Page 29 of Valley of the Kings

Knocking lightly on the door, I walked in without waiting for Fia to give me permission because something told me that she might not give it. Papa hadn’t been lying when he had described Fia’s tantrums as theatrics. My sister was the epitome of a drama queen, and even if her grief was genuine, Fia was the type to make the most of her emotional spotlight.

As soon as Fiaspotted me, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I came for dinner,” I answered, walking further into her room. “Work waskind of hectic this week, so rather than sending a text or trying to fit in a phone call, I decided to stop by for dinner and see how you guys were all doing.”

“How do you think I’m doing?” she snapped. “Mano is gone.”

“And I’m sorry for your loss, Fia,” Isaid, and I really was. This entire situation was an epic disaster, and I was pretty sure that we were all still trying to piece everything together. “I have no doubt that you must have loved Mano very much to break your word the way you did. However, Mano knew the risks that he was taking when he pursued you.”

Fia jumped up from the rocking chair in the corner of her room. “Are you seriously saying that it’s Mano’s fault that he’s dead?” she screeched. “This is all Nero Sartori’s fault!”

That threw me fora loop.

“What?”

“It’s Nero’s fault that Mano is dead,” she repeated, though she hadn’t yelled it this time.

I shook my head, confused. “How do you figure? It was Papa that shot him, not Nero.”

“If Nero hadn’t come over that night, then none of this wouldhave happened,” she argued. “I would have been able to tell Papa in my own way, and he never would have killed Mano.”

“Areyou insane?” I asked, a question that I found myself asking her a lot.

“It’s true,” she insisted. “And I’m going to make him pay.”

Myentire body turned cold.

“What?”

“Nero Sartori doesn’t get to just kill Mano and get away with it,” she said, andthe seriousness in her voice had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

“Fia, don’t do anything stupid,” I warned her. “Even if he wasn’t Nero Sartori, you’re pregnant. You have to think of your baby-”

“Iamthinking of my baby,” she lied. “What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t avenge its father?”

“He’sNero Sartori, Fia,” I bit out. “He’s the Sartori Underboss. How can you possibly think that you could get away with such a thing? If you think that being a woman and pregnant will save you, it won’t. Marco Sartori will demand your head, and Papa will have no choice but to hand it over.”

“Not if no one suspects that it was me,” she replied smugly.

“And how do you plan on pulling that off?”

“You’re telling me that it would be that hard to slipsome poison into his dinner?”

Fia was obviously not thinking clearly. “How do you plan on getting close enough to his food to-”

Sonofabitch.

“Allyou have to do is slip it in-”

“I amnotpoisoning Nero Sartori for you, Fia,” I told her, disappointed but not surprised that she would ask such a thing of me.

“You’re seriously choosing him over your family?” she cried out, those theatrics back in play.

“The fact that you can even ask me that after last Saturday positively astounds me,” I told her, her selfishness almost crippling me. “I married a man that I don’t even know just to save this family from his wrath. A wrath that he’s entitled to, might I add.” I shook my head again. “And because that wasn’t enough for you, you want me to risk my life by poisoning the Sartori Underboss for you.” I let out a disenchanted sigh. “You’re unbelievable.”

“He killed the father of my child,” she said, repeating the lie, still refusing to place the blame on either Mano or herself.

“If that’s how you really feel, then I’m not sure what to say to make you see things differently,” I told her. “However, if you want the Sartori Underboss dead, then you’re going to have to do the dirty work yourself.”

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