Page 3 of Corrupt Crown

“And Evan? He’s safe? The investments are repaid…”

Father nods once as he expels a breath. “The paperwork is already en route, I would imagine. He seemed quite taken with Elodie, thank God.”

Mother snorts cruelly. “Heavens knows why.”

Then she looks me up and down, those piercing blue eyes not holding a hint of warmth when she openly finds me as lacking as she has on every other day of my existence.

Having never been made aware as towhyshe maintains such a strong dislike for me, I’ve come to accept our relationship as perfunctory at best.

My indifferent gaze moves past her to my father as he types a message on his cell. Though my father tends to ignore my presence for the most part, he’s never been cruel.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Father. Who was that man?”

He glances up mid-text with a small shrug. “His father is the head of the Conti organized crime syndicate in New York City. Domenico was here today to clear up a…slight misunderstanding involving Evan and myself.”

His cell rings before he can elaborate. “Evan, my boy…” He holds up a quelling hand when I open my mouth to speak again before he turns to walk out onto the terrace, taking the call with his golden child in privacy.

Evan, my senior by three years, works remotely as he travels the world on our father’s money. He’s only been given his role at the company because it was expected, not because he was particularlycapable.

And that same incompetence appears to be the reason this stranger’s interest in me is something to be celebrated.

A shiver runs the length and breadth of my body as I face my mother to ask the inevitable question. “And why do you want him to beinterestedin me?”

With a loud tut, she grips my upper arm with force. “Don’t be so fucking obtuse, Elodie. All you need to know is that yourbrother got in over his head, and today—for the first time in your miserable life—you’re able to do something worthwhile for this family.”

She leans closer, and though internally I plead with the universe to make it stop, I’m no stranger to knowing my place.

After all, despite everything else that’s happened, I’ve been raised to be the perfect little Stepford wife.

“You’ll belong to Domenico and the Conti family for as long as they wish. You’ll do whatever they demand of you.”

My face falls as my heart ricochets beneath my breastbone, and her voice drops to a low snarl, repeating those words from earlier that have now taken on a whole new meaning.

“Do what he says, or you know who’ll pay the price, Elodie.”

I blink once, then twice, pushing all other thoughts out of my head as I nod slowly, forcing my lips upward in a vacant smile. “Of course, Mother.”

CHAPTER 1

RAFAEL - SIX MONTHS AGO - 31

SICILY, ITALY

“The trucewith those Conti cunts is over, Rafael. They’vemurderedyour father in cold blood. They’vestolenyour sister,minchia!”

My consigliere slams down the image that had arrived this morning of my bound and gagged sister, Aurelia, eyes spitting angry mahogany flames, her spirit clearly unbroken.

A sense of twisted pride fills my chest at the venom in her gaze. Strength in the face of adversity.

A true Caruso Queen.

“We don’t have confirmation that it was Conti,” I say succinctly, my tone even, though my patience has long since run thin.

“We both know it was fucking Conti, Rafael. Stop playing games and step up to the goddamn plate.”

Antonio Caruso, consigliere to my father, the late Don Giacomo Caruso, is a shrewd man. A calculated man.

In another life, I trained to become just like him, but all chance of that life is gone now that my older brother, Alessio, was killed in a car accident three short months ago.