Page 61 of Brutal Vows

“Amore mio.” I raise my hand to lightly cradle her face, my thumb softly grazing her cheek. I can sense there’s something she’s discovered, something she’s hesitant to share with me. My heart is torn between wanting to know and fearing the information she’s uncovered.

“I’m so sorry, Vitali,” she murmurs, her words a soft stutter as she chokes back a sob.

“Did you manage to hear who Megumi was talking to?” I ask gently. Gia shakes her head woefully.

“I’m still working on that,” she admits. “But—” she pauses to take a controlling breath. “I decrypted the local network her safe house was on.”

Dario’s brow creases together at her words. “How did you manage that? The townhome was destroyed, along with the two on either side.”

Her breath hitches slightly before she answers. “Whoever blew up the townhome wasn’t aware that the entire block of buildings belonged to Megumi. They were registered under a shell company, but the safehouse she was in when it exploded was registered under her maiden name.”

“Looks like Kenzo’s mother had some trust issues.”

Gia nods, then bites her lower lip, looking conflicted. “The network router with all the stored information was located in another townhouse. From what I can tell, theonly townhouses that were truly occupied were the one Megumi was found in and the one where I located the router six townhomes down. There are no leases on the other homes, but it looks like one the buildings was working on the same network.”

“That’s reckless,” Dario states.

Gia shakes her head, contradicting him. “It’s not, actually,” she explains. “Anyone not aware of her association with the other buildings wouldn’t have known to look for a main network. They would have assumed that any devices with information would have been destroyed in the explosion.”

“How did you know the shell company belonged to her?”

Gia gives me a mischievous smile. “Because Kenzo’s mother isn’t as smart as she thinks she is.” She sets the laptop on the desk, and I direct her to sit in the chair next to Dario. Fiddling with the keys, she brings up the shell company.

Sato Corporation.

Now I understand why Gia could effortlessly identify the company as Megumi’s. The name Sato, emblazoned across documents, belonged to Kenzo’s brother, the one whose life was tragically cut short when Evaline’s mother’s drunk driving killed him and his nanny in a car accident when he was a boy.

Gia’s meticulous pursuit of Megumi after she kidnapped Evaline would naturally have uncovered such intimate details. Salvatore would never have cared enough to remember such a personal detail. He would have found the information irrelevant.

“Once I realized she owned the shell company, I delved into the local networks, sifting through layers of digital dust until I unearthed the one I was searching for,” she explains,her voice carrying the weight of her discovery. “From there, it was almost effortless to hack and extract the information. There’s still an overwhelming amount to sort through; most of it seems to be blackmail material. But there are also names, shipping dates, and black-market deals. Yet there’s something else—” Gia’s voice fades, and she turns her sorrow-filled eyes toward me, her expression a portrait of unease.

“What did you find?” I ask, feeling a tingling anxiety spreading beneath my skin. Whatever it is, it can’t be good, judging by the ghostly pallor that clings to her complexion and the haunted shimmer in her eyes.

“Vitali—” She draws in a sharp breath and lets it out. Her mouth opens, but nothing comes out.

“Spit it out, Gia,” I snap. When she flinches, I close my eyes in regret and take a moment to center myself. “I’m sorry. Please, just tell me.”

Gia nods slightly, but she remains contemplative for a few more beats before she speaks. “Aurelio wasn’t your father, Vitali. He couldn’t have been.”

“That isn’t right,” I insist, shoving my hand through my hair in exasperation.

Gia pulls up a medical document on the laptop screen and turns it so I can read it.

“He was sixteen,” Gia whispers sadly. “It was a skiing accident in Cervinia. The records were supposed to have been scrubbed, but it seems as if Megumi managed to get her hands on them when Kenzo’s father died. It looks like your father had him keep the record, just in case it was needed.”

The truth displayed in the document hits like a bullet, ripping through my chest so damn painful. It is a bitterantidote to the sweet lies that have been my only comfort all these years.

Aurelio Deluca was not my father.

The man who raised me like I was his own, who stood by my side, isn’t my blood.

Then who the hell is?

Thirty-Four

I hesitate,a knot forming in my stomach, as I grapple with the decision to reveal the full extent of what I discovered. Sifting through the labyrinthine maze of data Megumi had hidden away on the network’s encrypted cloud left me feeling unsettled. Her collection of incriminating secrets about people rivals the number of bodies in a graveyard, a sickening testament to the depths of her knowledge.

The revelation I stumbled upon—and its implications leave me uneasy about how it might color how Vitali sees me. But before I can confront the unsettling truth I discovered, I need to muster the courage to tell him the truth about his father.

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