Page 17 of Unforgiving Queen

“Your father will start noticing,” she scolded softly.

I scoffed. “Do I need to point out he’s not my father?” She flinched. I knew she hated the reminder.Join the fucking club. “By the way, I ran into Diana Glasgow.” Her expression turned guarded. “She was very distraught, accusing our family, along with Tomaso Romero, of bringing misery to theirs.”

The woman wasn’t wrong. It was the only reason that’d kept me from strangling her right there and then.

Silence stretched, tense like a rubber band ready to snap.

Except my mother’s next words were a blatant lie. “I don’t know what she meant by that. They caused misery, not the other way around.” She lifted her chin and made her way to the large french window.

“And how is that?”

“Their family never belonged in the underworld. They don’t understand the way things are among families in the Omertà, the importance of business relationships.”

I twisted the yin and yang bracelet Reina gave me on the day I learned who my birth father was. It was meant as a beginning, yet it turned out to be an end. I didn’t care that it was derived from Chinese culture. It only reminded me of her.

“And you do?”

My mother whirled around, her eyes flashing with anger. “I do. I grew up in this world. We belong in this world.”

I was beginning to see things in my mother that I didn’t like. Maybe it was my resentment, or maybe my eyes were finally being opened.

7

REINA

There were a few times over the last few weeks where I thought death was better than staying alive. It would have spared me the pain and the tears that came at night.

In death, I would have found peace.

Instead, I sat and stared at the gray landscape stretching for miles outside of Glasgow castle. An hour outside of London, the countryside made you believe you were hundreds of miles away from the city and civilization.

It was Thanksgiving and Grandma decided we’d celebrate it in her husband’s hometown in Cambridge. The estate was vast and had enough rooms to accommodate both our families and our friends. Of course, they didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in England, but considering the Duke of Glasgow’s granddaughter was born in the States and followed the customs, it was a novelty for their entire family.

I watched Livy and her husband play with the triplets—Lily, Lena, and Liam Caldwell. A normal life. That was what it looked like they had. My heart lurched. It had been so long since our family was normal… Assuming we ever were.

My mind drifted and a forgotten memory filtered in without permission.

A loud bang sounded in the distance.

I looked up from the Lego castle my sister and I were building. “What was that?” I signed, then remembered she couldn’t hear.

She just shrugged.

I was just getting back to our Legos when I heard another loud bang, followed by shouts. Jumping to my feet, I ran to the living room window and peeked outside.

There were five men out there. With guns!

I darted back to the spot where Phoenix sat on the floor, staring at me with a confused look on her face.

“We have to find Mamma.”

I stuck to signing, worried that someone might hear me outside. Just as I was about to pull her to her feet, Mamma and Papà burst into the room.

“You two, hurry,” Papà urged. “You’ll go with your mother.”

He didn’t sign, leaving Phoenix to search my face for clues. I quickly translated and then followed him toward the fireplace where he was patting down the stone sides. Mamma was pale as a ghost, her fingers trembling as she pushed my curls out of my face.

“Everything will be okay,” Papà said over his shoulder, but he didn’t sound so sure.