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“Who’s his father and what’s the boy’s name?” Because whatever she wanted it had to be something to do with the father. My mind raced. If it had been someone like a gardener, Mom would just have been fired. Then who? A sick feeling ran through me. Rocco liked entertaining his guests, and often used “specialized” entertainment. Had it been rape? Or had my mom simply been lonely and believed the promises of a rich and powerful man in the same way she had believed Rocco?
“A-ah," she sing-songed and waggled a finger at me. "In good time.”
“Where is he? Who has him?” Did his father have him? That thought made me want to throw up. I clutched the picture tight. What was his name? Did he know about me?
“Safe, but as you can see from the pictures his current foster father has a tried-and-true method of disciplining him.” I put a hand to my mouth. I could quite easily be sick. He was on his own, had always been on his own, and some monster was doing that to him. She whisked the picture and birth certificate back.
“I’m sure you realize you can’t keep those. I can’t risk them being found.”
“I don’t understand. Why—”
“Let me be clear, then. I know you are aware of the agreement my pathetic father has with the Irish.” She shuddered. “They areas equally as incompetent, and I wouldn’t marry that pig Declan Walsh if he was the last man on earth.”
“What?” But that was impossible. Wasn’t her conspiring with the Irish what this whole fiasco was about? “But—"
“I’m also not about to hang around for the next imbecile my father wants to marry me off to.”
“What do you want?” I was reeling, shocked that my entire world seemed to have turned on its head once again.
“Dario Banetti.”
But he’s mine.For a heart-stopping moment I thought I’d said that out loud, even if it wasn’t, could never be true.
“But it’s his, everything became his the moment we got married. Rocco can’t—”
Sofia put her head back and laughed like I’d just made a huge joke. “I don’t care what my father does.” Her eyes gleamed. “I’d be shocked if that man made it alive to Thanksgiving, but it doesn’t matter. Rocco Martino’s days are numbered. Dario will eclipse him ten times over in power and ambition.” She smiled. “Once he has the right partner by his side. Once he has a wife, not a sorry excuse for one. The families might not have said anything at the time, but where exactly do you see your role in his life? If you think you will be welcomed by the wives, think again. The old school doesn’t approve of gay marriage, and I think you’ll find Dario might be realizing his mistake already.”
She waved her hand as I opened my mouth in protest, even though I still hadn’t decided what I could say. “This is how it’s going to be. Tomorrow morning, after accepting my invitation to lunch, you will unfortunately disappear from the restaurant. Fearing for your life, you will flee to your lover’s house, and from there you will file a restraining order citing duress. A lawyer will secure the divorce. As soon as the judge grants it you will receive a check for a hundred thousand dollars, your brother, flights to Europe, and new identities for both of you.”
“But the family doesn’t get divorced,” I protested for god knew what reason.
Her eyes flashed. “What the family does is no longer any of your concern. And to add an incentive, if you breathe a word to Dario or anyone else, I will personally make sure your brother is on the next sailing of La Caterina.”
I hissed in a horrified breath. She knew about the trafficking?
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” I challenged.
She shrugged. “You don’t. If the wedding had happened as planned your brother would have been on that boat the same night and you would have been fired. Don’t think I don’t know the exact lawyers that have the diary...hadthe diary. But if you die now, Dario would just be a powerful widower. If, however, you divorce him, he would need someone to rescue him from humiliation. No one inla famigliagets divorced, as you said, but a wedding to his original bride would soothe many ruffled feathers. Especially as I have an ace up my sleeve in the form of a powerful alliance.”
“Who?” I asked, bewildered.
She ignored the question. “So, on one hand you get freedom, cash, a new life, and your little brother, and on the other you get to watch husband dearest humiliate you with Terry Gianelli every day, secure in the knowledge that some man is screwing your little brother. Until he gets tired of him, of course. Nine is a little old for some tastes.”
I pressed a hand over my mouth, convinced everything I’d eaten was going to come back up. How did she know all this?
I looked over to the house as Imelda appeared clutching a tray with Sofia’s coffee. Sofia smirked. “And don’t for one second think Dario would either come to your rescue or bother searching for your brother. You were a means to an end, nothing more, nothing less, and now you will be the same for me. If he wasn’t trying to put out all the fires your sham of a marriagehad caused, he would be here. We are meeting at Gia’s lover’s restaurant just to make it simple,” she added.
“Why did Rocco take my brother?” It made no sense.
“Whatever makes you think my father had anything to do with it?”
“Elisabetta,” I whispered. It had to be her. Mom must have thought he had been adopted into a good home. Elisabetta had to have done it. “And my mom?” I whispered.
Sofia shrugged. “I don’t know where she is. I can get you your brother only.” She sighed. “Dario will hardly throw her out.”
"I can't leave her." She was making me choose between my mother and my brother, but Dario believed in family and even when he hated me, he wouldn’t take that out on my mom. My little brother had no one.
“You have no choice.”
