Page 85 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

I stopped in my tracks, shocked, then turned and yanked my mother into a hug, holding her tightly. “Thank you, Mamma,” I said, burying my face in her hair to hide the tears that threatened to spill over at her words.

She laughed quietly, patting my back awkwardly before pulling away. “I’m proud of you, Sofia.”

Her words soothed something in my jagged and broken heart, healing a crack I’d thought was permanent. “Thank you, Mamma,” I repeated, unable to keep the wide smile off my face, not caring about the emotion it revealed. I’d waited so fucking long for those words, and I was going to enjoy them for as long as possible.

“Now, about those men of yours,” my mother continued. I stiffened, waiting for the attack I knew was coming. “Nico Lombardi is a good man, and so is Lorenzo, but Dante Oscuro is bad news.”

“Papà shoved me at Dante,” I exclaimed, shocked at the direction the conversation was taking. Not “don’t enter into a poly relationship,” but “one of your boyfriends is up to no good.”

“He did,” my mother agreed, nodding her perfectly coiffed head, reminding me once how like her she’d raised me to be.

I was still pissed at Dante, but one of the lessons my parents had ingrained in me from even the youngest age was the importance of a united front. “I’m keeping all three of them, Mamma.”

With a deep sigh, she turned and began walking back to the car, where Lorenzo waited for me, a faint smile teasing at his lips. “So when’s the wedding?”

“Mamma!” I cried, not sure whether to laugh or cry. “It’s too soon for that.”

“You’re dating three men, Sofia. Surely the rules are as radically different for timelines as they are for everything else about your relationship,” my mother answered dryly. I saw the charm my father must have seen in her, the sly sense of humor, and I wished I’d known her better as that woman, rather than the cruel mafia wife who’d raised me to be a perfect mafia princess.

My father and Lorenzo glared at each other, mirror images, the same furious expression on their faces. Like father, like son. Nothing to be done about that relationship now. Either Papà would realize that Lorenzo was doing exactly what he’d done his entire life—protecting me, or he wouldn’t. And nothing I could say or do would change that.

Papà looked me over—tired, messy, my hair tied up into a sloppy bun—instead of the perfect daughter he’d raised me to be, and I winced, waiting for his censure. Instead, he drew me into a fierce hug. “Congratulations, Sofia.”

All I could do was hug him back.

“After you graduate tomorrow, we’ll talk about everything, all right?”

My eyes boggled. Who was this man, and what did he do with my father?

He held me by my shoulders, staring at me. “I’ve been a fool, child. I made that mistake with your sister, and now I’ve made it with you.”

I dragged my father back to me for a hug. I didn’t know what had brought this change on, but I was going to hold on to it for as long as I could.

Butterflies overwhelmedme as we arrived at Ginevra’s with Lizzie and Miss Carolina in tow. The last time I’d asked for Ginevra’s help, she’d ended up married to Rian, Cormac, and Liam. As worried as she’d been when I’d been kidnapped, I was loath to drag her and her family back into our messy, violent, mafia world.

As I contemplated the doorbell, Lorenzo bumped me with his hip, his arms full of paper bags of sandwiches, chips, and sodas. “Hey, she’s your sister. It’s going to be okay.”

I bumped him back, my arms full of my dress and accessories.

Before I could ring, Ginevra yanked the door open and dragged me into a hug. “Congratulations on finishing college!” she exclaimed, looking me up and down, her eyesgleaming with amusement as she took my dress out of my hands.

“Zia Ginny!” Lizzie cried, slipping past me to wrap her arms around my sister’s legs.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Ginevra said, laughing as she picked her up. “I’ve missed you! I hear it’s been an exciting couple of weeks.”

“I have new uncles!”

I sent up a brief prayer of thanks. If that was the most exciting thing about the last couple of weeks for Lizzie, we were doing at least one thing right.

“Hi, Ginevra,” Lorenzo said, kissing my sister on each cheek as Lizzie wiggled and squirmed in her arms.

“You better be treating my sister like the queen she is,” Ginevra warned him, smiling to take the bite out of her words, although we both knew she wasn’t kidding.

Liam took the bag of sandwiches from Lorenzo, kissing the top of my head in greeting before dragging Lorenzo to the dining room table, where he was already poring over the blueprints for the hall where the gala would take place.

Dante smoothly took Lorenzo’s place at my side, wrapping one arm around my waist. “Congratulations,” he whispered into the top of my head. “You did it, kitten.”

When he pulled away, I grabbed his hand, pressing it to my hip, needing the steady reassurance of his presence more than I needed to maintain my anger with him. The deep rage would surface later, but for now, I wasn’t ready to face Ginevra’s husbands on my own.

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