Page 56 of Doll Face

He took a deep, fortifying breath as he lifted his gaze to hers. “I came home and my father showed me the picture of your body. He gave me your necklace and told me it was the Iannuzzi family who pulled the trigger. It wasn’t until recently that I got out of the fog and started investigating. Tell me what happened.”

“There was a disturbance at the arcade and we closed early. My friend Tommy asked if I needed a ride, but I declined.”

“Tommy?”

She nodded. “Tommy Reynard. I told you. My best friend.”

“Shit. I don’t know how to tell you, but he’s dead.” He blew out a harsh breath. “He was our butler. Said he infiltrated the household to avenge you. Stole a lot of money from my father.”

“I know,” she said softly, blinking away her tears. Now wasn’t the time to think of Tommy. “I have my own sources. I’m warning you now that I will bring Pietro Romanelli to his knees for what he did to Tommy, to me, and to many others. That night, when I walked up to my apartment complex, I was knocked unconscious. I woke up tied to a chair in the basement of your father’s home.”

A strangled noise rumbled in his chest.

“He beat me. Tortured me. Broke my nose, my cheekbones.” She looked down. “My spirit. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want to live either.”

“Oh, my God,” he said. “I feel sick.”

He grabbed his water and downed half the glass. Gianna slowly realized Pietro Romanelli was more of a bastard than she thought he was.

“You didn’t know, did you?” she asked softly.

His eyes snapped toward her. “How could you think I’d betray you like that?”

“It’s not hard when someone is punching you in the face.” She rose from her chair and moved it closer to him. She rested a hand on his arm. “I couldn’t understand what I did wrong. Why you decided you didn’t want me anymore.”

“Never,” he whispered brokenly. “I’ll never not want you. My soul died that night. All I wanted was to be with you, but Rocco never left me alone. Forced me to still breathe.”

“When your father pulled the trigger, the gun didn’t go off, so he ordered one of his henchmen to finish the job and then left the basement. Only, the guy asked me if I wanted to live, and I nodded, so he got me out of there.”

“Who was it?”

“Oh, I can’t divulge that. He’s still in your father’s employ. What I can tell you is that Pietro has amassed a bunch of pissed off people who all want to bring down the Romanelli name. And that includes me.”

“It’s not easy to bring down a mafia don,” he said. “How did you turn into Gianna?”

She didn’t want to tell him yet what Seth had unearthed. “Pietro was responsible for the death of Orianna Aldighieri’s daughter and son-in-law. He wanted Violetta, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with him, so he tampered with their car. For years Orianna tried to find ammunition against him, but it wasn’t until I came along that she came up with a solid plan. I had to be willing to be your wife and I agreed. So, she invented a granddaughter and she had her personal guard, Caelian, teach me all I needed to know in self-defense and weaponry. I became fluent in Italian. Had to perfect my British accent. And then…”

She had to pause for a moment to clear the tears threatening to fall. When she felt more in control, she continued.

“And then she told me she was sick.” Grief threatened to consume her, but she pushed it aside, just like every time she thought about Orianna. “I may not have been her biological granddaughter, but that didn’t stop me from loving her. I vowed on her grave to honor her plan and see it through to the end.”

“You were going to marry me under false pretenses?”

“I was willing to do anything for vengeance.”

“God damn it,” he swore.

“I know you want me to be Macy, but I can’t be her ever again. Macy died in that basement, and I am Gianna now.”

“I thought I was going mad,” he admitted. “You reminded me of her. The joke you told, some phrases you said. The way you walked. But it wasn’t until you went in for a treatment of eosinophilic asthma that proved I wasn’t crazy.”

He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it before threading his fingers through hers. They sat there for a moment longer, neither talking. Words weren’t needed when so much had happened between them.

The server appeared to deliver their food. Gianna wasn’t in the least bit hungry despite how scrumptious her pasta smelled. Once they were alone again, all she did was poke it with her fork.

“I still love you,” he said, out of the blue. “Just in case you were in doubt.”

“You don’t even know me.”

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