Page 69 of Mafia Don's Secret Twins

Hope.

What a stupid thing to feel right now.

I crumple it, and toss it aside. Instead of giving in to hope, I harden myself.

I need to do what’s best for me. I need to choose a life that I can give my daughters. What I need to do is not entertain thoughts of some random person in the garden.

I need a strategy. Moretti is the closest thing that I have to one.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m not sure what happens to the little note. I turn, leaving it behind without looking back.

I definitely do not go to the gardens. I’m not going to go tonight, nor any other night.

When I climb into bed, I don’t think of the note.

Not once.

Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.

Without any more information from my father, I assume that my days should function as normal.

The following morning, I get dressed. I walk out to have breakfast like normal, and Andrei follows me into the small breakfast nook next to the kitchen.

Just like normal.

I sit down. There’s no one in here. No staff, no security. Nothing and no one, except Andrei and myself.

I turn to him. “Are we supposed to be somewhere?”

He shrugs.

Turning back to the empty table, I sigh, frustrated. “It would be helpful if my father wanted to clue us in to what’s happening today.”

“His choices don’t change what we are doing.”

I glance at Andrei after he says that. “What?”

Andrei looks down, an uncharacteristically nervous gesture. “I had thought that we might go to the beach while the… festivities begin.”

“The beach?” it’s not impossible. The beach is probably somewhere around an hour drive, less if we take the helicopter.

“The beach,” he confirms.

I…

I can’t leave Dino.

The thought is buoyed up by that stupid, asinine feeling of hope. Again.

How many times do I have to remind myself that there’s nothing there for me? That Dino isn’t here for anything other than the empire that I possess.

The empire that he wants.

The empire I gave him thekeys to.

Except one, I guess.

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