Page 59 of Mafia Don's Secret Twins

I’ve never invited anyone to sit with me. Any man, that is. The only man I’ve ever really even tried to get close to is Dino.

And he’s not coming for me. Not here. Not when he has so much at risk…

And he better be looking after the girls until I can come back.

There’s a long moment where I’m alone on the bench. The fountain jingles, the water cascading over the sides in a clear, bell-like tone. It’s peaceful out here. I remember my dad saying that he built it so he and my mother could wander it together, before my mother told him she didn’t much like gardens.

Especially gardens in Brazil.

There’s a soft crunch of gravel, and Andrei joins me on the bench.

We don’t say anything. I don’t know what to say. I’m nervous, but not in the same way that I was nervous with Dino.

I’m just plain nervous here. I’m playing a game that I don’t know the rules to.

And I don’t know how to win.

“Why are you protecting me?” I finally manage to say.

Next to me, Andrei shifts. “I have to.”

“Not like this,” I clarify.

He huffs out a small breath. “No. Not like this.”

“So why, then?”

He opens his mouth. Shuts it. Opens it again. “Do you know why I work for your father?”

I shake my head.

He continues, each word halting as though it’s coming from somewhere deep within him. “My mother was… a businesswoman. She moved here from Italy when she was a teenager, and had me after.”

Usually, that’s code for a sex worker. I nod, showing him I understand.

“She was killed when another gang raided our… establishment. I was alone. Your father found me and took me in, and taught me how to be… me. How to get revenge on the people who hurt her.”

“He does that,” I say bitterly.

“I owe him for it,” Andrei says softly.

I turn to look at him.

He nods. “I owe him for that,” he continues, “but I also think maybe that the things I owe Benicio Souza are.. ending.”

His words are so heavily accented that it takes me a minute. I turn to look at him. “You don’t want to work for him anymore?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“So the plan is what? To marry me and run everything?” I snort. “He’d never allow that.”

“I know,” Andrei whispers.

Ice skates down my spine. “Andrei…”

“If no one wins the competition, Marisol, he will still need an heir.”

I shut my eyes.

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