He didn’t see her that night. Glass piercing her skin as rage and sorrow tore through her. Nor did he know just how much it killed the version of her father she had always loved.
She saw his truest face that night. The Made Man who cared more about pride and appearances than the safety of his daughter.
She’s never recovered from it. And I know she never will.
I level him with a stare that is my very own closest to a glare. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Pietro.”
He rises up, brushing his knees as he does. Then he offers her a charming boyish grin that I’m positive has worked for him plenty of times before. I eye Imogen’s reaction. It is true that Pietro is an attractive man. Anyone can agree to that.
What I don’t want is her finding him attractive. Something within me violently rejects that notion.
Unlike me she wears her expression boldly. Glaring at him as if it could bring him physical harm. There’s even a sneer on her lips.
Good.
Placing his hands over his heart he says in a sugary sweet tone, “Imogen, forgive me?”
“What for? Almost having me killed or putting me through mental torture?”
He winces. “Both?”
She eyes him harshly and then her eyes cut past him to look at me. And I see it. They soften. In almost the same way Carina softens when she looks at Constantine.
My heart twists painfully as it beats twice as fast.
I don’t know what she’s searching for, but clearly whatever it is she found it in almost an instant.
With a begrudging sigh she responds, “Fine, I accept.”
Pietro winks at her. My hand forms into a bone clenching white fist. “I still got it.”
She snorts and humbles him in the same breath. “You don’t have anything. Besides, my death doesn’t belong to you and it never will.”
“Right,” Pietro replies dryly. He hooks his thumb my way. “Rico is your fate. Good luck with that.”
Fate. Only another thing my logical brain has never considered to be plausible. It’s hocos pocos nonsense. I’m supposed to believe there is a power so great that it controls everything. That my life is already decided for me. Thateveryone’s lives are decided. Choices and actions all lead to a predetermined outcome.
It is utter madness.
And yet as Imogen catches my eyes once more I can be open to hear the theories on why fate can exist.
And that. . .that’s fucking insanity.
“Just as I’m Rico’s.” I’ve never heard her sound more confident in anything than that statement.
Pietro whistles lowly. “Sounds like a cruel twist of fate to me, runaway.”
She smiles. As she answers him she’s looking at me. “Yeah, well we’ll see about that.”
I guess we will.
CHAPTER 24
Imogen
Idon’t know exactly what I was expecting when Rico told me he was taking me to Carina and Constantine’s home, but it certainly wasn’t this.
I’m coming to find the Made Men of The Donati Famiglia aren’t ostentatious nor pretentious with their wealth.
