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“Liar!” Her scream made the restaurant silent, heads turning our way.

She didn’t care. She did not have the wherewithal to be embarrassed by her outburst.

“What do you say, Cosima?” Eoghan leaned forward, his posture almost pleading. “Make fucking peace, get your man back, and have a real future for yourself, for your children.”

“You know nothing of me, Eoghan Green! Do not come here thinking you know me because of your pathetic relationship with your father!” She shook her head, ready to leave the table. “You do not have Morelli, and even if you did, he would never…”

Her lips faltered as she tried to finish her words.

“Never what, Cosa? Never confess his undying love? Of your first kiss when you were eighteen? Of all the ways he absorbed pain for you? To protect you? Because he has pledged his absolute fealty to the little girl who grew up to be the woman of his heart?”

She leaned forward, spitting in his face.

When that wasn’t enough, she grabbed a glass of water and threw it at him.

Eoghan took it all in stride, knowing he had struck a fatal blow.

I put my hand on my stomach, trying to keep my sympathy from leaking out. I ached for her.

“If he is still alive, I will never make peace.” Her eyes darkened. “I will bend you until you break, Green. I will destroy you—” Her eyes cut to me. “—and her, and any bastard children you have. It will be my life’s mission to twist you into misery, you sick, blood-painting son of a bitch.”

“That’s a funny thing, that.” Eoghan picked up his napkin and began wiping his water-soaked face. “I never actually painted with blood, you see. Not until after I had Morelli.”

“Eoghan!” I said through clenched teeth. “Stop.”

I could feel his temper like a current of electricity through our joined hands. It hurt. It prickled my skin and made me wince and pull away, but he held on.

“I bled him. Gallons of it. Made a painting on a canvas as large as the foyer wall in the Green mansion. The one you’re all so terrified of, now.”

Eoghan’s low, dry chuckle reminded me that my beloved was a monster.

He was my monster, but a monster nonetheless. “That was the blood of Giovanni Morelli, mixed with oils. It is the largest masterpiece I will ever create.”

Then he laughed as he continued his threat. “At least until I soak these streets with the blood of your men.”

So, peace wasn’t really going to result from these talks.

“I will destroy you,” Cosima said in a threatening whisper. “If I do not, then my daughter will.” She came to her feet. “If she does not, then I have the molds to make ten more children, and every single one of them will be raised for one purpose—to destroy you.”

What the ever-living-fuck…

“Do not curse your children like that!” I said, appalled.

I didn’t know that she was a mother. I had not seen that. But it did not surprise me in the least.

Maybe this would allow me to connect to her.

“We are both mothers,” I said quietly. “We want nothing but the best for our children. Do not doom them to a war that we can end right here.”

Cosima looked at me like I was larva in rotten fruit.

“The best thing for my daughter,” she laughed, “or for any child of mine, will be to rid this city of the Irish snakes.”

She hissed through her teeth like a cat about to pounce.

“There are no snakes in Ireland, no?” she said softly. “Because they all came here.”

Her eyes landed on my husband again, who stared right back at her with the same malice.

I squeezed his hand again, begging him to stop this.

It pulled him from their stare, and he blinked. His eyes softened, and the snarl turned into a frown.

“That is exactly the life Morelli would spare you from.” Eoghan got up from the table, pulling me by the hand.

He turned around, taking us out of Cosima’s reach. He put me behind him, so that he stood between me and Cosima, as if he expected her to attack me at any moment.

Then he turned, casually saying over his shoulder, “You have until sunset to accept my offer, Cosima. Then everything that comes after… on your head be it .”

Then, with my hand in his, we walked to the front of the restaurant, making our exit.

Eoghan did not spare her another glance as he placed his hand on the door, ready to hold it open for us to leave.

I looked over my shoulder, wondering if this was truly the best we could do.

Was there more we could do to reach her?

Then Cosima yelled, “You are a liar, Eoghan Green! I will never surrender to you!”

Eoghan pushed the door open and let it swing closed behind me, muffling the rest of what she yelled. “Never forget, Green, that vendetta is an Italian word!”

Once we were in the car, Eoghan pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, audible sigh. “Get us out of here, O’Malley.”

With a nod, Kieran put the idling car in drive and pulled out into traffic. The other cars around us moved in tandem, creating a convoy that would keep us safe from being attacked on the streets.

Eoghan didn’t look at me when his eyes drifted up to the back of the partition. He pressed a button, and the partition went up, separating us from the driver.

“Now you know the last of my secrets, sweet Muse,” he said quietly. “My counsel has been the same man used by Eugenio Durante. I have kept Morelli with me these past years. He is the man who has prevented the loss of my sanity in your absence.”

“Three years,” I gasped.

“Yes.” He shut his eyes.

“The rumors about the painting in the foyer are true.” It was a statement, not a question.

Was I appalled? Yes. Of course, I was. How could I not be? But how I judged him would have to depend on seeing it all for myself.

I couldn’t comprehend it. It just didn’t make any sense to me. I needed to see all of this with my own eyes! I needed to understand exactly what had happened within the Green mansion while I was away.

But that would have to wait for a better time. Cosima would not surrender. More blood would be spilled.