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“Oh Jasmine, I’m so sorry.”

“And the worst part is?” I swallow hard. “I caused this. No matter what Roman did afterward, I agreed to his plan. I agreed to marry him to save my family, and instead I’ve destroyed it.”

“No, don’t you dare think like that.” Catherine lifts her hand and cups my damp cheek. “You were faced with a terrible decision and made a choice to save everyone.”

“But they argued about it constantly. If I’d owned up sooner maybe Dad would still be alive!”

“You can’t know that. Your parents fought all the time, even I know that. And there’s no way of knowing how things would have panned out. Your father was acting like it was his idea anyway, so your confession might have changed absolutely nothing.”

“Or everything.”

“Oh Jasmine.” She tucks my hair behind my ear and smiles sadly at me. “Don’t torture yourself for things you can’t control. Isn’t that what you told me about Seth?”

I gently roll my eyes. “Maybe.”

“Exactly. So control what you know. Everything else will have to come later.”

Catherine stays the night with me and spends a lot of time with my mother, although she barely registers that either of us are there. After helping her with dinner and taking her to bed, I set Catherine up in my room to sleep then retire to the en suite for the longest bath of my life.

Amidst the hot water and the bubbles, tears threaten once more, but I refuse to let them fall.

Enough tears.

It’s time for action.

Revenge is what I’m good at, and the Gattis are on the menu. I’m going to do what my father never could and wipe them out for good.

And if that includes Roman, then so be it.

31

ROMAN

“The wedding’s off.” The words are like ash in my mouth. “But I’m not sure you’ll get the meeting you want.”

My father has his back to me, his attention down on several documents spread out across the meeting table. “Why?”

Telling him that I lied to Jasmine and hurt her to ensure she closed down and protected herself isn’t the best course of action.

I fudge the details. “She’s grieving. You know how women are. She’s not in the right mind space for any kind of clear thought. All I know is that she never wants to see me again.”

“Hm.” My father flips one sheet over and audibly sucks on his teeth. “Crushing her and the remains of her family will be easy. I hear her mother has had some sort of mental break and isn’t all there.” He taps his temple and laughs. “That woman was always distant. I’m surprised it took so long.”

My hands curl into fists. As much as I want to punch that smirk off his face, I can’t. Not yet. I need to give Jasmine some time to strengthen her security with people she trusts so that she’s truly safe. Only then can I act and take this fucker down like he deserves.

“So what’s next?” I ask, walking closer. “Her father is dead. She’s distraught. Her mother has crumpled. There’s nothing but a handful of men whose loyalty can be shifted with the right paycheck. Surely, it’s time to move on to bigger things.”

“You think it’s that easy?” Alto saunters in swinging keys around his fingers, one hand in his pocket. “You think we’ll just leave your little girlfriend to have her cry and then pick herself back up? Do you know how long this took me to implement? Getting that fucking woman to text me back was like pulling teeth until I realized how much she adored male attention. You see, when you announced your little proposal Roman, I was pissed. I won’t lie. If anyone should be marrying into a family it should be me.”

“Then you should have taken initiative,” I reply tightly, clenching my teeth. “Ain’t hard.”

“And put Father in the same terrible position you forced him into?” Alto stops on the other side of the table and glances between us. “What kind of son would I be if I made him cozy up to his biggest enemy?”

“We all have to smile at snakes every once in a while,” I mutter.

“And yet Alto’s plan makes it so I never have to smile at snakes ever again.” My father finally leans up from the table and faces me. “Surely you see the beauty in his work?”

“What does it get us exactly?” Years of practice keeping my temper are unraveling. Once again, I’ve scraped by on bloody knuckles to make him proud and earn his attention and trust, and once again, Alto does the bare fucking minimum off a situationIset up, and suddenly he’s the mastermind.