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Immediately, she freezes.
There's terror in her expression, but somehow, she manages to nod her head at me. I growl as I look up at the ceiling, counting down from ten, giving myself some time to breathe before I do something stupid.
How is it that we’ve found the perfect woman to keep, and now that we’ve taken her, we find out that she’s a fucking Italian princess?
Not fair, world.
Not. Fucking. Fair.
“Tell us about him, Chiara. You’ve already said that you moved to England as a child, but tell me before that. What happened back then, darling?”
I look over at my brother, pleased that he’s decided to talk to her.
If it were up to me, and if she was still refusing to talk, well…
I breathe out a laugh as I shake my head, looking like some madman now. If Chiara’s disturbed by it, she doesn’t let it show. Instead, she pushes her shoulders back, and straightens herself.
“My father was an underboss.” She tells us slowly, as though she’s testing the words, feeling the sudden weight of them for the first time in many years. “He was involved in the Mafia when we lived in Italy; he was part of the famiglia.”
She pauses, hesitation clear in her eyes, when I open my mouth, making sure to keep my tone even.
“What about your brother? Dario, I believe. Was he involved too?”
Chiara brings both hands to her lap, entwining her fingers together.
Her throat bobs as she swallows, then her eyes meet mine.
“Dario wasn’t able to become a made man. We left the country before he had the chance to be inducted.” A look of pain flashes over her face, and a quick glance at Nikolai tells me that he’s seen it too. “When we left for England, Dario was still thirteen. He was too young, and by then…it wouldn’t have been safe for him to return to Italy.”
I raise an eyebrow.
I know that her mother was murdered, and that’s why they all moved to England.
The rest doesn’t make sense.
Why wouldn’t it be safe for her brother?
As the underboss—as a high ranking made man—why not push his son to join the family?
Why not encourage his son to take revenge on those who murdered his wife, and the mother of his two children?
Something is missing, and Nikolai and I will get to the bottom of it.
I sigh heavily—theatrics—and she watches me with keen eyes.
“Your father’s an underboss, your brother never joined, and your mother…”
Chiara’s face falls at the mere mention of her mother.
She shifts positions on the bed, almost curling into herself, keeping her body safe from us. Her voice cracks when she speaks again.
“My mother is dead.”
There’s a sharp silence in the room after that.
We knew that, our father has just told us about it, but it's different hearing those very same words fall from Chiara’s lips.
Women dieallthe time.