Page 156 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“She’s suitable, if you wish to keep the alliance.”

Liliana slowly turned her head back towards him. Her cheeks had flushed pink, but her chin remained high. She rose from the sofa.

“I’ll do it.”

Aleksandr regarded her in silence, giving nothing away.

“Lili, you can’t—“ Raya cried, and Raff reached for her, trying to pull her back down onto the sofa. She ignored them both, holding Aleksandr’s gaze without flinching.

“I’ll marry you. But only because I want no more blood spilled.”

A ghost of a smile touched Aleksandr’s lips. He straightened his suit and looked at Alessio. “Shall we amend the agreement?”

“I will not give an answer until I have spoken to Giovanni. He’s her father and the Boss of this family. Nothing happens unless he agrees.”

At that moment, Alessio’s phone rang. He glanced down at the screen and swallowed. As he lifted it to his ear, the room fell silent.

“Si?”

His expression didn’t change. He just listened to whoever was on the other end. But it was Santino who had my attention. He’d stumbled back a few steps until his spine hit the wall. All the colour was draining from his face as he stared at Alessio.

Before anyone else, he knew.

Alessio lowered his hand, but didn’t end the call. Instead, he stared at the floor for a long time.

“Alessio?” Raffaele furrowed his eyebrows.

“Giovanni’s gone,” Alessio muttered, frozen in a state of shock. “He didn’t make it.”

Liliana’s scream shattered the room, a sound so raw and broken it rattled my bones. Raya collapsed against me. I caught her before she hit the floor.

“No,” she whispered, staring at Alessio. “No, no, no.”

Santino didn’t move. He stood frozen against the wall, staring at nothing. When Aria threw her arms around him, crying into his shirt, he didn’t even blink. Unable to process it. Raffaele held onto Liliana as she sobbed into her hands, silent tears slipping down his unbandaged cheek.

The grief in the room was suffocating. It hit me like a tsunami of pain, too familiar and gut-wrenching. Watching another family destroyed. All of it traced back, as it always did, to McKenna.

Aleksandr remained where he was, watching the room unravel. His eyes found Liliana, sobbing against her brother. He swallowed and lifted his gaze to Alessio. “We’ll continue this discussion another time. There are matters more important than contracts today.”

Nobody was looking at him except me.

“My condolences.”

As he turned to leave, his eyes snagged on Liliana again. For the first time since I’d met the Russian, his face seemed to soften. He almost looked human. Then it vanished. He walked out without another word, his men falling into step behind him.

I held Raya tighter against me, pressing my lips to her hair, wishing I could take her pain away. I’d once wanted Giovanni dead. McKenna had granted that wish. And I’d never hated myself more.

Countdown

“No, only roses,” Liv said, her green eyes glassy and hollow as she scanned the funeral director’s brochure of flower arrangements placed in front of us. “And lilies. Those were his favourite.”

“Of course,” Signor Macilio offered a kind smile, which went unnoticed. “And I understand you wish Giovanni to be buried in the family crypt.”

“Next to his papi. Yes. That’s what he wanted,” Liv said, almost mechanically. I reached for her hand and squeezed it, proud of how well she was holding it together for this meeting. But that was Olivia. She felt she had to be strong for everyone else. For Lili and Raff. For Sani and me. She was the glue that held us together. If she fell apart, what hope did the rest of us have? That’s what I knew she was thinking. But that wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have to cry alone in her bedroom, hiding her heartbreak from the world.

The last few days had been the hardest this family had endured in a long time. Probably since my papi died, though I was too young to remember it. The house was plagued by sorrow and grief; sometimes it felt so suffocating that I couldn’t breathe inside it. So Maddox and I spent a lot of time in the garden with Mamma. We had to wait until she was lucid enough to break the news to her. She hadn’t taken it well, as expected, but she became so hysterical and upset that we worried for her safety. In the end, the nurse had to give her a small sedative to calm her down. Since then, she hasn’t remembered us telling her. Aria said that dementia patients at the hospital rarely retain recent events, even when they are lucid, so we’ve made the tough decision as a family not to tell her again. It would only be a vicious, cruel cycle to put her through. No mother should outlive their child. Especially not relive the pain of losing them repeatedly.

“And the ceremony, would you prefer to have it inside the church or outside in the cemetery?”