the bedroom. He’d disappeared. Damn it. This time, I refused to back down. I found him leaning against the doorjamb in the living room, staring at the tumultuous sky.
He was aware of my presence, his head tilting as I neared. I cringed as several flashes of lightning crackled down in the water, the vibrant colors of electric blue and neon purple as unsettling as the night itself.
“I’m not who you think I am,” he said quietly.
“Then who are you?”
His shoulders slumped and when he began talking, the remorse and guilt in his voice was gut-wrenching. “I was raised in the Capodanno family, the second-born son.”
“Yes. I know that.”
“But Nicolas Capodanno is not my father.”
I had no idea what to say at first, but I could easily tell this was the powerful burden that he’d been carrying with him for all these years. “Who is?” Even before he said the dreaded words, I had a terrible premonition of what he was going to say.
“Father McGivney.”
The weight of his words wasn’t lost on me. Even though I wasn’t privy to the various levels of power within the sect, I was well aware that there were some who thought the father had truly been the man in charge. For Matteo to be his son; the news would rock the entire community to the very core, certainly dethroning Christian’s position on the Council. “Are you certain?”
“He told me himself with his dying breaths.”
I inched closer. “Do you have proof?”
“I wasn’t prepared to destroy my mother.”
“How did this come about? Why would he tell you something like that?”
He laughed softly as he stared at the sky. “Because he’d attempted to arrange for his son to come into power. The Box Christian’s wife opened all those months ago was supposed to include my name, not Christian’s. As you know, only the firstborn son of the first families can ascend to the throne, but he was certain my lineage would supersede the rules. Of course, he’d already extorted money from the sect and gained his own influential followers.”
“This is the secret the jerk on the phone mentioned.”
He nodded, a haunting look crossing his face. “That means that the dirty secret was leaked.”
“By whom?”
When he shifted in my direction, I could see nothing but sadness. “By my brother or his wife.”
“Christian? Why would your brother betray you? I don’t understand.”
“Every family has ugly secrets hiding in their closets. I cared about Stephanie a long time ago and Father McGivney exploited that. As you might imagine, that didn’t set well with my brother.”
I touched his arm, half expecting him to jerk away. When he didn’t, I inched even closer. “The woman you could never get over.”
“The truth is I had, although seeing the two of them together was difficult at first. However, they were meant to be together. I don’t begrudge them their happiness.”
“But you believe Christian doesn’t have the same feelings.”
“I don’t know what to believe except I have no doubt that’s what the caller alluded to. How would this asshole realize I had any idea what he was talking about?”
“Matteo, think this through. Is it possible that was just a bluff? You’ve told me that every sect member has an ugly secret. I think whoever is responsible is playing one against the other, hoping that you and Christian will have a falling out, a split in power.”
He seemed to think about what I was saying. “An interesting thought. There is only one way to find out.”
“You’re going to confront Christian.”
Nodding, he brushed damp hair from my eyes before gently rubbing his thumb back and forth across my cheek.
“How did Father McGivney die?”
“I shot him.” He allowed the words to hang. “He’d kidnapped Stephanie and Christian and I found him. However, Christian issued the kill shot.”
I gripped his arm, shaking my head. “That wasn’t in the news. Does anyone know this?”
“A few select members, but I assure you that the other Council members are just as pissed at what he did.”
“But this could be the secret, not that you might or might not be the father’s son. You need to find that out. If you don’t, it will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
Matteo leaned over, kissing my forehead. “How did you get so smart?”
“I’m not as close to this. I can see different things. Plus, I care about you more than I can understand.”
He pulled me gently into his arm, holding me as if his life depending on it. “I want to give you the