Page 137 of Ruin

I scowl at him. “And why doyoucare if I’m with Tommy?”

His mouth twists in disgust. “Because it’s beneath you. A well-bred woman reduced to a schoolgirl crush.”

I laugh bitterly. “A schoolgirl crush?”

“Not to mention,” my father continues, ignoring me. “I don’t want to be caught in the middle of a war. I won’t see my family dragged into bloodshed because of your poor choices.”

Aurelio clears his throat, smoke curling from his nostrils. “History repeats itself, eh, Lorenzo?” His gaze slides back to me, deliberate, cruel. “Once upon a time, I thought I was in love with your mother. I had her every way a man can have a woman. I came inside her hoping she would breed for me. But love did not decide our fate, and it should not decide yours.”

Years of practice keeping my expression blank to hide my feelings evaporates in the space of seconds. Camouflage gone. My father makes no pretense. He stands abruptly, rocking the chair on its back legs. My mother uncrosses her legs and slides off her chair, unperturbed.

Holy fucking shit. Is that why my father hates Aurelio? The idea of my beautiful mother with this greasy monster…I want to vomit.

“Bottom line, Giovanna,” my father snaps. “Antonio is better suited to you and our family than Tommy. For all the beautiful suits you put him in, he’s still an animal at heart. He’s not believable as a straight businessman, as a husband. Eventually, he’ll go back to his roots. And then what happens to you, Mrs. Giovanna Demonio? To your children with this monster?”

My heart stumbles. Hearing my name paired with Tommy’s is like being branded. Mrs. Giovanna Demonio.The thought of babies with his eyes, his fire, raised by their strong gorgeous father—my breath catches, filling me with fierce certainty: Tommy is my future.

I turn to my mother, my voice shaking with rage. “And where are you in all this? Mom, why would you want me to marry someone I don’t love? So I can be like you, married to someone who cheats on me like Dad cheats on you?”

“Giovanna—” My mother’s tone sharpens, her eyes darting to my father.

He silences her with a hand. “No. Let her speak.”

“I don’t need your permission.” I snap and swivel to Antonio. “You don’t want to marry me, either. Say something.”

Antonio sounds tired when he speaks, sitting up straight to look at me. “I’m a soldier, Giovanna.”

I’m baffled by his response. “What the hell does that—”

His gaze hardens, heavy with meaning. “My job is to protect you. I know what will happen if you break this engagement. Please let me keep you safe.”

His sincerity feels insane, like we’re in parallel universes where only I remember that we never touch each other, that he’s been fucking other people our entire relationship, that I’m in love with someone else.

I shake my head. “Mom, this is crazy. You want me to sacrifice all of us for an imagined coup?”

“It’s not imagined.” My mother’s voice is soft but steel-edged. Her eyes blaze at me, and it’s terrifying. My stomach knots.

Aurelio signals my father to sit down, and he does, barely on the edge of his seat, a sneer on his face, then he gestures lazily to Antonio, smoke curling off his cigar. “Antonio, tell her.”

Antonioobeys. “Mikey Briarone, a guy on Vin’s crew, compiled incriminating evidence against Aurelio. He was going to leverage it to get rid of Aurelio, but Aurelio found out. Mikey fled with his wife, but the plane he took went down last week. Aurelio thinks it was an inside job.”

I shake my head. “You said the guy’s wife was on board? Tommy would never—”

“My men are disgruntled,” Aurelio cuts me off with an irritable wave of his cigar. “Vincenzo created the flash drive with the evidence, Matteo blew up the plane to bury the evidence, and Tommaso is using you to get to your father’s company and use the funds to take me down. But,” he smacks on his cigar. “That will not happen, because you will marry Antonio and the two of you will protect my assets.”

Tommy using me? The idea is so absurd I laugh. “You don’t know Tommy at all if you think—”

“It doesn’t matter if he would or wouldn’t,” interrupts my mother. “If Aurelio feels he needs to neutralize a threat, he has the right to do so.”

“And you think that Antonio could stop Tommy if that was truly the plan? I don’t think—”

“Enough!” my father roars, rising from his seat. “Giovanna, you will stay away from Tommy. That is final. The wedding is in two days. Antonio, welcome to the family.”

I shoot a desperate look at Antonio, but he stands slowly, his shoulders squared like a condemned man accepting his fate, and shakes my father’s hand, his jaw tight.

Aurelio grunts his approval as he heaves himself up, scattering ash and smoke as Antonio walks them all to the door. My mother looks back at me with a small smile before she leaves, and when Antonio shuts the door behind them, he leans against it and we stare at each other for a long time without speaking.

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