Page 39 of Filthy Little Games

I know without looking that she’s staring down at her new ring with a frown like she has since we got in the SUV. She hates it. And I’m not entirely sure why. Because it’s heavy? Because it ties her to me?

“I should’ve told you sooner. I know…”

She makes it sound like it’s something awful. When she leaves me hanging, I grit my teeth and take a guess with the worst thing I can think of at the moment. “You knew Izaiah was going to try to get me and my brother killed that night?”

“No, it’s not that.”

I make another guess, relieved she said she wasn’t in on Izaiah’s plan. “You’ve helped killed someone before?”

“Izaiah was definitely the first.”

“Then what are you so afraid to tell me, wife?” Using that word for a woman I just met feels strange but right for Zara. “It can’t be that bad, since nothing is worse than murder.”

“The reason I didn’t tell you before the marriage ceremony was because I thought you may change your mind and go with the easier option.”

“Okay.” My curiosity may kill me if she doesn’t spit it out soon. “So just tell me now. I can handle it.”

“I have a daughter.”

“You what?” The SUV briefly swerves to the right when I glance over at her too fast. Wrecking the vehicle with a dead man in the back would be less than ideal.

It takes me several long moments to straighten the SUV and come to terms with just finding out that Zara has a daughter.

I recall a birth certificate in the document file the PI emailed me, but I barely glanced at it as I scrolled past, assuming it was hers and not giving a shit about what day she was born.

“You have a daughter?”

“Yes.”

“What’s her name? How old is she? Where is she?”

If she has a daughter, then now that we’re married, I guess that makes me the girl’s stepfather.

“Her name is Oriana,” Zara informs me. “She just turned three on July fourteenth. She’s bossy and loves Disney princesses, but that’s about all I really know about her. Bringing her into thisworld was the best day of my life, the most amazing reward for surviving the hottest summer ever when I was gigantic. But…”

When I glance over, Zara is staring down at the diamond ring she’s spinning around and around her finger.Myring that makes her all mine now. “But?” I prompt after she abruptly halts her explanation.

“The Rovinas took her from me the day after she was born, when we were both released from the hospital.”

Jesus H. Christ.

“TheRovinashave sole custody of your three-year-old daughter?”

“Yes. Although, it’s nothing official that I know of. I never tried to fight for custody because I can’t afford an attorney, much less one to go up against theirs. I don’t even have visitation rights. I-I’m only allowed to see her for an hour or so per month with their permission. Permission that I usually had to earn by fulfillingfavorsfirst…”

Fuck. That explains her connection to Izaiah Rovina. I thought they were lovers and hated the idea. I had no fucking clue they shared a child, a daughter.

“I never knew…they’ve never mentioned he was a father…” I trail off.

“They keep Oriana and me both a secret. I don’t think the rest of the family even knows about us, just Izaiah and Emilio…”

I’m so hung up on the fact that she has a kid with Izaiah that it takes several moments for the last part of her previous comment to sink into my skull.

Favors? She said she had to earn visitation by fulfilling favors. “You…you had to fuck Izaiah to spend time with your daughter?”

As soon as she nods, my eyes return to the road in front of me, not really seeing the lines or other cars through the rage.

I welcome the stink of that bastard now and wish I had killed him slower for Carmine and for Zara.

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