The Vatican - M.E. Clayton Page 0,20

deals, right?”

My dad stepped towards me. “Saveria, I know you’re angry-”

“You wish I was angry, Dad,” I corrected him. “I’m not angry. I’m past angry.” I glance at all of them. “You men run this organization on the principles of loyalty and family, but what you did to me was the complete opposite.” The tears started running out of control down my face. “I’ve never felt so betrayed by anyone in all my life.” Each man looked like he’d been sucker punched, but I didn’t care.

They didn’t deserve my mercy.

I turned to walk out of the office, but I wasn’t done shredding my relationship with my family. I turned in the doorway and said, “I will never forgive you for this. Oh, and you guys can tell your wives they no longer need to pretend to give a shit about me, when it’s clear that all any of you care about is what’s best for you.” I slammed the door behind me.

Once I made it to the reception area of Uncle Luca’s floor, Mica stepped in line with me as I entered the elevator. I stabbed the button for the bottom floor and started wiping at my tears.

“Ria-”

“Don’t, Mica,” I cried out brokenly. “I’m barely hanging on by a thread here. Please…just don’t.”

“What do you need from me?” Mica’s been with me since I was fifteen. He was only ten years older than me, but he was an old soul. He was also ruthless as hell. It’s why he’d been assigned to me.

“Did you know?” I whispered, afraid of the answer.

“Everyone knew, Ria,” he admitted sadly. “Everyone but you.”

I stared at the elevator doors. “I’m such a fool.”

“Ria, I don’t necessarily agree with how this was played out, but…come on, Ria. You had to have known,” Mica said. “On some unconscious level, you had to have known what you were being groomed for. If you were never going to become Boss, what else could you become but Francisco’s wife?”

I hated how he made sense.

I hated how it seemed so obvious now.

I hated how they took my chance at love away from me.

The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out into the lobby. We had just turned the corner when I saw Vincent strolling in. He got one look at my face and pulled me to him. “What wrong, Ria?”

I looked up at my older brother, and I didn’t know how not to hate everyone who knew. “You knew,” I spat. “You fucking knew, and never said a word.”

“Ria-”

“What kind of big brother are you?” I hissed, my anger renewed. “How could you not tell me? How could you all keep this from me?”

“Ria, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, worry in his eyes.

“Francisco!”

Vincent dropped his hands and stepped back, his face dropping in regret. “Ria-”

“Don’t you see what you’ve done?” I pleaded. “Don’t you see what…you’ve done to me?”

“Ria-”

“You’ve taken away my chance for love, Vincent,” I choked out. “I am never going to know what it’s like to be loved by someone who loves me because he can’t help himself, and not because he’s family and has to.” The tears of betrayal started again, and I was so sick of them. “I’m never going to have what Mom and Dad have. I’m never going to know what it’s like to be cherished.” Hate seeped through my voice with each word. “I’ve been sentence to a marriage that is going to slowly kill me every day, and for what?”

“Ria, don’t talk like that,” he begged.

I pulled out my phone, threw it on the floor, smashing it into pieces. I bent down, picked up the shatter phone and dropped it in my brother’s hand. “All of you,” I seethed, “can go to hell.”

“Ria!”

“Spread the word, big brother,” I snarled. “I don’t want fuck to do with anyone who knew and didn’t tell me.”

“Ria, you don’t mean that.”

I turned my back on him and walked out of the building, Mica at my back with Vincent yelling my name. Mica helped me into the car, walked over to the driver’s side, and off we went.

A few miles down the road, he said, “You know I have to tell your father, right?”

“I know, Mica,” I replied, my eyes closed, my head resting on the headrest. “But he knows he can find me through you, so I think he’ll give me my space.”

“So, where to?”

“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. I had nowhere to go. All I knew was my family.