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Silence falls over the room.
I open my fist, showing them the big shiny diamond set in gold. “What is the meaning of this?”
Mom gasps.
“Why would he give me a ring if he hates us for what happened to his family? What the hell is going on?”
“You have to tell her, Ryan,” Celeste says. “She has a right to know.”
“Tell me what?”
More silence.
“Ryan?” Panic and helpless anger heat my voice. “Tell me what?”
Sighing, he scrubs a hand over his face and leaves his empty glass on the desk. “When Dad employed the Russo family, he made a deal. He promised to marry you to Angelo in exchange for their alliance and services.”
The ground disappears underneath me.
“The Russos weren’t only interested in the money he paid them.” Ryan’s expression is pained. “They wanted in on the business. Angelo would’ve received shares and a position in the company.”
Slowly, the pieces click together. “That’s why they came to my sixteenth birthday party.”
Ryan continues, “The deal was discussed so long before then, Dad thought they’d forgotten about it.”
“But they hadn’t,” I say, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.
“No,” Ryan says with regret. “Dad denied making the deal. Things got heated. Santino and Angelo left your party angry.”
I stare at Mom for confirmation. “That’s why Dad didn’t want me to have contact with him.” I brace myself for uttering that name. “With Angelo.”
“I didn’t agree with not telling you,” she says, pursing her lips in the way she does when she’s trying not to cry. “Then you told me how guilty you felt, and I knew your father was right. Admitting the truth would’ve only made you feel worse. Your father believed it was better not to saddle you with the gritty details. I think he was worried you’d be disappointed in him if you knew what he’d done.”
“Promising me to a Russo?” I ask on the verge of hysteria again.
Recollections of the times I caught my parents fighting flash through my mind. The memory of my sixteenth birthday party when my mom stormed out of the study with mascara running down her eyes comes back to taunt me. Mom was upset about something Dad had done. I still remember her words that drifted through the closed door.
I’m not going to say I told you so, but I did warn you not to do business with those people. You can’t let this happen.
So much makes sense now, but the truth doesn’t bring relief. It only brings more torment.
“Dad regretted it the moment it had been done,” Ryan says. “He went along with the conditions because no one else could deliver the service the Russos could.”
“Theservice? What service?” My lip curls around the accusation. “Killing people?”
Ryan winces. “Santino brought Angelo for the two of you to meet. The engagement was supposed to happen when you turned eighteen.”
The world starts spinning around me. I put the empty glass on the side table and grip the armrests to steady myself. The ring drops from my hand and falls with a clink on the floor.
“When Dad denied the promise he’d made, Angelo came back and stole the book.”
“To blackmail Dad into honoring his promise,” I say as the insight hits me.
“Yes.” Ryan regards me from under his lashes. “He didn’t only take the shares Dad promised him. He took over control of the business, leaving us with no power and no money, making sure we couldn’t start a war.”
“Is that why Dad ordered someone to kill them?” I ask. “To get back his business?”
Mom inhales sharply.
