Page 45 of Wanted Twins with the Mafia Boss

“Do you know who these Petrellis are?”

Adriano has his phone out. “Nope, not at all. I’ve never even heard of them. I think they’re from across the country. It would make sense. Gennaro would never strike a deal like that with someone close by. He wouldn’t want anyone to know he needed a loan, andtaking one from someone who doesn’t operate in this area is the perfect solution.”

“Is that Matteo’s signature?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“So he’s alive.”

“It looks like it. Gennaro taught us to use two different versions of our signature. One was to show something was signed under duress.”

I look down at the signature. “Is that the one he used then?”

“No, it’s the regular one.”

“So whatever this is, he agrees with it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Or Gennaro told them about the signature. Or Matteo thinks I wouldn’t care anyway.”

I furrow my brow. “But they don’t want us to look for him or for their family, so that means... we’re free. Matteo won’t come after us.”

“It looks like it. They know I won’t just lower my guard because of this letter, so trying to trick us with it would be pointless. It’s real.”

“But what are they going to do with Matteo?”

“I have no idea.”

“As long as they don’t come for us...” I don’t know how Adriano feels about Matteo, but Matteo put us through hell and he was willing to hurt usall.

I can’t help but be glad that he’s gone, if the letter is true.

“I thought he’d want revenge for his father,” Adriano says.

“The same father who basically sold him to another mafia family?” I grimace. “Because if he were my father, I wouldn’t move a finger to avenge him. Not after all that and after what he did to you both.”

“I expected him to blame me for all of it, like always.”

“Well, then nothing changes. Matteo is just less likely to come after us, but if he somehow gets free of the Petrellis, we’ll still be ready for his attack.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“At least now you know he’s alive, and you no longer have to wonder what happened to him.”

He nods. “I suppose Gennaro’s spies followed his orders and turned against Matteo and captured him. Then Gennaro told the Petrellis where to find him to pay his debt. They killed all the men and collected him.” He groans. “Oh fuck!”

“What?”

He rakes his hand through his hair. “It was because of this deal! Gennaro did what he did because he wanted to keep his wealth and power.”

“You mean...”

“He knew he would have to pay in blood, which I guess means with one of his children. He only had Matteo and couldn’t have any more children, so he saw the opportunity and adopted me. Maybe it had nothing to do with my mother being a mafia princess, or maybe it did a little. But he’d been pitting Matteo and me against each other our whole lives just so we would make the choice for him. The one he deemed weaker would lose, and he’d hand him over to repay the debt. He’d keep the winner and have a happy retirement with everything he ever wanted. That asshole!”

“Wait, but how does that make sense? Didn’t he want you to kill Matteo?”

“He said so, but I don’t think he expected it to happen. Remember his men were actually Gennaro’s men, so he knew exactly where Matteo was and when I might be looking for him? He pretended he wanted me to kill Matteo, but he knew Matteo would no longer be at that safe house.”

“Right.” I cross my arms. “But why was Gennaro so afraid of the Petrellis? Wasn’t he powerful enough to fight them off?”

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