Page 64 of Corrupted Heir (Mafia Kings: Corrupted 1)

He dropped his hand and nodded. “It was never my intention to hurt you. I never thought they’d go through with it, Fallon. Twenty-eight years and no talk of the marriage. The Moores have been loyal to the Lucas for decades, so I thought it wouldn’t be necessary for us to join… families. I’ve done everything they’ve asked of me.”

I shook my head.

“You should have fought it. You should have moved away. You should have grabbed mom’s hand and run to the other side of the earth to keep me safe. To keep her safe from the goddamned mob.” I was almost shouting by the time I was done, and hot tears burned my cheeks.

“Your mother wasn’t killed by the mob. Those people that started coming over, the ones you’ve always asked me about, were the Lucas. They and their men were there to protect us,” he said. “They were there to keep us safe after what happened to your mother.”

Something clicked in my brain.

That’s why Maria had felt so familiar. I’d completely forgotten about those weeks and months after my mother died, the warm embraces from the kind, pretty woman who’d materialized seemingly out of nowhere.

It was Maria.

But if it hadn’t been the mob—the Lucas or the Novas or whatever other mob—then who had killed my mother?

“I was still a rookie, getting my bearings. It was my first big break. A new casino opened up a few months before. There was talk of some shady business, but no one could find the guy behind it, nor could they arrest anyone who worked for him.”

“You’ve told me this before.”

“Yes. But only bits and pieces, and I never explained the consequences of my breakthrough job.” He stared down at his hand where it laid rejected on the arm of his chair. “After three months of pretending to be a drunk with a serious gambling addiction, I finally found something. I spent thousands—even blew through your entire college fund.” He let out a soft chuckle. I didn’t see what was funny about it. “Anyway, I was such a big spender that I got close with one of the shady patrons. He led me right into the hornet’s nest.

“It all snowballed into me finding the ringleader responsible for money laundering, fraud, and weapons deals. The person behind it was so powerful that he only got a year in prison. And boy, was he angry that some low-level cop had caught him. It was a thrill, you know? Like I was finally living up to the family name.”

He looked up at me, and I could see the young man he’d once been reflected in his eyes. The ambition. The thrill of the chase.

He continued. “The second he got out… It would have been easier if he came after me… but killing me would have put me out of my misery, you know? So he came after your mother…” He cleared his throat. “I know he still operates to this day, without resistance because honestly, I couldn’t bear the thought of what he’d do if I tried to put him behind bars again.”

I looked away, closing my eyes. He’d practically painted a bull’s-eye on my mother’s chest. My stomach roiled, and my hands felt cold and clammy despite the warmth of the apartment.

All I could see was my mother’s lifeless eyes. All I could hear was her scream. It reverberated inside my head so loud I wanted to squeeze the sides of my head to keep it from coming apart.

“His name was Harry,” he continued. “Harry Belemonte.” He spat the name like it was something vile in his mouth, but I could barely hear him over my mother’s scream “I just hope that this can bring you some peace. I’ve never been able to tell you the truth because there were answers I couldn’t give you. I never wanted to expose you to this life.”

He slumped in his chair. I averted my gaze. I couldn’t look at the man who was responsible for my mother’s murder. He was the reason her scream was the last sound I ever heard from her. He was the reason I’d cried myself to sleep more nights than I could count, begging God and fate and the night sky to give her back to me.

“Get out,” I forced out past the boulder stuck in my throat.

“Fallon, please.” He reached out and touched my shoulder, but I swatted his hand away and sprung to my feet.

“Get out now,” I shouted, pointing one shaking finger at the door.

He stood up. “I…”

If he didn’t leave now, I had no idea what I would do. I’d never felt like this, so twisted up inside my whole body ached and shook. I wanted to cry and scream and hit something so badly.

I stared at the ground as he crossed the room and left.

As the door closed behind him, the quiet click let loose the floodgates. I dropped to my knees and smothered my screams into the sofa, hitting it over and over again. I screamed until my throat was sore. I punched the sofa again and again until my muscles shrieked in pain.

It was like my mother had died all over again, here, now, and my own father had all but pulled the trigger.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dominic

We were back at square one. Separate bedrooms, separate lives. Fallon hadn’t spoken to me once in the four days since I’d told her going back to work was out of the question.

Worse than that, I’d spent four days wondering if I’d made the wrong call. During the rare times she was out ofherroom, I’d watched the way the light in her eyes had begun to dull. Even when she’d stormed past me, it wasn’t anger that radiated from her, it was sadness, loneliness.

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