Page 94 of Sins of the Son

Wealthy people fought over expensive bottles of wine.

They killed one another over diamonds.

We both stood. I reached out my hand to shake his. “I have to get to— “

He finished for me. “Milana. Of course. I have a car already waiting for you.”

“With a couple of guards as well, I hope. I’ll need them if I’m going to drag Aunt Gabriella to Abruzzo in winter for her own safety.”

Sebastian rolled his shoulders and lifted his chin. “The key with women is to establish early on your dominant authority and your expectations of obedience.”

I paused with my hand on the doorknob and just looked at him. I then shook my head, swallowing a laugh. “I wonder if I sound as obnoxiously foolish to Milana when I say shit like that, too.”

“What?”

“Nothing, old friend. I have a feeling you’ll learn what I’m talking about soon enough.”

CHAPTER 33

MILANA

I never in a million years would have thought it was possible to do too much shopping, but Gabriella proved me wrong. Now I saw why Amara kept describing her afternoon shopping spree with her as overwhelming and borderline alarming.

There was no telling the woman no!

There was no telling her enough!

There was no telling her I’m fine, I don’t need a fifth cocktail dress!

Here this whole time, I thought Cesare got his stubborn, domineering personality from his father.

Nope.

It clearly ran on the female side of the family, too.

I thought if ever given the chance, I would be different from Amara. At the time, I thought she had been crazy about objecting to Gabriella spending Barone’s money. Unlike her, I would gleefully spend Cesare’s money to get back at him. And why not? He had plenty of it. It wasn't like me spending a thousand euro, or two, on a couple of dresses and maybe a new purse was going to break his bank account.

As I trudged up the central staircase to the guest bedroom with not even a tenth of my purchases weighing my arms down as they dangled from fancy bags, I marveled at the obscene amounts of money that was spent on me today in a whirlwind, as if it all meant nothing.

I thought Gabriella had bypassed a couple thousand euro within her first few steps inside the very first boutique. Each time I tried to object or, at the very least, slow her down, she would tell me that Cesare would want me to have something or that I was going to need a particular item as his future wife.

No matter how many times I told her I would not marry Cesare, she blissfully ignored me.

Each time, she would just raise a perfectly manicured hand in the air and rattle her heavy gold bracelets, waving off my protests as merely a lover’s quarrel. She would then talk about how wonderful it was that Cesare had found himself a woman of intelligence and passion and how happy she was for both of us.

After that, she would tell me some endearing story about him as a boy.

She wasn’t fooling me for one second.

I saw the sly looks she would cast me after each heartwarming story, hoping she was making an impression. I wouldn’t put it past her to be embellishing the stories, or to be outright lying, just to sway me to Cesare’s cause.

It was clear Gabriella wanted both Amara and me as nieces. And the feeling was mutual. We both adored her. I meant, she was lovely, and everything we would ever want in an aunt. She was fun, vivacious, and fashionable. She was like a living, breathing bottle of prosecco. Pretty, bubbly, and made you feel just a little drunk and unstable if you stayed too long in her presence.

I walked into the bedroom and dropped the packages on the chaise under the window.

I turned when I heard the door slam shut behind me.

“Cesare!”

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