Page 121 of Righteous Deceit

She frowns in confusion.

“Will your brother try and kill me for disrespecting his mother?”

She smiles. “No.”

“Good.”

“Vincent would do that for you?”

I press my lips against her ear. “No. Vincent doesn’t take orders from me, and he’d never kill an old woman for being a bitter old bitch, but she doesn’t need to know that.”

She leans up unexpectedly and kisses my lips.

“What was that for?”

“No one has ever stood up to my mother like that for me before. My brother reprimands her, but you just threatened to have her killed for being rude to me.”

We’re speaking as though she’s not standing right in front of us. Our tones hushed, and our eyes caught on one another.

“I don’t take kindly to people hurting the people I love. Physically or emotionally.”

“Diego.”

“Mm?” I lean closer, wanting to touch her lips again.

“You love me?”

“Enough!” Giuliana yells, the word screeching from her throat like a scratched record.

Her face is red with anger, but a hint of jealousy carves at the narrow line of her eyes. The bitch hates that Sia has found someone to love her. She loved seeing her only daughter alone because she can’t stomach the idea of Sia having something she never did. Something blossoms in my chest, a feeling of contentment and achievement. Giuliana Bianchi has lived long enough to see Sia happy, and it’s ruined her very existence.

“Get out of my house before I shoot you.Murderer!”

That word again.

Murderer.

“Did you think we’d never find out?” Sia ignores the stab. “Did you think we’d never find her? It’s all coming undone, Mother, and your sins will be paid for in blood. I’ll make sure of it.”

Giuliana’s fury has quelled for the first time since we arrived, panic settling in its place. She lifts her chin, ready to rebuke Sia’s claims, but my wife speaks first.

“We have Lucy. Salvatore is with her now, as is Narciso and Amadeo. Your little doctor friend will sing like a fucking canary when your son starts pushing him for answers. We both know that.I win,” she whispers the last words like a declaration of war.

Her mother laughs, the sound steeped in malevolence. “I won a long fucking time ago, Alessia. That underage bitch thought she could takemylife. I spent my life loving that man. I gave himeverything. I wasn’t going to let her take it. She wasn’t going to take him from me.”

“She was a child!” Sia’s voice breaks as she bellows the truth that has haunted her for decades. “She was a child, and he preyed on her, and you punishedher. You locked a teenage girl away for the sins of a man whoneverloved you. He was never going to love you.”

“You don’t know that,” her mother screams. “You took him away from me to make sure of that. All for a stupid girl. You killed him, and you got away with it!”

Shock lacerates my spine, freezing me in place.

You took him away from me.

You killed him.

You got away with it.

Sia doesn’t notice me or the earthquake of her truth wracking through me.

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