Page 46 of Double Trouble for the Mafia Prince
"No, don’t do that." She shakes her head. "Tell me I’m wrong, that she doesn’t look just like my husband’s youngest brother. Who is he, Gianna?"
There’s just no use lying to her.
They have the means to get to the truth, regardless of how I play this.
I square my shoulders. "Dante."
Valentina’s face blanches of all color.
"What the fuck, Gianna?"
My lower lip twitches, and I can’t maintain eye contact any longer.
"Does he know?" she presses, and I shake my head miserably.
"Damn it."
She lets that sit for a long time, and I can feel her measuring the cost of what I’ve done.
Every hidden file.
Every shipment I’ve accounted for.
Every deal I’ve closed while hiding the truth in plain sight.
"I should be furious," she says finally, but her voice is almost tired. "I should have you dragged back to the city and chained to the steps of the estate until Luca decides what to do with you."
"But you won’t," I say before I can stop myself. "Because I’ve made you too much money. And because you don’t punish efficiency unless it compromises the family."
There’s a glint in her eyes now, something sharper than fury.
"You have compromised the family, Gianna. You just don’t know it yet."
She ends the call before I can answer.
The silence after she disappears is thicker than the one before.
I close the laptop carefully, my fingers trembling.
It takes everything I have not to scream into the empty room, not to collapse under the weight of what I know is coming.
Because Valentina will tell Luca.
And Luca Salvatore does not sit on information.
He will tell Rafa.
Not because of brotherly concern, not because it is an older brother’s right, but because he is Don.
And my daughters, the very ones I’ve protected with every breath in my body, are a liability now.
Not because of what they are.
But because of the blood flowing in them.
The message from Rafa comes before I’ve had time to draw the curtains.
It is short, clipped, devoid of preamble.
