Page 123 of Righteous Deceit

“He attacked me for being disrespectful, hit me and kicked me, then dismissed me like I was nothing. He never saw me as a threat, and it made me so fucking mad.”

I move toward the drink cart. My mother had replaced everything that was broken or stained with death shortly after she buried her husband. The room doesn’t look any different from the day he died here.

“He was standing here when I stabbed him in the neck with a letter opener. He was shocked enough that I had time to grab his whiskey decanter.” I pop the lid, pouring myself a glass of whiskey. “And smash it over his head.” I sip the amber liquid, finally finding the courage to turn and look at Diego. “I then used the broken glass to cut his carotid artery, and I stood on his neck and smiled while he bled out.”

He shows no emotion.

“Salvatore isn’t the ruthless murderer the world thinks him to be. It’s me.”

I swallow the rest of the alcohol in one fell swoop, grimacing at the burn.

“Had the family known that I, agirl, had executed my father for the retribution of a friend, I would have been strung up like a pig to slaughter. Salvatore would have been made to watch. He would have died trying to protect me. It was better this way,” I assure him. “It was better for the world to believe my brother was a psychotic killer obsessed with a need to sit at the very pinnacle of Chicago’s hierarchy. It was easier to swallow for the archaic system of the Mafia. They respected Salvatore for his bloodshed but would have vilified me for mine.”

“Who knows the truth?”

“Only Salvatore, CJ, Giuliana, and I knew the truth. Even the underboss of Chicago still believes the version of events he was told. But then, Narciso has no reason to doubt us. It was a matter of life and death keeping our secret. We knew that.”

“How do I fit, Sia?”

“The hunt was a peculiar stroke of fate that pushed us together. A coincidence too convenient to be true, don’t you think? It was too farfetched that you, a rival family member, were involved in something as hush-hush as The Quest. I questioned your motive, as did my brother.”

“Your brother threatened to kill me to protect you and himself.”

It’s a statement, not a question, but I nod.

“I declared my love to spare your life in a moment of madness. It was all a lie. I didn’tloveyou, but I felt connected to you. How bad could marrying you be? I pulled you into a net of deceit, but I did so for good reason. The ranks were circling, and Salvatore gave me an ultimatum. You die, and I marry CJ, or I stand by my lies, and I marry you. I did it to protect you. To keep you,” I admit shamefully.

He says nothing.

Not a single fucking word.

As I place the crystal glass down, my hand shakes in a way that has me clenching my fist. I’m thrown back eighteen years, covered in blood, watching my brother carve a smile into my father’s retched face.

“I have to go,” I say. “This is a lot for you to take in, and I know you have questions, but I just discovered that I killed a man, and while he deserved to die,” I implore, “I killed him without just cause. A friend I believed dead has been found alive and has been living through a trauma I can’t evenbeginto decipher, and I just shot my mother.”

Leaving my husband soaking in the layers of deceit I once believed righteous, I walk past him. “Are you okay to wait for whoever Salvatore sends to manage this mess?”

He nods once, and I’m thankful he doesn’t attempt to follow me. I’m not ready for him to stamp the end on our marriageormy life.

Avoiding Giuliana’s lifeless body as I exit her home, I consider her to be the last in a succession of gifts Diego Greco never wanted to receive.

CHAPTERTHIRTY

ALESSIA

It’s been a week since my world blew up in my face.

I’ve been walking around like a shell of the woman I know myself to be.

Salvatore has watched me like a hawk, and it’s irritating how much I have to reassure him that I’m fine. He’s so fucking concerned he hasn’t even brought up our mother’s death. Not a single fucking word. It’s like we’re moving on as if she never existed, which, I’m not going to lie, works for me.

I haven’t seen or heard from Diego since I left him at my mother’s house. I’m not surewhatI expected, but if I needed time to grieve what we were building before he had the chance to tear it out from underneath me, he’s given it to me. There is no doubting that.

Salvatore wanted to kill him immediately. But once again, I lied. I assured my brother he was trustworthy. I swore on everything inside me that Diego wouldn’t tell anyone what he now knows because he loved me.

Or so I thought.

I don’t know for sure that the damage isn’t already done. Maybe Lorenzo already knows and is marinating on the information, trying to decide how to handle it all.

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