Page 50 of Savage Heart

I thought I’d be more nervous or even scared to be back at my father’s villa, but now that I’m here, all I feel is calm. No, this place has never felt like home, just as none of these people who live here ever felt like family, but now that I’m here again after knowing the truth about my father and my brothers, I feel like a returning conqueror.

That hitman didn’t kill me. That asshole you tried to marry me off to didn’t get to ruin my life. All your plans for me have failed, and I want everyone with the last name Rossetti to know that.

To know that whatever they think of me, I’m not going to simply be pushed and pulled this way and that to make them happy. I’m the daughter of Salvatore Rossetti and Sofia Bianchi, and their strength flows through my veins.

The house feels oddly empty compared to when my father and stepmother lived here with my brothers and me. Did Matteo send everyone away when he took over as head of the family? It wouldn’t surprise me. He always was a selfish thing.

There aren’t any staff here either. I can’t imagine he fired all the housekeepers and cooks. So where is everyone?

I creep up the stairs of the old villa that always reminded me of what the Capulets’ house looked like in Romeo and Juliet. The pale wood steps creak as I step on each one, something I always hated when I lived here as a teenage girl. No matter how careful I was, someone always heard when I came home late or tried to sneak out in the middle of the night.

Yet no one comes out to see who’s making their way up to the second floor this morning. The emptiness of this home feels downright eerie. Is it possible no one is around?

No, that can’t be. Even if all my brothers and their girlfriends are gone, there should still be staff in the house.

Not that I’m eager to see any of them. I’m sure they’ll sound the alarm as soon as they lay eyes on me. My brothers have likely threatened each of the staff to within an inch of their lives if they don’t tell them everything that happens here. They would do it out of loyalty to my father. For Matteo, they’ll do it because they’re terrified. That’s the difference between father and son.

I slowly walk down the hallway toward my father’s old office where I assume I’ll find my brother. Perhaps the entire house is so quiet because they’re all in mourning for Lucius Angeloni. I’m sure my family is quite saddened by his untimely death, especially since he was so willing to pay good money to have me as his bride.

That bastard gets no tears from me.

From a room just a few feet away, I finally hear noises. Maybe all my brothers are there together. Good. They should all hear what I have to say anyway.

For the first time since I stepped foot in this house again, my heart begins to race as I near my father’s office. I’m not afraid, though. Even after all Matteo has done to me, I don’t fear him. He put a hit out on me, and I lived. He thought he’d force me to marry a man I don’t love, and he’s dead and I’m still here.

Matteo should fear me. Clearly, fate has better things in store for me than what my dear brother would like to do to me.

I stop just before I reach the room and take a deep breath, holding it in my lungs for a long moment before I let it out. My nervousness leaves with it, and now all I feel is the power I’ve always had inside me.

Just as my father taught me.

Two steps more and I stop in the doorway to look in at the man seated behind the desk. Matteo looks so wrong there. He’s too young, too foolish compared to our father. He looks like Salvatore Rossetti, but the resemblance is only skin deep. His mind is nothing like the man’s who fathered him.

“What are you doing here?” he asks angrily, instantly setting the tone for our meeting.

I can work with anger. He has no idea how much of that emotion I have stored up for him and all he’s done to me in the past week.

Before I can answer his question, he says, “You were stupid if you came here alone, Sienna.”

Stepping into the office, I quickly scan the room around me and see only Matteo. He probably did send all our brothers away, the selfish bastard.

“It seems we’re both alone, dear brother.”

He scowls at my statement of the obvious and shakes his head. “I know you had something to do with the death of Lucius last night. You’re going to have the Rossettis and the Angelonis hunting you down for the rest of your life for that mistake. You should run now.”

His threats do nothing to my need to set him straight on who he’s dealing with, so I walk toward him and stop right before I reach those chairs my father always kept in front of his desk. They used to bring back memories of when I was a little girl when he was alive. Now they make me feel nothing, just like this member of my family.

“There will be no running, Matteo. You don’t want to fuck with me again. You have fair warning. Anything that happens after this is on your head, not mine. Remember that.”

He rolls his eyes and chuckles like my threats are as empty as his. “You’re a woman with no power. I’ll fuck with you whenever I want. You will never have a moment’s peace in this world because I will have you married off to someone who benefits this family. You may not understand or care about your responsibilities, but I do, and as head of this family, I have the right to do as I choose.”

His medieval way of thinking still baffles me, but I don’t fear being married off anymore. Alaric was right. I do have a family who cares about me. It’s just not named Rossetti.

“Whatever power I have, I got from our father. You remember him, Matteo? The man I believed put out a hit on me two years ago. I thought he wanted me dead, but it was you, wasn’t it? Your friend Lucius told me that. Just a note, but I don’t think he liked you as much as you liked him. I doubt he’d be in mourning if you were the one killed last night.”

Surprise fills my brother’s eyes at my mention of how I found out who tried to kill me that sunny day two years ago. “That was before I realized your usefulness. Now I see it’s far better to marry you off, collect the money, and make myself richer in the process.”

I narrow my eyes in anger at his misguided assumption that I’m just going to let him marry me off, like it’s the fucking Middle Ages and I have absolutely no choice in the matter. “I’m not getting married to anyone of your choosing, so get that thought out of your pretty little head right now, brother. If you’ve mismanaged our father’s fortune, then you’ll have to find a way to make yourself flush again. It won’t be through me, though.”

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