“If he’s your boyfriend, we will have to kill him,” Nico says.
“God no,” I cry.What is wrong with them?
“Manny is in love with my sister, Gianna.He’s going to ask her to marry him.”That might have been an over-share, but they can’t do anything to Manny.
Luca takes out his phone as Vincenzo hands him the sheet of paper.Silence ensues for a moment.
“Done,” Luca says, and shows me his phone with the details of the transfer to Manny’s account.I can’t believe my eyes.They paid me before even hearing what I had to tell them.
“What information do you have, Alessia?”Nico asks.
I close my eyes, swallow my nerves, and begin.
***Chapter Eight
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Alessia
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They paid me.Justlike that.I was only supposed to ask for one hundred thousand dollars; the amount needed to pay the elders of the Passero family to reclaim the farm.But then I got cocky.The additional hundred thousand will go toward fixing the house and ensuring our crop of peaches and apricots for the next season is profitable enough to sell jams and preserves.We might actually become sustainable.
“I’m sure you know everything there is to know about the Passero family.Their reputation as a proud and honorable mafia family has been tarnished over the last sixty years due to heads of the family being unsavory characters, double-crossers, and consumed by greed.
When the last don died, his son Roberto was slated to take his place.Instead, he chose to dismantle the family.His youngest brother, Tony Morena, could not accept that all that remained of the Passero family were the elders at the table, and that was only due to the law of the Italian mafia.As you know, theReale Doratodictates that a mafia family of the committee can only be dormant, not extinguished.
“When Tony and his wife, Martina, discovered it was the year the Falchi were seeking a virgin to bear their heir, they saw an opportunity and set everything into motion.They entered a virgin into the virgin registry.”I pause, reconsidering my wording.I can never let them know that the Vergine Selettore was blackmailed into this scheme as well.
“You see, my name is not Alessia.Well, it is, just not the Conti part.My father was Roberto Moreno, the last head of the Passero family, and he dismantled the entire family.My father wasn’t a violent man; he just wanted peace and to make my mother happy.So, he bought her a farm, Twin Orchid, and they lived happily until my mother died when I was fourteen and my father when I turned seventeen.
"But somehow, my uncle convinced some of the elders that Twin Orchid belongs to the Passero trust because I was too young to own it myself, and they voted on it.At least two of the seven voted against it, but now my uncle owns the farm.However, since it wasn’t a unanimous vote, there’s a stipulation that I can buy the farm back from the trust—and from my uncle—for one hundred thousand dollars.I asked for two hundred thousand because I believe my information is worth that.”
I take a much-needed breath and raise my gaze to the men before me.I expect them to interrupt, but they don’t, and I continue like a freight train.
“Do you see how everything makes sense now?My aunt and uncle’s plan was to deceive you into thinking I was someone else.Then, when I got pregnant, he’d claim the Passero had the Falchi approval and that the families are now united by blood.He thought that was how he would bring the Passero family back into power.
“If you think I’m being disloyal to my family, you’re wrong.Tony Moreno, his wife, and daughter are not my family.They’re insufferable and unspeakably corrupt, as evidenced by this whole ruse they’ve set up to ensnare you.My family is Gianna, my sister.The farm is all we have left of my parents.She...won’t do well if we lose it.”
I bite my lip.The silence is beyond deafening.
“I just saved your entire sovereignty.I don’t think you ever wanted to be deceived into having an heir born from a Moreno, whose entire family is just a bunch of thieves and crooks, as history shows.So, thank you for your time and your money.I guess I’ll be on my way...the same way I got here.I hope you have a nice life, and I wish you well on your journey to find the perfect virgin to have your heir.”I smile, nod, and stop myself from taking a bow as if I just delivered a spectacular soliloquy.
Heart pounding out of my chest, I turn to leave.They don’t stop me.Thank god.
I rush upstairs to grab my coat and suitcase, and when I check my phone there’s a message from Manny to say the money is in his bank account.Excitement rushes through me as I hurry back downstairs.I leave my suitcase at the front door and drape my coat over it before going to find Eileen.She can help me get out of here.But after nearly twenty minutes of searching every room and resorting to shouting her name, I accept that she isn’t anywhere to be found.
Oh, no.Oh, no.Oh, no.
I run back upstairs to the bedroom I was in earlier and look out the window.The snow is falling so heavily now that I can barely see outside, but straining my eyes, I notice that the helicopter I saw before on the pad—the one that brought me here—is no longer there.
No.No.No.
Frantic now, I go back downstairs.I have to get out of here.Maybe the helicopter moved.Maybe Eileen has her own quarters outside of the cabin mansion.
I try to open the front door, but it’s locked.There isn’t even a key in sight or a keypad—nothing I can use to open the damn door, with its trio of falcons engraved into the dark wood staring back at me.
Okay, fine.
