Page 13 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia King

My anger becomes desperation again. The emotions come in waves. I’m willing to give him anything he wants as long as Harper will be okay, as long as he’ll give me his word onjust that.It can’t be that hard to find mercy for her. God, she’s so little.

His voice goes low. A whispered, gravelly sound that makes my skin flush with alarm.

“Is that what you think I want? That I chased you all this time just to bury you, Nadia? To bury the past?”

Ren swallows the last of his drink and tosses the glass onto the floor listlessly, watching it shatter. I stare at him for a second,wondering if he’s lost his mind. But he just stares at me with that same serious face.

“Do you think that’s how the world works?”

When I don’t have an answer, he nods to the broken glass splintered over the floor.

“Fix that,” he orders.

When he shows no sign of joking, I crawl onto the floor and carefully pick up the shards of glass at his feet.

“I said fix it,” he snarls, kicking the shards out from under me, scattering them further, “not pick it up.”

I look at the mangled pieces still cradled in my hand.

“I can’t,” he makes me say, like I’m an idiot.

“You’re goddamn right you can’t. The present is just the consequence of the past,” he says, the glass crunching under his shoes, “and you can’tchangethat. You can’tfix this, Nadia. Putting you in the ground won’t make my parents pop out of it.”

I bow my head against the ugly words as if I can duck them, the pain still sharp when I think about it. Ren keeps going,

“Do you know how long it takes for someone to burn to death?”

“Ren, please—”

“Almost six minutes, in their case. I don’t know which one of them went first, because by the end, their screams sounded about the same—”

“Ren, stop,” I say, the glass dropping out of my hands as I stand up.

“They were holding each other. The coroner had to cut them apart where their skin had melted together—”

Bile hits the back of my throat, and I force it down, pushing my hands against his chest just to get him to shut up, shut up. I can’t fucking hear it.

“Stop it! Like you were any better!” I snarl, “I had nothing to do with what happened to your parents! You pulled the fucking trigger on mine! Sure, maybe my dad earned it for what he did. But what about my mom? My brother? How about you tell me how that went?” I scream at him, pushing him again and again, even when it doesn’t move him an inch.

“Nadia—” he says slowly.

“What? Suddenly, you don’t have all the gory little details? Own what you did and tell me—”

“Nadia,” he snaps, so viciously that it freezes me in place. He glances aside meaningfully, and I follow his gaze. Harper peeks around the open doorway, huddled on the floor with that same terrified look she’s had all night. My heart sinks.Goddammit. I immediately go to her, scooping her up into my arms.

“Why are you yelling?”

“Nothing, baby, I was just—Mommy was being too loud. I thought you were asleep.” I glance over my shoulder. Ren stands apart from us, watching from a distance. I take Harper back into the bedroom, smoothing over her comforter and trying to assureher everything is alright. Usually, Harper lives in her own little world, always daydreaming and babbling to herself. Tonight, she is hyper-aware.

“I’ll join you in just a little bit, okay?”

I stroke my hand over her hair, feeling as exhausted as she looks. The light in the doorway shifts. Ren fills it again, leaning against the frame.

“Does she need anything?” he asks.

The question catches me off guard. That he would even ask it…

“No. She’s fine,” I say.

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