Page 131 of Broken Mafia Bride

“I need to warn Giulia,” I add, already pulling out my phone and dialing her number.

Relief washes over me when she answers on the first ring—until her next words slam into my chest like a punch:

“I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

“There’s something you need to know,” I say evenly, forcing my voice to stay calm.

There’s no response from her. Confused, I strain my ears and just make out the sound of shuffling. What the fuck is going on in there? “Giulia? Giulia?”

Still nothing.

A cold wave of panic rushes through me. “Giulia, answer me. Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” she replies.

“It’s about Lucio,” I say, my tone dropping. “It gets worse, baby. I think you need to get out of there. Now.”

“What did you find out?”

“The incident at the bridge that caused you to lose your mother was his doing. And apparently, your twin is alive. He’s kept her here all these years. That sick bastard tore your family apart in some fucked-up plot to keep everyone under his thumb.”

“It’s Caterina, isn’t it?” she breathes. “She’s my sister. Valentina.”

I pause. “You knew?”

A broken sob cracks down the line.

“Giulia, baby, I want you to get out of that office now,” I grit out. “We’ll find Noemi, but I’m not risking you. Everything we thought we knew about Re Ombra was just surface-level. I don’t want you anywhere near him. You hear me? Get out of there right now.”

“I have to go,” she whispers—and hangs up.

My heart free-falls. That tone in her voice—it’s final, like she’s already walking into fire.

I blink at the phone, a deep unease filling my stomach and making it tight and achy. If there’s one thing I know about Giulia, it’s that she’s stubborn as hell. I have a feeling she’s not going to listen to me and leave Lucio’s study—not until she finds something.

And now that she knows about his involvement in her mother’s death, she has an even greater vendetta against him.

I turn back toward Pepe, who’s watching me closely, assessing me, trying to guess my next move. “We need asafehouse on the island where Lucio won’t find us—somewhere we can stay and figure all of this out. Do you have a place for us?”

“Raffaele—”

“Do you?” I snap. “Are you going to continue living your life under Lucio’s thumb? Face it, Pepe, everything is going down one way or another. This is the perfect time to choose your side, stand your ground, and save the woman you love.”

“I know what side I’m on,” he snaps back. “I was trying to say that your best course of action would be sticking around and pretending you’re still under Lucio’s thumb. Trust me, you’re not ready to go on the offensive against him.”

I glance over my shoulder. I can see Casa Bianca’s high fence and wrought iron gates from the open garage doors. There’s an odd niggling at the base of my spine—a sense of danger I can’t shake off.

Finally, I see Lucio for what he is.

Not just a king.

Agoddamn shadow.

One we’ve all been living under.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re ready,” I tell him. “Desperate times call for desperate actions. He made the first move by touching my daughter, and now I’m finding out he’s fucked up Giulia’s entire life. We’re long overdue to be on the offensive.”

I don’t wait for Pepe to reply. I turn and bolt out of the garage, warning bells going off in my head so loudly they drown out everything else. Sweat pours down my face as I race across the street, Casa Bianca just up ahead.