with the Devil. With the man who tried to kill me and start a war between you and the Marchetti. When that didn’t work, he turned to more legitimate options. He wanted to control you, to use you… and you let him.” Indignation raced through my veins.
“Roberto?” My mother’s mouth hung open as if she couldn’t believe it.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” She’d implied she knew everything, but I should have known he would still keep secrets from her. “It wasn’t Antonio Marchetti who tried to kill me, Mamma, it was Mike.”
“No,” she gasped, “that’s not—”
“It is true.” He hung his head in shame. “Mike wants to destroy me, to destroy us.”
“I did what you could not,” I said. “I went to Antonio and asked for his help.”
His eyes slid to mine, burning with contempt. “That man is—”
“Willing to save your life.”
“At a cost?” he scoffed. “I would rather...” My father swallowed the words.
“Die?” My brow raised. “Nobody is going to die. Antonio is willing to hand Mike and Scott over to the authorities and in exchange he will become your partner.”
“Absolutely not!” He shot up.
“It is done. I am the Capizola heir. I am eighteen now. One day your empire will be mine.”
“I won’t do it. I won’t just hand over the business to that... that criminal.”
“That criminal took me in after Scott, the man you wanted me to marry, raped me. He promised me protection when my own father wouldn’t believe my words. That man is going to one day be my father-in-law. So yes, Father, you will do this. Otherwise, I will be dead to you.”
“Arianne!” My mother’s face went as white as a sheet, but I kept my attention on my father.
“I am marrying Nicco. You can either get on board with it, or not.”
“You cannot trust them...” he murmured, scrubbing a hand over his face.
“Trust is earned, Father. And Nicco and his father have done a damn sight more to earn my trust than you ever have.”
Devastation etched into his expression, but he needed to hear this. He needed to understand how deeply his betrayal had hurt me.
My eyes stung with unshed tears, but I would not cry.
Not today.
Not in front of the man who had broken my heart one too many times.
“I may never forgive you, but this is a start to you righting your wrongs.”
He slumped down in the chair, a pained whimper leaving his lips. “I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
“No, Father.” I looked at the man I’d once worshipped. The man I thought could do no wrong.
We were like strangers now.
Two people bound together by nothing more than blood and bad memories.
“You do not.”
There was a knock at my door. “Come in,” I called.
“It’s only me.” Mom slipped into my room. Although it didn’t really feel like my room anymore.
“I just wanted to check and see how you are?”
“I’ll be glad when this is all over,” I admitted.
“I still can’t believe...” She took a shuddering breath, moving to the chair in the corner of the room. “You must hate us.”
“I don’t...” I let out a weary sigh. “It isn’t hatred I feel, Mamma. I just don’t understand how we ended up here.”
“I find myself asking that same question a lot lately.” Her lips quivered as she inhaled a shaky breath. “Your father has always been overprotective, but he had his reasons. And then after the attempt on your life at the school... well, he changed after that. Became obsessed with protecting you. Despite all your father’s faults, his actions came from a place of love, Arianne.”
“I can’t forget... I won’t. What Scott did to me... it changed me, Mamma.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I know. I know it will take time.”
“It will take more than time. They say sons are born in their father’s image. Well, I am my father’s daughter. If he taught me anything, it’s that everything comes at a price. This is mine.”
“You’re so young though. I knew things between you and Nicco were serious, but marriage, mia cara? That’s very... permanent.”
“You married Father when you were barely twenty and you were more than willing to give me away to Scott. You weren’t worried about my age then, Mamma.” Disbelief coated my words.
“Arianne, please…” She inhaled a shaky breath. “You’re right, you father and I were young, but we had been together for almost four years by then.” She gave me a weak smile and it wasn’t lost on me that she’d chosen to ignore my dig