Page 27 of The Vatican
Fire flew from her eyes. “Do it,” she challenged.
I pulled back and took a couple of steps away from her. I pulled out my phone and dialed Uncle Sal. He answered on the second ring. “Uncle Sal?”
“Yeah, kid, what’s up?”
“I need you to find someone to replace my wife,” I told him, purposely calling Ria my wife so it would stop any objections he may have. Ria was wicked smart, and I knew he liked having her on his team. “She’ll no longer work for a living.”
His pause was short, but loud. “Understood, Francisco,” he replied.
I cut off the call and placed my phone back in my pocket. “Anything else you want to challenge me on?”
Ice formed over her eyes. All her fire, and all her spirit, snuffed out. Oh, she wasn’t giving up, I knew that much. But her Mancini fire was giving over to her Fiore control. Saveria was a combination of both her parents’ strengths, and that made her a powerful force to be reckoned with.
“Are we done here?” she asked, her voice lacking any hint of emotion. I gave her a terse nod, and she headed towards the door, me following behind her.
Exiting the office and turning the corner, we found all the adults, minus Uncle Sal and Uncle Leo, lingering around the alcove leading into the living room.
We stopped before them, and Dad asked, “Is everything alright?”
I looked at my wife and let her answer for us. “Why wouldn’t it be?” she retorted, her voice still devoid of emotion.
Aunt Frankie’s gasp caught everyone’s attention. “Ria,” she breathed, “your finger.”
Saveria lifted her hand, dried blood coating her finger and smeared all over her palm and the back of her hand. She flipped her hand over, showing everyone the damage. I watched as she looked at her mother and said, “Oh, this? This is nothing.”
“You’re bleeding,” Uncle Phoenix bit out. “I’d hardly call that nothing.”
I knew he was probably thinking of murdering me, but he also knew why her finger was bleeding. They all did. The rings she had carelessly tossed on the table were now back on her finger. It didn’t take a genius to figure out they were back on her finger because I put them there.
Saveria looked over at her father, and in a voice so matter-of-fact, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, she said, “Don’t go losing any sleep over it, Dad. Benetti’s going to end up doing a lot worse if he expects to get children out of me.”
All the air was sucked out of the room.
I could feel my vision turning black around the edges.
I could vaguely hear all the women gasp in horror, while the men froze where they stood.
My wife just told my father-in-law that I was going to have to rape her to get her pregnant with my children, and for him not to worry himself over it.
I stood immobile, not believing we’ve come to this, as she looked at everyone like her words hadn’t just carved up everyone’s insides. Like all our hearts weren’t shredded, bleeding at her feet.
“Saveria-”
She turned her back on her mother and looked at me. “How does this work?” she asked, her voice still cold and detached. “I’d like to go see Dante. Am I being escorted to your house where he’ll need to visit me there, or do I have your permission to go back to my building and visit Dante there?”
I didn’t trust myself to speak.
I had nothing left to fight her with.
I’d already made the phone call to Sal, there was nothing left to threaten her with or push her on. She hit us all with something we never saw coming, and I didn’t know how to fight against it.
She said I was going to have to rape her to get children, and she said it like she believed I would.
I stared at her, and the only beneficial thing to come out of all this, was I think everyone was finally grasping just how badly we hurt this girl. It’s rather ironic how Aunt Frankie had been in her exact same shoes once upon a time, and she had felt so betrayed, she left for six years, yet she couldn’t see how she’d done the same thing to her daughter.
We all knew the story of how Aunt Frankie had left because secrets were kept from her, yet she hadn’t seen what we were doing to Ria the same way.
I bet she was seeing it now.
