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My brows knit. “I’m sorry… but for who?”
“You know who. The same man you’re betraying our dad for.”
“Salvatore?! You’re blaming Salvatore!?”
“Who else is responsible for how you’ve changed,” he says, his sense of loathing thick in his voice. “You realize I have an old college classmate that works at that birthing center in Westoria? I heard all about the violent scene he made.”
“Violent scene is a stretch.”
“That man you call a husband attacked our father in front of you and your newborn child. He thought nothing of flying off the handle and making death threats. And yet you chose to side with him over our father, who was just trying to see his grandson,” Marcel lectures.
My eyes squeeze shut as I stop midway down the hall. “Wait a second. That’s not what happened—”
“I heard all about it, Delphi. First from our father. Then from my old classmate. The nurses were terrified. Why wouldn’t they be? Some mafia gangster choking someone and yelling he’s going to kill him?”
“No one yelled about killing anyone!”
“I’ve told you how many times? If you’re being held against your will, we’ll figure out a way to get you out of your situation,” Marcel explains. “You foolishly gave up your career as an ADA for him. The apartment you had in Centennial. But if you need an escape—if you need somewhere to go—you can come stay with me or Auntie Bea.”
“I’m not going anywhere! I’m not being held against my will. I love Salvatore, and I chose to be with him. Marcel, you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. You’ve been gone for twenty years yet think you can pass judgment about what’s happening here in Westoria and Northam? Do you hear yourself?”
“If he puts his hands on you—if he ever lays a finger on my nephew—”
“He would never hurt us!” I scream over him, my temper exploding. “You have no clue what the hell you’re saying! Don’t call me again with this nonsense!”
I hang up on him in such a fit of anger, I toss my phone across the hall. It lands toward the end and cracks into pieces the second it hits the floor.
I can’t even bring myself to care I’ve broken it. I’m shaking,fuming,from what Marcel said. The wave of anger that passes over me is so intense that, for a second, I’m actually dizzy. I open my eyes to realize I’m no longer alone.
Salvatore’s come home. My chest clenches from the shock of his sudden appearance. We stand opposite each other for a second before either of us makes a move.
I sigh and slide a hand over my headful of tight curls. “Jon, I wasn’t expecting you so early.”
“What was that? Who were you speaking to?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Who had you that upset? What were they saying?”
He’s serious, his face composed. A non-emotion to some, but where Salvatore is concerned, a warning sign he’s livid. Though I’m unsure how much of my conversation with Marcel he overheard, he clearly gleaned enough to tell it wasn’t a good call.
“It was my brother.”
He nods as if I’ve affirmed what he already suspected. “He was telling you I was going to hurt you? And our baby?”
“Jon—”
“Your family has always had a very low opinion of me,” he continues. “Your father has called me a violent gangster more times than I give a fuck to remember. But even he understood that I would never hurt you in that way.”
My heart aches hearing him, aware of the fear he had once confessed before we married. That he was destined to become Lucius. That it made him unworthy of me and not good enough to be a husband and father.
I step toward him. “I don’t care what they think. It’s never mattered to me. I chose you.”
“Tell me what you want, Phi. How you want me to handle your family trying to tear us apart. Even now. Years later. We’re married and we have a child. And still they’re trying.” He takes a couple steps toward me and closes the gap between us even more. “I reacted the way I did when your father showed up because I won’t let anyone take what’s mine away—you and Dom aremine. But it was wrong of me to do so. Apparently, I should’ve welcomed your father with open arms and let him pull more sabotage to break us up.”
“No,” I whisper with a vehement shake of my head. “That’s not what will happen. I’ll never let him come between us.”
“They’re right. I am violent. I am a gangster. I’m a bad man. I’m all the shit they say I am.”
