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Matteo takes a step in the direction of my mother. “You’re going to have to leave. If you don’t, there will be trouble.”
“Tell me what the hell is going on,” I say, trying to step around him. He sidesteps and keeps me behind him as my mother chuckles.
“You’ll find out the truth in due time,” my mother says before turning and striding out of the store.
Matteo watches her until she disappears before turning to me. “We need to go back to the estate. Now.”
“Does Salvatore know about this? Is this what he’s been hiding from me the past few days?”
Matteo gets a guilty look on his face that tells me everything I need to know. It feels like I’ve been punched in the gut. I thought that Salvatore and I were finally getting along and working together, but now he’s kept more secrets from me.
Like the fact that my parents — or my not-parents — are still alive.
My mind is spinning and my stomach lurches. Bile rises in my throat as I try to make sense of everything that’s going on right now. “Take me home, Matteo,” I say, already heading for the door. “I’m going to wring your brother’s neck.”
“Brielle, maybe you should think about this?”
“About how everyone’s been lying to me? I think that will only piss me off more, but thanks for the suggestion. Now, please take me home or I will find a way to get there myself.”
Matteo sighs, his shoulders slumping as he leads the way back to his car.
I don’t know what I’m going to say to Salvatore first when we get back to the estate, but I doubt it’s going to be nice.
How could he keep something like this from me?
* * *
Salvatore is standingon the front porch when we arrive at the estate. I look at the pile of loose threads in my lap. I picked them from the hem of my denim shorts, needing something to do with my hands while my mind races.
Now that I’m seeing Salvatore standing there, looking guilty but determined, the anger comes rushing back.
I get out of the car and stalk toward him, a million different words sitting on the tip of my tongue.
“Brielle, why don’t we talk about this somewhere more private?” Salvatore asks, nodding to the people on duty at the doors. I look at them, taking in the way they eye their boss before nodding.
Even though I want to ream him out, I’m not going to undermine his position in the mafia. I don’t think it would end well for me. Brennan has told me about the dynamics in crime families more than once.
Honor, loyalty, and respect above all else.
Funny that he can’t show me those same traits.
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart as I follow him through the house and to the room we’ve been sharing. As soon as the door is shut behind us, I turn to him with my hands on my hips.
“What the fuck,” I say, everything else I want to say taking a back seat to the only phrase that encompasses how I feel.
“I was going to tell you that they were alive when I figured out what they wanted with you.”
I arch an eyebrow and cross my arms. “Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“Brielle, I promise you. As soon as I found out that they were alive, I started looking into them. Sofia’s been helping. They left the cartel and stole you from another couple.”
My entire world plummets down around me. I don’t know what to do with that information. My parents aren’t my parents. They didn’t love me, otherwise they never would have allowed me to be on the run for so long. They would have told me that they were still alive.
My entire life has been nothing but a lie.
“How do you know this?” I ask, my voice breaking slightly.
“Sofia found her father’s old journals. It took some time but she found one that was dedicated to your parents. He found out that they were extorting one of the accountants. When that didn’t work, they kidnapped their child — you — and tried to hold you for ransom. Your parents refused to pay and the couple who kidnapped you went on the run.”
