Page 113 of Where the Wicked Reign

We didn’t encounter anyone else throughout the journey to my father’s home office.

Adrenaline spiked involuntarily when Angelo stopped outside the mahogany door and rapped on it sharply.

“Traitorous bitch is here,” he called, smirking at me.

“Send her in,” my father’s voice boomed.

“Go,” Angelo ordered, gesturing aggressively at the door.

I stepped forward and the urge to tear his throat out right where he stood almost took me over entirely for a few seconds, until I managed to reel it in, then open the door and step inside.

This was it.

I knew the moment I sat down opposite my father’s desk and this meeting got underway, nothing would ever be the same.

21

~Caterina~

I was seething internally as I read over the contract my father had shoved into my hands just moments after I’d walked in here.

Angelo had informed him that he’d let the reason for this meeting slip, so he’d just gotten right down to it.

I looked across the desk at the almighty Santino Leone lounging back in his leather chair as he typed rapidly on his phone, not paying my review of the contract any mind.

“You’re sentencing your own daughter to a life of abuse, degradation, and humiliation?” I finally spoke after almost ten minutes of silence descending over the room while I’d read over the despicable details and terms laid out in front of me.

“I warned you that there would be a price to pay for severing ties with the Family.”

“Your sadistic side is showing, Father.” I shook my head. “I just never thought it would be directed straight at me. Your blood.”

“You’re no longer my blood, as far as I’m concerned.” A twisted smile curled his lips. “But you are a bargaining chip, a pawn to be used as I see fit.”

“Has Dante seen this? Matteo even?”

His smile slipped, giving him away easily.

“I didn’t think so. This has Angelo’s vindictiveness all over it.”

“Show some respect,” he ordered.

“Why? You’re already condemning me. You also just told me you don’t consider me family, so I’m not one of you, not bound by your rules.”

He shot from his chair and rounded the desk toward me.

I straightened in my seat and braced myself as he leaned in threateningly, slapping his hands down on the arms of the chair and bringing the full Santino intimidation to the surface. “You’ll do this. You’ll solidify this alliance for me, this new day for both families, by marrying Nico Marchetti. Should you refuse, the consequences will be dire indeed, my dear.”

“What consequences?” I demanded, staring up at him.

“I’ll destroy everything you’ve built. Firebomb that club of yours until it’s nothing but a fucking cinder box. I’ll send my soldiers in to rape every single woman in your all-female lounges, ripping apart the notion that it’s a safe and empowering place for them. And then I’ll bury your fucking mother alive while you watch, standing there helplessly as she chokes to death right before your eyes.”

Rip his throat out.

My eyes darted to the letter opener on his desk.

It would be so easy, especially because he wouldn’t be expecting it, to lunge forward, snatch it up, then drive it into his carotid artery. He’d bleed out all over me, begging for his miserable life, a life that would be beyond saving.

“You’d really do that to Mom?”

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