena’s eyes cut to me with a promise of retribution.
“You’re one of us, now, Vittoria,” Marialena says. “And we protect what’s ours.”
I’m not one of them, though. I haven’t taken my vows to Romeo and have no ties to this family. I’m as penniless as I was before, only now I’ve been taunted with the promise of so much more. It hurts. It aches.
Oblivious to the storm within me, Mario continues.
“Ashton, or the douchebag who called himself Ashton, worked with someone else, and he used my grandfather’s death and the fake will as a manipulation tactic.”
“How do you know this?” I ask.
Romeo’s eyes cut to Mario. “The motherfucker confessed.”
Tonight, I saw bloodshed and fire, pain and death. I still haven’t recovered from any of it. I shake my head, trying to let it all sift like sand through my fingers, to settle in and make sense, but it doesn’t.
Romeo looks sad, and that makes me sad, too.
“Let’s get to what matters now, Vittoria. Without the actuality of a will, there’s no incentive for you to marry me,” Romeo says, and he can’t hide the tremor in his voice.
Marialena turns away quickly and swipes at her eyes. She loves her brothers with everything she’s got, and I realize with sudden vivid clarity that I do, too. I’ve never seen her cry, and it pains me to think she is now. Are they crying over what happened? Or are they crying… over me?
Rosa speaks up, her voice tremulous. “You may not have six million dollars coming to you, Vittoria,” she says with certainty in her voice. She stands, her hands fisted by her sides. “And I will never be the one telling a woman to marry against her better judgment. Believe me, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t do that to you.” She looks at Romeo and then back to me. “But Romeo marrying brings power to this family we haven’t seen. It puts the power of authority in the hands of a man who will actually wield it justly.” My mind is reeling with everything that I’m processing. “And I can’t speak for Romeo, but I can say without question that we will provide for you, amply. We can match or better what the fabricated will promised you.”
