“I know you’re grateful. You don’t need to say the words, and it’s never been a chore.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yes,” he replies with only the briefest hesitation. “You have given me a good life, my donna. I would not have been afforded the same opportunities had I stayed working for your stepfather. The gratitude works both ways.”
I purse my lips as the wrought iron gates of the Conti family home open to grant us entry. My mood instantly plummets. Gravel spins at the tires as the car slowly maneuvers the long winding driveway. Tall spruce trees line the private road on both sides, looming over us like ominous sentinels.
We round the bend, and Castle Conti comes into view. A shiver tiptoes up my spine, like always.
I hate coming here.
I hate staying here even more.
But it’s Christmas. It’s tradition we spend Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day with my in-laws. My parents are dead. My stepfather hates my guts, and my sister will be spending the holidays with her in-laws, so it’s not like I can make any excuses. Besides, this will be the last Christmas I have to endure this bullshit. I can stomach one final charade.
The drab gray-brick two-story monstrosity with copious turrets and towers and creeping ivy covering a lot of the walls is like something from a horror movie. I will never forget my first impression of this place. I instantly hated my new home, and that’s saying a lot because my stepfather’s Vegas property is a creepy gothic mansion straight from a nightmare. Before I was forced into marrying a man old enough to be my father, I already knew I was exchanging one hellhole for another. However, being confronted with the macabre reality almost sent me spiraling into a new depression.
Instead, I set myself a challenge. To convince my husband to extract himself from his mama’s apron strings and buy us our own home. It took me two years to achieve that particular goal, and I endured two years of sheer hell until it was time to move out.
The car pulls into an empty space in the garage, and Ezio cuts the engine. “Stick around.” A sixth sense suggests I could need the three men.
We all climb out of the vehicle, and Renzo cocks an eyebrow as he moves to the trunk to retrieve my bags. “What’s up?” he asks, handing the bags to Ricardo.
“I’m not sure,” I murmur as I enter the house from the side of the garage. My instincts are razor-sharp, and I have learned never to disregard them. I walk across the kitchen into the west hallway, transecting the dark lobby and striding along the east hallway, in the direction of the family room.
Francesca Conti, my bitch of a mother-in-law, is a creature of habit. She entertains friends on Christmas Eve night, expecting her two sons, her daughter, and their families to be in attendance. I’m sure it irks her to no end I missed the festivities. The fact a ton of planes were grounded in Maine due to snowstorms will pass over her head, and she’ll find some way to blame me for embarrassing the family by my absence.
I loathe the woman with the intensity of a thousand suns.
She should be on her knees worshipping at my feet for how I have transformed the fortunes of the ailing Conti family and finally put them on the map. But she would rather choke on her tongue than utter those words.
She will get her wish soon enough.
Without knocking, I open the ornate engraved mahogany double doors and force my way into the room, knowing it will rile Francesca up even more. There is little opportunity to have fun in my world, so I seize the moments wherever I can.
All conversation ceases immediately. My mother-in-law’s friends are long gone, and the kids are tucked into bed, so it’s just Paulo’s mother, brother, sister, and his siblings’ spouses in the room. My husband is missing, and I grind my teeth to the molars, guessing where he is.
Paulo’s brother, Orsino, is the only one whose eyes light up at the sight of me. That’s because he’s a lecherous brute, just like his brother, and he covets something he can’t have. I let him fuck me one time to enhance his torture. Now he knows what it’s like to be inside me, he craves more. I have been knocking him back for years, watching him get more and more wound up. It thrills me to no end, knowing he can’t throw me to the wolves, not without risking his own death. My husband is as stupid as he looks, but even he wouldn’t let that slight go without the ultimate punishment.
I enjoyed letting that secret “slip” to Orsino’s judgmental, vacuous wife. She was added to my shit list the first day I arrived in Philly from Vegas. Like the rest of his family, she treated me like dirt underneath her shoe, looking down her nose at me, like I was unworthy.
All because of the things that were done to me as a child.
Things I didn’t ask for.
Things that were out of my control.
Things that almost destroyed me.
Blood boils in my veins as I fist my hands at my side. Keeping a neutral expression on my face, I subtly wrangle my breathing under control and force those emotions aside, adopting the façade the public has come to expect of me.
Francesca’s beady eyes narrow to slits as she stares at me, her gaze darkening when she spots Renzo at the rear. “You can’t just barge in here without warning,” she blurts.
“Why ever not? I’m family.” I stride across the room to the liquor cabinet, helping myself to the whiskey. It’s the cheapest Irish whiskey on the market because Francesca thinks I’m not good enough for the more expensive scotch I prefer. Never mind that the cash lining her pockets comes from my initiative and hard work, not her lazy good-for-nothing son.
She mutters under her breath as I pour two glasses. Turning around, I hand one to Renzo, purposely leaning in close to his side. Without knowing our history, everyone in the family thinks I’m fucking him. Paulo tried to have him killed one time—until I pulled him aside and showed him my little video collection. His face had drained of blood so fast it was almost comical.
It’s how I have made him toe the line and let me run the show. But I have grown tired of ruling from the shadows. It’s time to move my plan to the next phase, and that means Paulo and his family have got to go.
