Page 79 of The Last Vendetta

He rolled over, breathing hard. I felt the warmth of blood from his stomach before I could see where he’d been injured.

No!

“Uncle Dario. What happened?” I didn’t need him to explain that he’d been shot. That was evident. As he shifted, grimacing, I saw the hole in his shirt, a gap that was now stained with blood.

“I was…”

I blinked back the tears that burned my eyes. He didn’t deserve this. Whatever happened, he didn’t deserve this treatment. I didn’t deserve their kidnapping bullshit either, but now wasn’t the time to whine about the injustice of it all.

“I was trying to find you. Isabella made plans, and I couldn’t let her do it.”

“For me to marry Nickolas?”

He struggled to breathe. I couldn’t be sure if he heard me, if he understood. I’d just witnessed Cecilia dying, and I couldn’t believe that I was here holding my uncle as he seemed to near death’s door.

He opened his eyes, slitting his lids so he could squint at me as he labored through the pain. “You must go. Get your sisters and take them away. The Acardi name needs to die out once and for all with this vendetta. It’ll never end.”

“What vendetta? What is going on?” I brushed back his graying hair to clear his vision. “Uncle Dario,” I pleaded, “what is going on? What are you talking about?”

“Take your sisters and start a new life. New names and a new home. I’ve tried to siphon money into a fund that your parents never knew about. I started alternative investments when I was just the spare, and now you need to find it and leave. Take the girls and go.”

I nodded, desperate to let him know that I would obey his dying wishes. I’d already planned to leave this life. “But why? What is happening?” So many deaths. Too many questions.

I was sick of not knowing.

“Your mother…”

I clutched him closer as he sighed and his breath slowed with a wheezing sound. Blood left his lips, and I realized he must have been shot more than once. “Dario!”

He nodded weakly, roused. “Isabella.”

“What about her?” I demanded. I knew she had to be involved, but how?

“She was Giovanni’s first lover.”

I blinked my eyes open wide, not counting on that.

“She knew he was arranged in a marriage, but she thought she could sleep with Giovanni and win him over. Marcus was already married. But she wanted the Bernardi name and wealth despite his being promised to another.”

“And she slept with him?”

He nodded again, even weaker. He was fading fast.

“She wanted Giovanni for herself, but he stuck with his duty and married Arianna as he was expected to. No one could have anticipated that they’d fall in love, and that made Isabella so bitter that she vowed to seek revenge. I think… I’ve always suspected that she killed Arianna all those years ago. As payback for Gio not choosing her over his arranged bride.”

Holy shit! This was a hell of a bombshell to take, but as I let his words sink in, I knew this had to be the foundation for that damned rivalry that set me apart from Renzo.

“Gio loved her. Arianna. But I think Isabella killed her after Renzo was born. She couldn’t stand it while she was married to Rocco, her second choice, and suffered from infertility until you were born years later.”

It would take a while for this shock to filter through me. I didn’t have time to sit here and ask for a history story. “But what does this mean now?”

“It means you need to go. Leave, Giulia. Save yourself and your sisters.” His finger shook, and it was with that tremble that I felt the need to look down.

He pressed a small knife into my hand, and as I took it, I understood what he was doing.

“I suspected you were held here. Isabella mentioned meeting with the Romanos, and I wondered why she was heading here, so near the Bernardi estate.” He coughed, spitting up more blood as his breaths slowed. “I took a chance that getting captured would bring me to you.”

I sniffled, letting my tears drip down on his bloody shirt. “Oh, Uncle.” As I tried to hug him, so grateful and overwhelmed by his ultimate sacrifice, I held back from crying.

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