Page 171 of Phantom Mine

“You should. I will never speak to Marina, much less go anywhere near her, certainly nowhere close enough to ever give you the heir you so desperately want. Any time spent in her company would be spent yearning for someone else.”

“You won’t have my support,” he rages, slamming his fist down on the table between us. “I will not back you asDon.”

The manic, frenzied look of victory in his eyes tells me how much he enjoys playing that trump card, knowing he can use his power to bend and turn me to his will.

I rise to my feet slowly, everything about my movements in complete opposition to him. Standing, I button my suit jacket and stare back at him with the easy smile I always wear.

“You won’t need to. I’m stepping down.”

Enzo’s gaze whips over to me. I look steadily forward even as I feel his stare burning into the side of my face, the shock on his features evident even in my peripheral vision.

I never told him what I was going to do.

He would have tried to stop me.

“You’rewhat?” Emiliano demands incredulously.

“I’m stepping down.”

He laughs. “No one hasever renounced theDontitle. You expect me to believe this?”

“This isn’t a ruse, Emiliano, nor is it some sort of subterfuge to try to force your hand. Your condition for supporting me was that I marry your daughter. I can’t fulfill that obligation, so I’m stepping aside.”

I look over at Enzo and clap a hand on his shoulder before finding Emiliano’s gaze.

“Enzo is my heir. He’s the next Leone in line to beDon. He’s agreed to marry your daughter and take my place as the head of theFamiglia. The alliance with the Colombians is my parting gift to you both. Do we have an agreement, Marchesani?”

“Matteo—” Enzo starts.

“You would rather give up beingDonthan give up a woman?” The disbelief rings shrilly in Emiliano’s voice.

“Not a woman,mywoman,” I clarify. “And yes.”

Finally claiming and choosing Valentina lifts a weight off my chest that I didn’t even know was there. The words come out readily, excitedly, like my body is physically tired of holding them back.

“I will stay on as Enzo’s advisor, if he’ll have me, but I feel confident in theFamiglia’s future knowing that it’s in his hands. You should too, Marchesani. We all have a common goal—to bring the Mafia back to its former glory. Enzo will make that happen, I have no doubt.”

I extend my hand across the table.

Marchesani stares down at it, his face screwed in thought. Eventually, he reaches out and shakes it.

I don’t stick around once it’s done.

I leave what I worked for my entire adult life, I leave what I once thought would be my future behind, and I walk away.

I don’t look back.

???

Footsteps thud furiously after me, growing louder and louder. I know who it is before he grabs me and slams me angrily into the hallway wall.

“What the fuck did you just do?” Enzo seethes between clenched teeth.

“What I should have done the moment my father died. Actually, what I should have done the second Valentina walked back into my life.”

“Have you lost your ever loving mind?”

I grin at him. “I’m marrying a Mafia princess just like we always talked about,cugino. It’s just not the one we thought.”

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