Page 91 of Enzo DeLuca

“Don’t cry now. It’s too late. How could you, Em? He loved you so fucking much. He considered you the jewel of this family.”

“I know!” she screamed. “But I never wanted to be a DeLuca jewel. I wanted to be a DeLuca savage, like you, Vito, Santino, Primo, and the others. I wanted to go on missions. I wanted to be over a territory. I wanted to be needed.”

“You wanted it so badly that you had to betray your family? You had to kill your grandfather?”

“He wanted to marry me off to strengthen an alliance with another family. The fucking Cattaneos. He already had an alliance with them. He just wanted to blend our families together because he felt guilty for what happened to their family.”

“Shit. I forgot he’d wanted to marry you to the eldest Cattaneo.”

“Of course, you did. Because it didn’t involve you or the precious DeLuca territories. I’m sure you forgot that after I declined the Cattaneos, he brought up the Sartori family, who wanted to form an alliance with us through marriage. They wanted me to marry their youngest son.”

“Em, I forgot because I knew nothing would come of those arrangements. Especially since you told him you didn’t want them, and he agreed to never bring them up again.”

“I’ve never heard of him trying to marry you off.”

“He tried plenty of times, Em. Just because you didn’t know about it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. He was old-fashioned. He thought the elders should choose who the younger folks married.”

“He treated me like I was weak simply because I’m a woman.”

“He cherished you. There’s a difference.”

“You could never understand, Enzo.”

“I understand this. You killed our grandfather. And for that, you have to pay.”

“He was dying anyway, Enzo. He had cancer. He told me so a few months ago.”

“So, you thought this was the perfect time to put him out of his misery?”

“You weren’t always around. You didn’t see how much he was suffering.”

“You had him killed, Em!” Enzo screamed into the phone. “You had him gunned down. And for that, you will pay.”

“No,” she told him. “I won’t. You will pay, Enzo, for not seeing my worth. You and our entire family will pay. You treat me like I’m an expensive vase that’s so fragile it can break at any moment. Well, this vase has broken. And I’ll use my shards to cut the DeLuca family down and rebuild it the way I want to, with the help of the Bianchi family. Our family ruined theirs. But I’ve got enough money and smarts to help them rebuild their reputation. I even had enough money to pull one of the Soldano men to my side. I’m more powerful than you know.”

“Emelia, you can’t trust the Bianc...”

“And one last thing, Enzo. You think you knew grandfather so well. I bet he didn’t tell you that your right-hand man, Stefano, is also a DeLuca.”

Both Eve and Enzo’s gaze jerked to Stefan. Stefan didn’t seem surprised at all.

“That’s right,” Emelia continued. “Your servant boy is also your brother.”

Brother! Damn!

“And when I’m done with you, you’ll both be buried right next to our grandfather. I’ll bury your bitch somewhere else. She doesn’t deserve to be buried in our family plot. Then I’ll convince the family that it was you who was behind grandfather’s death.”

“You hate me that much, piccola Em?” Enzo asked, voice low.

“I don’t hate you, Enzo. I love you. But it’s hard to continue loving people who don’t see that you’re in pain.”

“All you had to do was speak up.”

“How, when I have no voice in this family?”

“You speak up about everything else. You make your opinions about everything known. Why not this? It’s because you were afraid you couldn’t handle the task if we gave you one. But that fear isn’t our fault, not mine, not grandfather’s. It’s yours. So don’t you dare put the blame on us when you knew we would give you the world.”

“As I said, you’ll never understand, Enzo. I’m done trying to explain it. Until next time, cousin.”

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