Page 176 of Sinful Honor

“Mamma, whatever it is, he’s a big boy; he can take it.”

My mother’s sob almost made me waver.

“Should I go?” I asked Alessio, who shook his head.

“If what Moretti told me was the truth, you need to know anyway.”

“Or not,” my mom interjected. “We’ve kept it a secret this long. I don’t know why he told you. He should’ve never told you.”

Alessio bristled next to me, then scowled. “You should’ve told me. You and Dad.” He scoffed as if he had just swallowed an insect. “I deserved the truth, and not through the deathbed confession of a virtual stranger!”

A heavy weight settled on my chest. I’d never seen Alessio so angry—especially not with my mother.

“Can someone please clue me in?”

“How about you talk, right now?” Alessio raised one eyebrow, staring at our mother. “Explain things?”

Tears gathered in my mother’s eyes, then spilled over while she shook her head. “Well, then, I guess I will.”

There was so much menace in Alessio’s voice, it gave me the chills.

“I’m your father…those were Moretti’s last words.” Alessio’s eyes remained locked on Mamma.

I ignored the tingling sensation on the back of my neck. This couldn’t be true. “So? People on the verge of death say all kinds of shit,” I said, in a futile effort to end this toxic situation.

“Yes, I thought so, too,” Alessio muttered, then his gaze sharpened. “So, I asked Mamma to set the record straight.”

“And?”

“And…” Alessio made a sweeping motion in my mother’s direction.

“It’s not what you think it is,” she begged.

Alessio chuckled. “It isn’t? Because you refusing to talk to me feels suspiciously like Moretti told the truth and you can’t handle it.”

Mom sighed, straightened, wiped her tears, then met Alessio’s gaze head-on. “When your father and I were young, we liked to experiment. He liked to experiment.”

Alessio’s face showed the same confusion mine probably did. What the hell was she talking about?

“Sexually.”

What the actual fuck? I wanted to take a step back and put my hands over my ears. I did not sign up for this.

“Your father liked to watch,” she said, her voice firmer now.

“Watch?” Alessio folded his arms across his chest, confusion written all over his face.

“Watch me.”

Oh shit.

My stomach hardened.

Watch her, as in watch her have sex with other men?

“Doing what?” Alessio stared at her—slow on the uptake.

“Have sex with other men,” she said, then looked down at her feet. “We only played a handful of times, and only with one other person,” my mother said, her voice barely above a whisper. “The only person your father trusted at the time.”

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