Page 59 of The Forbidden Husband

He had me. Only me.

And if I never came back, he’d have nothing.

“Tell me where you are, and I won’t harm them.”

“Yes, you will,” I told him. “The moment I fuck up again, you’ll use them like you always have. Promise me that you won’t kill Giovanni or Enzo like we planned, and I’ll do whatever you want.”

I waited for his reply, and when it didn’t come, I checked to make sure the line was still connected. It was, so I waited. I could feel that I had him. I knew how important it was for him to have leverage over the people closest to him. I tried to play off of thethings I knew about him. He wanted to be powerful. Notorious. He wanted everyone to see him as such.

And I had information that would ruin everything.

“If you don’t spare them, I will make sure everyone knows what you have been doing to frame them,” I told him. “And if I am killed, there is someone else who will make sure the information is delivered.”

He finally replied. “You’re asking me to give up my one chance at successfully becoming capo dei capi,” he reminded me.

“Yes.”

“You’ll need to give me much more than your loyalty.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

I had a feeling my leverage was already enough, but I couldn’t risk pushing him too far. If what I knewwasn’tenough, was Giovanni’s life really worth the risk?

Was Enzo’s?

“You’re right that I don’t have anyone to take over after me. I didn’t raise you girls the way I should have, but I still have the chance to raise someone else to take my role. An heir.”

My breathing quickened. Was it possible he knew of the pregnancy with Enzo? He couldn’t know. I hadn’t told anyone. I didn’t want to know how he’d react if he ever learned the truth.

“You want an heir?” I asked, my voice tense.

“Yes. If you want to keep them alive, you’ll give me an heir with a capo of my choosing.”

* * * *

I walked through the familiar hallways of my childhood home, escorted by one of my father’s long-time drivers. It took everything in me to keep my shoulders back, despite the unseemly clothes I wore and what I knew was to come.

We marched toward the garage where my father “worked,” and the nausea churning in my gut took all my concentration to keep at bay. I wouldn’t consider what I was going to see inside. It wouldn’t matter as long as everyone in my life remained safe and alive.

Livia. Evelina.Enzo.

If I kept adding names to my list, I would never escape.

The driver pushed open the garage door, and my father stood alongside a dozen older men. The youngest in the lineup couldn’t have been younger than forty, and my gut churned again, this time audibly.

“Pick one,” my father said immediately.

“Pick one?” I repeated, turning over the words in my mouth. “For…”

“You made a deal to me. Produce me an heir, and I won’t follow through with my plans this time.”

“And my sisters?”

“Both being kept safe and under guard as collateral.”

“Collateral?” I scoffed. “You have every advantage. I’m giving up my body for you to keep your end of the bargain, and you can’t give me my sisters?”

He moved forward so swiftly and without an ounce of hesitation as he lifted his palm. My cheek stung from the slap before I registered what he had done.

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