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I put my fork down and clear my throat. “I guess I should tell you who I am, huh?”
“We know you’re Liliana Constantine.” Zeke says the name so nonchalantly, as if it can be spoken openly without dire consequences. The name holds too much power, and I’ve spent years trying to forget it. But I should have known that I couldn’t hide forever.
“I am. Or I was. She died in a boating accident six years ago.”
West leans forward and studies my face with narrowed eyes. “You faked your own death?”
I nod. “My brother helped me. Nico got my papers, my new identity. Women in my family don’t have access to such resources, so I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“So you just disappeared and left it all behind? And your father bought it?” West looks skeptical.
“It helped that witnesses saw me go overboard. But Nico and I had holidayed on that island since we were children. There was a small cave, and we hid some diving gear there. Nico’s best friend, Dean, was waiting on the other side of the island. I followed the coastline, and he took me back to the mainland.” They risked so much to help me escape, rescued me from horrors they didn’t even know about. I squeeze my eyes closed for a second. Now isn’t the time to dredge up the memories I’ve kept buried so deep in the hopes of never reliving them again.
I take a deep breath and continue. “I used my new identity and flew back to the States while my brother mourned my disappearance. My father’s men were still searching the area for me, but they eventually gave me up for dead.”
Xander tilts his head. “And you never went back home?”
“Nope. I came to New York. Figured it was far away enough from Vegas that I wouldn’t run into anyone from my old life. Maybe I should have gone to some backwater town in the middle of nowhere, but all I ever wanted was to become a journalist, and Columbia and New York were my dream. Nico set up a trust to administer my scholarship and made sure there was enough for me to get my degree, but beyond that, I had nothing from my family. I wouldn’t have even taken that much, but I couldn’t get a genuine scholarship in my new name and…” I shake my head. “I guess I’m a hypocrite for taking my father’s money to pay for college, but I didn’t see any other way.”
Xander places his hand over mine and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
“Faking your own death, though? It’s…” Zeke sucks on his lip.
“Extreme?”
Zeke nods. “Kinda.”
“Let’s just say that the future my father had mapped out for me was so bleak and terrifying, even my actual death would have been a welcome relief.” I swat away the tear rolling down my cheek.
Xander squeezes my hand again. “No more secrets, shorty.”
I nod, ignoring the voice in my head telling me that we’ve barely even scratched the surface of my secrets. There are so many that I can’t share now, maybe not ever. “I was eighteen. I wanted to go to college like my high school friends, but women in my family don’t get to do that. We marry and we have babies. And I guess that’s not the worst life, not if you get to choose your husband, but my father had plans for me. I was going to marry Giovanni Santangelo.”
Zeke blanches at the name. “The former head of the Mafia?”
“Yeah. I was to be his virgin bride and give him many heirs. It didn’t matter to my father that he was fifty-eight years old.”
West scowls. “He wanted you to marry a man who was forty years older than you?”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t the worst of it. I could have dealt with that if he would’ve been a good husband and father, but Giovanni was the vilest man I ever met. We used to sometimes go to his house on Sunday afternoons, and every single time, there would be a crying woman leaving as we arrived. Always beaten and bruised. He used to laugh with my father about how much he enjoyed making them bleed.”
Zeke snarls, but Xander lays a comforting hand on his arm.
“Three weeks before our wedding was due to take place, Nico and I overheard him talking to one of his guards about the depraved things he planned to do to me on our wedding night. About how I would never leave his house again. He planned to keep me as his prisoner.”
West’s hands ball into fists. “Jesus, Lily.”
“We both knew then that I couldn’t marry him. I begged my father to find someone else for me, but he refused. And when Nico told him what we’d overheard, he just laughed, telling me it was all I was good for.” I press my lips together at the intense betrayal I still feel. The weight of those emotions used to threaten to crush me, but in the years since I learned the truth of my heritage and my true birthright, I’ve taught myself how to breathe through the pain. I was eleven when I discovered why Carmine Constantine, the man who claimed to be my father, hated me, so I shouldn’t have been surprised about his willingness to hand me over to the head of the Mafia or that he didn’t give a single fuck what happened to me after.
Zeke runs a hand over his beard. “So your father has no idea you’re alive?”
“None. If he ever found out, he’d have Nico and Dean killed for helping me. That’s why I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t put their lives at risk, not after everything they’ve done for me.”
“And Dean can be trusted?” West asks.
“Yes. He’d never betray Nico. He loves him more than anyone in the world.”
He hums, his eyebrows pinched together like he’s deep in thought. “And Giovanni? What happened to him?”
