Page 157 of Sin & Sapphire

Fuck.

“His daughter is biddable, marriageable, and wants children,” my father continued.

My heart pounded and my palms turned sweaty, an unaccustomed response to my father’s unspoken order. I’d known this day was coming, and still, I found myself unprepared.

How could he even consider this while Ana was Tchérnov’s captive? I scoffed at myself. Because he didn’t know I was in love with Ana. And wouldn’t care that I was.

“Baresi wants her married by Christmas.”

“No,” I said before I could stop myself.

“No?” my father repeated, his eyebrows furrowing and his face turning red with rage.

Had I ever refused him directly before? In my entire life?

“What the fuck do you mean no?”

“I cannot marry Donatella Baresi,” I repeated, my voice firm and confident, despite the terrifying crevasse that had opened under my feet, threatening to swallow me whole and rip me down to hell.

“You can’t, or youwon’t?” my father growled, leaning over his desk.

Tony Russo was no stranger to his children disappointing him. My oldest sibling, Ginevra, ran away when she was eighteen and stayed away from the family for a decade before taking Sofia’s place in a contract marriage to the Irish mob. And Sofia had a child out of wedlock, ruined her marriage prospects, and then later married three men, including our family’s enforcer, stealing him away from my father.

I’d spent my entire life trying and failing to live up to his expectations. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he wished Ginevra was a boy so he could have an heir he could be proud of. I’d disappointed him time after time after time. And this time, I was going to make it so much worse.

“I won’t.”

“Because of your silly crush on Ana Costa?” I clenched my jaw, surprised that he’d noticed. I shouldn’t have been. My father was an asshole, but he loved his children in his own way. “Son, she’s marrying Boris Tchérnov in less than a week, months after she was engaged to his son. She’s a money-hungry slut, grasping at straws to maintain her lifestyle now that Gio Costa’s dead.”

“I’m going to marry her,” I said firmly.

“She was fucking her uncle and that French asshole, last I heard,” my father told me, his eyebrows raised in challenge.

“And me too,” I answered.

“You want to merge the Russo empire with the remains of the Costas?” he asked, his voice shocked and furious. “You think anyone in this fucking business is going to trust them? Trust someone who worked for Gio? Related to him by blood?”

I stood to stare down my father, letting my rage show for the first time in my life. “Like anyone in this business was willing to go to war for Ginevra when that asshole kidnapped her? Like anyone in this business was willing to go to war over Sofia?” I reminded him of what happened to my sisters, the tragedies that had given them the strength to walk away from our father for good.

“I will not have that woman in my family. I will not have Enzo Accardi, the brother of the man who kidnapped your sister, your niece, and your mother, as a business partner. And Angelo Costa? He’s a fucking animal.” He turned to the door and shouted, “Patti!”

A moment later, my mother entered the office, beautiful and perfectly coiffed, as she had been every single day of my life. “Yes, Tony?” she asked.

“Take a seat,” he gestured. My mother raised an eyebrow, and my father immediately stood. “What can I get you to drink?”

“Wine,” she said, sitting beside me and crossing her legs. “Luca didn’t take the news well?”

I hid my smile and sat back down.

“Mamma, I can’t.”

“Youwon’t,” she corrected firmly, unconsciously echoing my father’s earlier assessment.

“I won’t,” I agreed. My entire life, I’d played peacemaker in my family. When Ginevra ran off, I accepted that my father had lost his favorite and that, even as the heir, I was second best. When Sofia came in fists swinging, determined to forge her own path, I negotiated peace. Only now, there was no one left to negotiate for me.

“Because he wants to marry that Costa slut,” my father said.

Oh, fuck no. I stood, slamming my fists onto his desk so hard it shook his glass. “If you refer to Ana Costa with disrespect one more time, I will walk out of this office and I will never come back. Do you understand me?”

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