Page 73 of Ruthless Vow

No one is at my father’s grave. I don’t see anyone in the entire cemetery. Just me and my pounding heart.

I wait for five minutes, my shoulders tense. Ten minutes, my body rigid.

Then, finally…

“Well, look at you,” Bianca says as she approaches, her voice smooth and calm. A violent shiver skitters down my spine. “You look all fancy. Do you think you’re something now? Someonenow? You’re still ugly, weak, useless Nicole. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

My hatred for this woman is difficult for me to wrangle, like a thousand wild horses ready to trample anything that stands in their path.

“It was you,” I say, turning to fully face her. She’s alone. I see no one else, but that doesn’t mean they’re not waiting in the shadows. “You killed my father. You planted that bomb.”

She regards me for a moment. “Is that what you think?”

“Enough fucking games, Bianca.”

“This is the town for games, though, isn’t it? All kinds of games. Your father was not supposed to be at his restaurant that night. He was always whining about money, and I knew he had a hefty insurance plan for that worthless business of his. I attempted to lend a hand, but unfortunately it backfired.”

Bullshit, I think. There’s no remorse in Bianca’s eyes. No grief for the loss of her older brother, not for a moment—either then or now.

“And you blamed Leo Russo.”

“Leo’s family has murdered countless Morettis over the years. What’s one more?”

“But why blame Leo specifically?”

Her lips curl at the edges. “The people I’m working with saw him as a rising threat—the heir, the future king. They chose him as a test. Asked me to remove him from the bloodline in order to advance my position within the ranks.”

“And you decided to put his death on me.” To make me kill a man for no reason. Not vengeance. Not justice. Murder.

She laughs. “You were convenient and disposable. I figured you wouldn’t make it off that yacht alive, and that was fine.”

In the past, her words would have shredded me. Now, they slide off me like water. I no longer care what she thinks of me. I only care that I get the information I need out of her: Sofia’s location.

“You set the bomb at the motel, hoping to erase me from existence.”

She walks a slow circle around me. “You think I’d do something like that to my precious niece?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe we should ask Danila.”

Her smile grows cold. “You’ve developed a smart mouth on you.”

“My whole life, I’ve done nothing but follow your orders. Even tonight, here I am, following your orders. But everything you’ve ever told me has been lies. You’ve used me, again and again. And then you try to kill me. Twice.”

“You failed me,” she bites out. “I needed one hundred percent obedience and compliance from you, or you quickly became another liability. It’s just business, Nicole.”

“Just business,” I hiss. “I’m your niece. I’m your family.”

“I’m able to separate that from my goals. I will claim power for the Moretti name again, even if it means continuing to work with the Vasilievs. Weakening the Russos to the point that they begin to collapse like a house of cards is only the beginning.”

She’s insane. I see it now, clearer than ever before. This lust for a power that dances just out of her grasp has driven my aunt batshit crazy.

“Where is my sister?” I grit out. “You’ve been dangling her safety in front of me all this time, barely ever even letting me speak to her. Where the fuck is Sofia? Tell me!”

“Your sister is dead,” Bianca says flatly.

I stare at her, certain I heard her wrong. It’s like I’ve taken a blow to my gut with a wrecking ball. I can’t breathe. My knees weaken and I drop to ground next to my father’s grave marker.

Bianca looms over me. “Your sister is dead, Nicole,” she says again.

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