Page 49 of Sins that Find Us


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Ari nods, then lifts his hands to sign something before obeying Kane’s orders. Kane doesn’t answer him—at least, not aloud, so whatever Ari wanted, I wasn’t meant to know. I feel Kane get closer, and the room starts to spin for a second before I realize I’m hyperventilating.

“Shallow breaths, Alice,” Kane orders. He’s not kind, but he’s not cruel, and somehow that makes it easier to follow his orders.

I calm down enough to turn my head as he drags a chair from behind me, then sits in my eyeline. He’s not directly in front of me, and he looks almost ridiculously huge crouched on the small, metal thing. He’s bent over his thighs, and he has a small tablet in his hands.

“Do you recognize this man?” he asks, then shows me the screen.

My heart thuds, even as I feel an urge to roll my eyes because there’s no way in hell Kane doesn’t know who that is. “My uncle?”

His mouth flattens. “Your uncle.”

I don’t know if this is some kind of trick question or if there’s some hidden answer I’m meant to know, but it pisses me off. “I already told you that you can torture me all you want. My father didn’t let me in on any sensitive information. Anything I know, the public knows.”

His lip twitches, almost like he’s trying not to smile. “I’m well aware of your…limited education, princess.”

I grimace. “Why do you all keep calling me shit like that?”

He doesn’t answer as he flips through the screen again. “I wasn’t convinced,” he says after a long beat, “that you were related to your father. Even men like him tend to dote on what’s theirs. Your sister, for example…”

I try not to conjure up Isabella’s young, sweet face. My father was good to us both, but there was no denying he favored her. My mother always told me it was because she was the baby, and the reason was easy enough to accept. And his detachment from me after made sense. After all, he’d lost half his life when Isabella and my mother died.

“He loved her far more than he ever loved you.”

I swallow against bitter bile rising in my throat. “If you’re trying to hurt me, don’t bother. The feeling between me and him is mutual. He was keeping me around to use me.”

“Such a clever thing,” Kane murmurs. “You have something very valuable that he wanted to use in order to gain power.”

“Marriage.”

Kane looks up at me, and there’s something almost sad in his eyes, but only for a second. “Your virginity.”

I almost laugh. But then I realize he’s serious, and my stomach begins to twist in on itself. Yes, I wanted to lose my virginity, but the very thought that it would be prized? Something to sell?

Kane sits back with a sigh, letting the tablet drop to the floor near his ankle before lifting it to cross over his knee. His foot jiggles, and I’m almost mesmerized by the way he moves. “Your mother had an affair with her brother-in-law. I can’t tell you if it was consensual or not, but you were the product of that. I would venture a guess that your mother’s death wasn’t an accident. It was your father learning the truth, though I don’t think he meant for your little sister to die.”

My ears start to ring. My father is a heartless bastard, but the thought of him killing his wife? Except…if what Kane’s saying is true…

“Can you prove it?” I whisper.

He shrugs. “Your test came back not related to Guido Romano. I’ve made it my business to know what’s going on inside your father’s little would-be empire, and his brother-in-law has always been vying for power. He strategically placed his sons under Guido’s nose so one of them would inherit.”

None of this is necessarily new to me. My uncle, Alessandro, was married to my aunt—my father’s sister. Which meant he wasn’t important, and he was rarely around. But that didn’t mean I hadn’t overheard things my father said about him, and he always gave me an uncomfortable feeling.

The very idea that he could be my father?

And Christ, how many of them knew? Did Marco? DidLeo?

I glance down to see that Kane has pulled the tablet back onto his lap, but the screen he showed looks like nothing more than a jumble of words. My head is a mess, and my stomach feels like it’s trying to climb up into my throat.

“I’m not a Romano,” I whisper.

Kane hums softly. “No, Alice. You’re not.”

I’m still not brave enough to look up at him. “What does that mean for me now?”

“That depends on you,” he says, stroking his chin as he sits back again. He looks at me like I’m something—an item on a shelf that needs appraisal.

Just like all the others, I think bitterly. It only matters what I’m worth to them.

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