Page 16 of Divine Obsession

All my life, all I’d wanted was a family.

And now, I was being offered it on a twenty-four-karat gold platter.

I took a deep breath, exhaling a laugh.What the hell?“Yeah, okay.”

They all erupted in happy Italian cheers.

The first to hug me was my father. “Bene, cara. Sono felice. Molto felice.”

I smiled in return, holding back more tears.

A weightthumpedinto my body. I looked down to find Nico hugging me. I hugged him back, making sure to ruffle his dark hair.

Manny followed, approaching me slowly and hugging my other side. I rested my hand on his back but when he looked up at me expectantly, I ruffled his hair too, earning a huge, boyish grin from him that I hadn’t seen before.

“Okay! Our turn, pooh bears!” Kim announced, dragging her sister towards us.

The twins laughed, though made no effort to move when Carmen and Kim giggled their way into the hug.

I laughed too, glancing up to find the adults watching us.

Ines had the most beautiful smile on her face; her head resting on dad’s shoulder, his arm protectively around her waist. Both, admiring us with nothing but parental love in their eyes.

Famiglia.

Chapter 4

TWO MONTHS LATER

Present

22 years old

Manhattan, New York City

WINTER BREAK PASSED BY IN a blur. My parents, sister and I went to see our dad’s side of the family and ski in Nozawa Onsen, Japan. Apart from smoking Kali on the slopes and chilling in the hot springs, nothing interesting happened. My cousins tried to drag me out to the local nightclubs but I just hadn’t been in the mood lately.

I guess that happened when you were a twenty-two-year-old billionaire who’d participated in New York’s nightlife since birth. Everything got old. Same shit, different day.

Pushing the back door to my lecture hall open, I took a seat in the far back next to Zach.

“You missed morning practice.”

Zach Di’Ablo.A sophomore and the team’s golden Shooting Guard. Always the best shooter on the court. My knock-down, three-pointer. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d missed a shot. Passionate and low-key obsessed with ball, with very achievable aspirations to go pro.

If only it hadn’t been for reality. Zach would never go pro. Not because he wasn’t good enough; shit, he was the best, most dedicated player I’d ever seen. But because being heir to the largest Cartel in the western hemisphere required responsibilities of far larger importance, disallowing any time for the NBA.

That was actually how we’d met.

His brother, Matteo – also known asDiabloin the criminal underworld – was the current head of the Di’Ablo Mexican Cartel. He took over at only sixteen after their parents were killed and their mansion burned to the ground, losing everything. So, he sent Zach away to the East Coast to live and be safe with my family. Our parents had had a long-standing relationship, though we’d never met until then.

Zach had only been six at the time and barely had any recollection of those events. One night when we got drunk in high school, he told me he didn’t even remember his parents’ faces.

We grew up together. I had seen him through every phase, and he’d seen me. He lived under my family’s roof for ten years. We studied together. We partied together. We did business together.

To say we were brothers, was an understatement.

I ran a hand from the front of my head to the back, smoothing out my cornrows. “Least you were there to take over for me.”

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