Page 94 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia King

“When Harper’s well enough, I want you to take her and leave the city,” I tell Nadia quietly. “I’ll give you cash. You know how to survive on your own for a little while—”

“What?” Nadia asks, her head jerking up as though she had almost fallen asleep, too.

“You’re going to leave, Nadia. You’re going to get out before this all blows up. You’ll take my card and buy whatever you can carry easily and pawn later. Jewelry is a good bet—”

“Ren, I can’t just leave,” she whispers.

“Of course you can. You’ll have resources you didn’t have before. Enough to really start over—”

“Without you?”

The question catches me off guard. I’m not sure why she’d ask it.

“You said you weren’t going to let me go. You said my future was a sure thing—”

“Nadia—”

“Are you a liar?”

“We’re all liars,” I snap, struggling to keep my voice low. “You think I don’t want to keep you here with me, no matter what happens? I’m not some chivalrous knight, Nadia. If I burn up, there’s a part of me that wants you right there next to me, burning, too. But…”

We both look at Harper, who stirs.

“She’s not going to suffer because of us. I want her far away from all this.”

“Then come with us—”

“Nadia,” I say, like she’s stupid, “I am giving you what you always wanted: a chance to start over, to give yourself and Harper a good life. To be free of all this. You keep me with you, you’ll never be free.”

“What if I don’t want to be free?”

The words grind my thoughts to a halt. I have always known Nadia did not want the things I made her do. The wedding, the dates, the dinners and dancing—pantomimes of the past that let me indulge my own fantasies, the memories I had replayed in my head for years and years. I dragged her along through it all, put her in a position that she couldn’t refuse. And now that I’m offering a way out of the cage, she won’t take it?

I could shake her or kiss her or maybe both at the same time. I swallow the urge, finally look through the haze of the past and see the future, crystal clear.

“This isn’t about us.”

Both of our eyes go to Harper.

“Where do you want me to go—”

“Anywhere. As long as I don’t know where it is.”

Her bewildered expression follows me as I put my back to her, turn away and force myself to get up, carefully, minding that Harper doesn’t notice.

“Ren, take the offer.”

The words stop me in my tracks.

“Dellucci offered you something, right? You said so at the dinner with Salvatore and Tessa. You said Jon offered you a way out, but you said it wasn’t a good deal. Who cares about agooddeal? Just…take the offer.”

“Nadia…” I sigh.

“What was it? What offer did he even make? What did he want?”

“…To quote? ‘Everything.’”

She stares at me blankly. Her palms show.

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