“No,youbetter listen. Keeping Liana from her mother for all these years was the wrong fucking move to make. Not only does it put our family in a bad fucking spot with the DiMaggios, but you all took a woman’s life and fed her this fake fucking bullshit.”
“You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” he snaps. “The Faracis are very powerful?—”
“I don’t fucking care what you have to say, Dad! What you did isunforgivable!”
“You don’t?—”
“No, I don’t want to hear anymore fucking excuses. You sided with the wrong fucking people here, and you’ll never be forgiven for it.”
“What exactly are you saying, Massimo?”
I bow my head and rub my temples, letting out a sigh. Liana is my life, and my father betrayed her. He can no longer have a purpose in our world, but it still fucking pains me to have to remove the man I looked up to my entire life. He’s my family—my blood—but Liana is my future, and there will never be someone above her. Not even my parents. I have to choose her.I will always choose her.
“Before you say something you can’t take back, you need to know something,” he says.
I don’t say anything, so he continues.
“Ignazio knows you’ve made contact with Vittoria.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“He has people looking for you as we speak. You need to get out of here.”
“And why do you care?”
“You’re my son, Massimo. I would never wish harm on you.”
“Well, I can tell you we’re not leaving without Liana’s mom.”
“And I can tell you that you’re asking for a war if you take her.”
“Then a war is what we’ll start.”
“And you’re going to do that in a country you have zero ties to?”
I grind my teeth because my dad is right. My brothers and I are alone here. If we’re going to bring Liana’s mom back to New York, it’ll be of our own doing. That means we have to be really fucking smart about it.
“Just heed my advice and go home. Pretend you never saw anything, andgo home.”
“Yeah, go home and pretend like my wife’s mother is still dead? Sure,Dad, sounds like a fucking plan.”
“Vittoria has a great life here. Ignazio treats her well and she’s happy.They’rehappy. The past is the past, and it should be left there.”
I scoff out a sardonic laugh. “You’re fucking deranged.”
He lets out a long sigh. “If you know what’s good for you and that wife you claim to love so much, then you’ll leave and forget about everything you’ve seen here.”
“Is that a threat?” I growl out.
“It’s a warning of what could happen if you don’t listen to me. Remember what I said. I’m trying tohelp.”
I clench my jaw so hard it nears on painful. “Helping would’ve been telling the DiMaggios about Liana’s mom being alive years ago,” I say, then hang up on him.
I hand the phone back to my brother from over my shoulder.
“Damn,” Gui whistles out.
“What?” I snap.
