Page 123

“Get the hell out of the way. I have nothing to say to you.” I stepped back and bumped into a table, knocking over an empty glass that the woman seated behind it had next to her book.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her cross face.
Her gaze shifted between us, and her expression softened on me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m her father,” Judge Colby explained, giving her a politician’s smile.
She narrowed her eyes at him and took her phone out of her bag, angling it like she was recording. I couldn’t tell her to stop, but I couldn’t risk it being posted online.
I walked briskly down to the end of the block.
“Please wait,” he called to my back.
My eyes darted around me. There were still cars coming down the road and people passing. We weren’t alone. Knowinghim, he wanted something and believed he had the leverage to get it.I might as well find out.
I swiftly turned around, curling a hand into a tight fist. “Stay back. Say what you want and never come near me again,” I gritted between clenched teeth.
His eyes widened in shock. “Why are you behaving like this?”
I stiffened.
“Seriously, I don’t know what happened. Only that I blacked out and woke up in the hospital. Do you know?”
I ground my teeth.
He blew out his breath and hunched his shoulders. “You and Lorelei were gone, and they made me go to jail? I didn’t understand. But rehab and twelve steps taught me my addiction controlled me. I was just a puppet.”
“Then what did you apologize for?” I snapped.
He lifted his shoulders. “I don’t know. I don’t remember, but I know you hate me and I don’t want you to. It was Luca and the Belfiores feeding my addiction. The money, drugs, and gambling made me lose my family. You saw the papers. Right?”
I let out a derisive snort. Judge Colby believed the lies he’d made up.The papers. They were from him?
“Luca knew he did wrong. When I saw him in Italy, he was sorry. He gave me the papers and paperback to give you as proof ’cause he thought you wouldn’t believe me,” he said in a solemn tone like he was hurt as if I hadn’t heard his bullshit speeches before.
The only thing he was honest about was meeting Luca in Italy. The rest was a careful lie. Luca would never give him a paperback to give me or bring him back into my life. Judge Colby knew I’d never accept anything from him. So he must have told someone at the house in Florence that Luca gave him Lady Chatterley’s lover to give to me. That’s the only way it ended up in my room. But Luca left a similar package shaped like a bookwith Magda to give me before I left.Which means my father knew Luca was coming to see me that day.
“Those emails he sent to buy you.” He let out a low whistle. “They were so desperate; he was embarrassed when I showed them to him.” Judge Colby rubbed his jaw, and his mask slipped. It was clear he reveled in whatever he’d done to Luca. “I got proof in my briefcase. That’s my ace.” Ace was what he used to always say about his gambling. He had an ace up his sleeve. It also didn’t take a degree to figure out his blackmail plan.Rocco mentioned emails when we talked.However, my father was babbling on.
“I don’t need much; fifty million dollars should do it. Rocco can give me some stock and investments and buy a new house for my family, and I’ll be gone. Poof.”
I pursed my lips. “I’m supposed to believe you’ll destroy your life to ruin the Marinis’ reputation?”
He squared his shoulders. “After what you and your mother put me through, you should be so lucky I only want to sell the email. I went to jail and now have a shitty job. While you and Lorelei get to live high off the hog? Fuck that. You know, I saw her sleazing around with Max Steele. That’ll tank Glenn’s re-election.”
I narrowed my gaze at him.Who’s Max Steele?Mama never mentioned him, only that she was ‘exploring options’ because Glenn was a cheat. She called but I hadn’t listened to her message. Whatever the case, it had nothing to do with him. It only worked to prove he hadn’t changed and would use what he knew to harm her. Yet, I bet he hadn’t considered what all his threats might do to him. So I said, “That email, or whatever you have, will bring you down, too.”
His lips formed a self-satisfied grin. “Maybe. But I’ll have a book deal and a redemption arc that could land me millions.”
There was the dreaming gambler I knew all too well. He was bigging up his grandiose ideas, not bothering to see if they could fully land.He hasn’t learned a thing.
I breathed through my nose. “And if Rocco doesn’t do it?”
He lifted his head higher. “Then I’ll pen a tell-all, and it won’t just be about all the money Luca gave me over the years; I’ll tell about your grandparents trying to silence me. I’ll talk about how the drugs and gambling hurt me so much that I turned to prostitute your mom, and you had emotional problems that turned you violent. Plus, how they covered up your crime and sealed your juvenile record.”
“You have a good memory for a guy that ‘blacked out,’” I mocked. “What about the rest of the things you did to me?”
“To you? I didn’t do anything,” he said flatly, jerking his head indignantly.