Page 79 of Sins and Secrets

“Great. Leave me with the two angry men while you call the woman you’re avoiding.”

Christian chuckles as another frame goes flying. “There is no world in which I’m going to be staying for this show. Have fun. Scream if you need me.”

He hurries out of the room as Papa struggles to get out of bed. I rush across the room toward him as he starts to stumble.

“Papa, you’re not supposed to get out of bed without your nurse here. What do you think you’re doing?”

He recoils from my touch before trying to lunge at Alessio. Tears gather in my eyes as Papa falls to the ground with a shout.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I ask, turning to face Alessio. “What the fuck did you do?”

Though I want to help Papa get to his feet, I know I won’t be able to lift him. He’s too proud to let me help him up. Whatever is happening between the two of them right now is between the two of them.

“I told him that I care about you and want to be with you,” Alessio says, not taking his eyes off Papa. “As you can imagine, he didn’t take to that too well.”

“You’ve known her since she was a baby! We’ve been friends since we were kids, and this is what you do to me? You decide that you want to date my daughter? My beautiful and brilliant daughter who is nineteen years younger than you and far out of your fucking league?”

Papa gets to his feet and shuffles to the chair in the corner. He sits down with his arms crossed. The expression on his face is deadly as he looks at Alessio. Alessio doesn’t seem to care, standing tall with his shoulders pulled back and his hands in his pockets.

“This is what you two are fighting about? You have got to be kidding me. The only person who gets to decide who I’m with is me. Papa, I love you and this is not the way I wanted you to find out, but I am seeing Alessio.”

Not only am I seeing him, but I’m seeing a life with him. I’m seeing a world in which I don’t run away from the mafia, and it’s scary as hell.

“Alessio, please leave so I can talk to Papa about this?”

He looks at me and raises an eyebrow. There is a stubborn set to his jaw that makes me think this isn’t going to go over without a fight. I put my hands on my hips and stand in front of him. It’s a silent challenge and we both know it.

After the longest staring competition of my life, Alessio turns and walks out of the room. He closes the door, leaving me alone with my father.

I sigh, some of the anger leaving my body as I cross the room and take a seat beside Papa. He looks over at me, his frown lines deep and fury in his eyes.

“I raised you better than this, Billie. I raised you to want more for your life than a man who is only going to treat you like a trophy. He may be my best friend, but he is not the kind of man to settle down.”

Papa’s words cut deep, but it’s time to finally stand up to him. I’m an adult, and while he only wants the best for me, this is a part of my life that he doesn’t get a say in.

“With all due respect, Papa, that is not something you get to say to me right now. Not even a little bit. I do still want all the same things I’ve always wanted. I have dreams and I fully intend to chase them, but I also see a version of the future where Alessio is at my side.”

He shakes his head. “You’re not the daughter I raised. You had plans to get out of this life, Billie. Does that mean that you’re going to throw all that away for a man who won’t even say that he is in a relationship with you?”

“We’re not in a relationship,” I say, though I make a mental note to talk to Alessio about that. I want more with him and I think he wants more with me. If he didn’t, why would he tell my father about us?

“Great, So, you are giving up everything you’ve ever wanted for a man you aren’t even dating.”

“Enough!” I stand up and pace across the room. “Papa, you are going to listen to me this time because this is the first and last time I’m going to talk about it.”

He presses his lips together but says nothing. I continue to pace across the room, sorting through all my thoughts. I know that I can’t tell him about the auction and the contract — he would kill Alessio for that — but he needs to know that this isn’t a joke to me.

It’s been more than just a contract for me for a few weeks now. At night, I dream of the life I could have. I’ve been thinking more and more about helping Alessio change the state of the mafia even though I keep telling myself that I have to leave.

“I’ve been seeing Alessio for a couple of weeks. We haven’t put a label on it because there is a lot going on with Paolo and neither of us has been ready to commit that much to each other yet. On top of that, I’m still on the fence about leaving. I want to go and spread my wings, but I want to stay. Papa, instead of you telling me that I’m not the daughter you raised, I need your support.”

“And what if I can’t support this?” Papa’s voice wavers. It’s the first emotion other than anger I’ve seen from him in a long time. “Billie, he is older than you. At a completely different point in his life. He is a brutal man.”

“He wants to change the mafia and make it a better place for everyone. He doesn’t want to be like his brother and father anymore.” I come to a stop in front of him. “I can see a future with that version of Alessio. I can see myself with the version of him that wants more for his life than just killing people.”

“And how do you know that’s the version of him that’s going to be around for the next however many years?”

I run my hand through my hair. “Did you ever think that might be the problem? That everyone in his life has had so little faith in him that they think he can’t be anything more than who he was raised to be?”

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