Page 74 of Veiled Vows

She looks down at her hands and frowns. “I just hit him once, I think. I remember the knife was there because my fabric scissors broke and I was in a rush, so a knife felt like a good temporary tool to get what I wanted. And I just…I hit him. You know how your father gets. He doesn’t listen, and I just wanted him tolisten.”

“Mom—” My heart pounds, my hands shake, sweat beads at my temple, and a sickening chill sweeps through my convulsing gut. “Mom, you didn’t hit him. You stabbed him.”

“No…” She shakes her head and a strange, distant smile stretches across her lips. “I just made him listen And now, don’t you see?” Suddenly, she faces me and grabs both my hands in hers with an eerie, gleeful look in her eyes. “You’re free! I saved you, darling. I saved you! You don’t have to marry Roman anymore because your father is…is…” She frowns. “He’s dead. I killed him. To save you. And it worked, don’t you see? I killed him and now you can be in charge and you don’t have to marry thatdangerousman. Don’t you see?”

The room spins, but my mother’s eyes remain an anchor point as I try to process everything she’s saying. “M-Mom?—”

“Tell me you see,” she says earnestly. “There’s no feud now, don’t you see? No feud means no marriage. No marriage means that monster stays away. We’re safe. You’re safe. Are you happy?” She cups my cheek, alerting me to dampness I hadn’t registered as tears leak down my cheek.

“Are you happy, Jasmine?”

29

ROMAN

The news of Jasmine’s father’s death arrives a few days later in the form of an abrupt text message. Few details are released publicly, and Jasmine doesn’t respond to my texts. I try to give her time and space, but the risk that this was my father’s doing is too great and I need to see her.

So, a week later I turn up at her door with the intent of getting the truth from her. Fearing my father and brother made a move without telling me led me to confront my father, but he refused to give me an answer. Instead, he gleefully stated that with Enzo out of the way, he had a clear shot at killing Jasmine and her mother, and if I didn’t make a decision soon, he’d make good on his threat.

Choosing between my decades-long plan to avenge my mother, and the woman I’m falling in love with has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I have no plan in mind when facing Jasmine, only a desire to try and salvage something out of this mess.

And keep her alive.

“I’m sorry, the place is a mess,” Jasmine says as she wipes invisible dust off the mantelpiece and picks up a lace cardigan from the back of one of the couches. “It’s been a bit crazy here.”

“You don’t need to apologize or explain yourself,” I say softly. I ache to reach out to her and comfort her, to hold her in my arms and soothe her over the loss of my father, but she rejected my first touch at the front door and I’m not going to push it.

“Sorry I haven’t called either,” she says, her gaze down as she folds the cardigan. “Funeral plans, y’know.”

“Jasmine, I’m so sorry.”

She stops dead, her hands hovering in the air. She nods once and swallows audibly, then she looks up at me with huge tears in her gigantic eyes. “He’s dead,” she says brokenly. “My dad. He’s just…gone.”

I can’t hold back any longer. I reach her in two steps and she collapses in my arms, sobbing desperately. I can’t imagine how she’s been holding herself together this past week, but the seams have split and the grief pours from her in large, wet sobs. She clutches at my shirt and weeps, sometimes trying to talk, but her words get swallowed up as she cries.

Each sob and noise of pain is a dagger to my heart. If my family did this, I’m going to kill them. No more waiting.

“I’m sorry,” I say, fighting tears of my own that rise in response to her pain. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could take this pain from you. I truly do.”

“No, you don’t apologize,” she sniffles, eventually pulling away from me. “But your fucking brother does.”

“What?” My blood runs cold. “What are you saying?”

“He might not have killed him, but he sure as fuck had a hand in it.” Jasmine drags both hands through her hair, sniffling as she tries to control her tears. “I was blind, so fucking blind.”

“Jasmine, I need you to tell me what you mean. Please.” My heart races faster and faster as I watch her, aching to comfort her more, but she’s created distance between us so I can’t.

“Your brother. He was in contact with my mom. Forweeks, maybe even months. I couldn’t stomach reading it all yet. Since the gala at the very least. He befriended her, got close to her, and gave her all the complimentary shit that she likes, then he started feeding her stuff.”

“What stuff?” I ask hoarsely while my mind races trying to put it all together.

“Stuff about you. How dangerous you were. How you would torture me when we were married, and she would lose me. He fed into her fears and kept trying to persuade her to call off the wedding. So she tried. She argued and argued with my father about it, thinking she was saving me, but he never listened, so she…she made him listen. And now he’s gone and she thinks she’s done an amazing thing to save me and I—” She cuts herself off with one hand on her abdomen.

This … all of this was Alto?

“I think he wanted her to call off the wedding because it would be the perfect excuse to amp up the war or whatever fucking bullshit.”

Alto.

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