Page 41 of Vengeance

At the same time, even though the path to those feelings are different, the feelings are the same. There’s no caring for this child more than the two that didn’t come from me. No favoritism in my heart. Just that I got here quicker and with less trauma this time around.

I look up at Viper and ask, “Did you name her?”

“I thought you’d want to do that.”

I did. But also, Viper has never waited to do anything he could do himself because he thought someone else would want to do it.

I hadn’t come up with any ideas that I was attached to over the last few months but in this moment, I know exactly what to name her.

“Bella,” I decide.

“Another Isabella?”

“Just Bella,” I clarify.

Isabella was the mafia queen in New York City who a lot of people either feared and hated or loved and respected depending on which side of her crusade to marry her husband they were on. But Bella? Bella was my friend. The sister I wanted and needed but could never get in my relationship with Delilah. The woman who took me in and showed me the ropes and gave me a new life from the ruined remains of Dele Martin to create Addy Bianchi.

“Just Bella then,” Viper says. Suspiciously without argument. I would ask why he’s giving in so easily if not for more pressing matters at hand.

Bella squirms in my arms and before making a motion with her mouth that signal to me she’s hungry. Without missing a beat, I pull down the gown I’m wearing to put her to my breast, hoping I retained something from all those latch classes I took while pregnant. While I’m doing that I get down to business.

“Where are we, and what’s the status of everything?”

“We’re at the Fantoni family estate in Sicily.”

“The Fantoni…” I trail off.

“You know them.”

“I know of them. Bella… Isabella mentioned them before. After everything that went down with Phae, she told me that’s the family Phae came from and that Stephen Pray is related to them, but that they have no interest in what happens in the west. They’re mostly concerned about their European and eastern business.”

Viper huffs. “Well, as it turns out, they are very interested in the dealings and happenings in the west. I’ve made a deal with them. We help each other to take down Stephen Pray and Sabino Fantoni lets us rule the Western Fantoni Empire.”

“So you’re his glorified pawn?” I ask. No way Viper would have so easily taken a deal like that knowing what it would reduce him to. There has to be more.

He laughs. “That’s what he wanted.”

With Bella finally latched onto my breast, I give Viper my complete attention.

“So, what did you give him?”

“You.”

“I’m going to let you explain that, because I sincerely doubt you sold me over to mob boss to do what he pleases with me.”

“Give me some credit, Bell. I didn’t go through all this trouble to have you to give you away. What I did is bartered to make you a Fantoni.”

“Make me a Fantoni?”

“Turns out, Stephen Pray used to be Sansone Fantoni, and he had a daughter before he abandoned her and his family disowned him for killing his brother,” Viper explains. “She was raised by his younger brother, Sabino Fantoni, who grew up to be the current patriarch of his family with his eldest brother dead and Stephen Pray disowned.”

“A daughter,” I mutter. Then it dawns on me. “Phae. Phae is Pray’s daughter. Not his niece.” It also dawns on me that Phae is a lot more dangerous now than I thought she ever was. And she was dangerous enough before. “Is she here? Does she know?”

“She’s here. I haven’t seen her, though. And no. She doesn’t know, and it’s going to stay that way. At least until we… cement some things.”

“What things?”

“Well, one thing. You as Adelena Fantoni, the long lost daughter of Stephen Pray.”

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