Page 96 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“Fuck, Ari. I ain’t judging the man, but what was you thinking agreeing to that shit?”

“I told you, I didn’t want to go down for murder. I was scared. And it wasn’t so bad, okay? He took care of me… he takes care of me.”

My heart hurt. I wanted Zayn so much right now. I needed the courage to be honest about what happened.

“It started out as just that… it started like that, but then…”

Dad stepped closer.

“Then what?”

“Then I wanted more, then… then I fell in love with him.”

“You what? He’s almost twice your fucking age, Ari. I’m in business with him. And you said he didn’t want to—”

I put a hand up.

“I know what I said, but things changed. And no, it wasn’t anything to do with our deal. In fact, the deal is off now. I could have come home after he killed Derek, but I didn’t. I stayed because I want to be with him. I want Zayn, Dad. I want him so much it hurts.”

Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision. I didn’t want to cry over what happened earlier, but it broke my fucking heart to leave him.

“I had to come home because his dad found out about us. Gennaro doesn’t think I’m good enough for Zayn.”

For a moment, Dad did nothing, just stared at me as tears slid down my cheeks. Then he walked over and bundled me up in his arms.

“Shh, shh.”

“I love him. I know you probably don’t approve, but he’s everything to me,” I sobbed into his chest, hating myself for crying over the whole situation. It made me feel weak. I wasn’t fucking weak. “Zayn had to send me back to you. He couldn’t go against his father.”

Dad stroked my back.

“Gennaro is a fucking piece of work. No one messes with him.”

At least he wasn’t railing at Zayn for letting me go. In fact, he’d not said a word about my confession of love for the mafia prince. He just held me while I cried on his chest until my sobbing abated.

“Got to be honest, Ari. I ain’t happy about you being with him.”

I stiffened in his hold.

“I ain’t happy, but I ain’t going to stop you either. If anyone’s going to keep you safe and give you a better life, it’s him.”

“You mean that?” I whispered.

“Gennaro’s full of shit if he thinks you ain’t worthy, but man can’t have beef with him. If you do this, you do it by yourself, innit?”

I nodded. Dad couldn’t afford to jeopardise his position with Gennaro. It would be suicidal.

“Glad you’re home, Ari. Missed you.”

“Missed you too, Dad.”

He held me closer.

“We got to talk more about what you did.”

“I know.”

I knew we still had to talk about Justin, but at the very least, he hadn’t gone ballistic at me over Zayn. He’d sort of given me his blessing. If telling me he wasn’t going to stop me from being with Zayn was his blessing.

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