Page 46 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

Saverina looked up at Teo. “We can’t use her or this.”

“Why not? It proves everything. The worst of the worst. It will ruin Dante forever.”

Saverina stared at him openmouthed for a moment or two. “Did you see why she dropped the divorce proceedings, Teo? She’s protecting herself and her child. We can’t just...ignore that for a little revenge.”

“I don’t see why not. It is the truth. The information coming to light will have nothing to do with her, or her now adult son, so what does it matter?” He walked away from her and toward his own computer, like he was going to start making plans immediately.

He clearly wasn’t listening, so blinded by his own plans. “You know as well as I do, Dante won’t care about who leaked this information. He will only care that it has been leaked and hurt anyone involved. He’ll blame her because he thinks she’s the only one who’ll know. If he’s capable of hurting his own son, he’ll hurt her. She’s afraid, Teo. For herself. For her son. That’s the only reason she dropped the divorce.”

“I think he’ll be too busy being hurt to hurt them back,” Teo said, not even looking at her.

She shook her head, panic and worry moving through her. And something else. Anger. “You are such a man sometimes. With the money and power Dante has, you cannot guarantee that. Even if he gets in some trouble, it won’t be enough to ensure they’re protected. Teo, you cannot use this. We have to stick to our plan and leave this be.”

“I disagree.”

She got up, strode over, and took his laptop off the table, closing it and setting it aside. “I don’t care if you disagree. I will not let you use this.”

“You do not have a say. Revenge has always been the plan. He will pay for what he did. To my mother. To me. This is better payment than I could have dreamed. Why should I abandon it just because you don’t like it? You don’t matter.”

He said it so...off-handedly, and it cut through her like a stab wound. You don’t matter. No, she’d been fooling herself to think she could. Perhaps underneath all his issues he might care for her in some way, but it would never matter if he didn’t face his issues.

She might have given up and walked out the door if something bigger wasn’t at stake. She felt like she owed it to Julia Marino to keep fighting in this moment.

“Your mother is gone, Teo. It isn’t fair. It’s awful. But hurting Dante won’t bring her back.”

He stood, his expression nothing but ice. “I have no fantasies about bringing her back, Saverina. I watched her waste away. This is not about her.”

But it was. Even if he didn’t admit it. To her or himself. She pressed her hands to his chest so he couldn’t reach for the computer. “Teo, doesn’t this denial hurt? How can you bury it so deep? You lost her, baby. It’s okay to grieve that, to feel that.”

He removed her hands from his chest, then held them by the wrists, glaring down at her. “Enough. I have what I need. You will go now.”

She stepped back. Her heart just ached. She couldn’t get through to him. Now that he had this slice of an even bigger revenge, he’d just shut her out. Just destroy all these lives because that was the plan.

She couldn’t get through to him. “I cannot be a part of this,” she said, very carefully, her mind racing for ways she could save that mother and son from this...idiocy. This tunnel vision born of denial.

He shrugged. Unbothered. “I don’t need you for this.”

Teo convinced himself he was completely dispassionate as he watched her expression fall. He convinced himself the worry and fear and love in her gaze was a fiction.

He had his revenge—better even than his plan. Proof the man hadn’t just refused to acknowledge his illegitimate son but had attacked his legitimate one. It was a boon.

He would not let her guilt him into thinking it was anything else. He would not let her ruin this. “In fact, I no longer have any use for you at all.”

He expected anger, that flash of her temper, but her expression just...fell. Like he’d stabbed her clean through. He refused to acknowledge that her expression felt like his own wound.

“I know you want to compartmentalize,” she said, very carefully, like every word hurt. She even pressed her hand to her stomach like she was putting pressure on a bleeding wound. “I know you’re in denial about your grief. But I know, Teo. This will not change any of that hurt or grief for you. It will not make those feelings you fight away so hard disappear. Putting innocent people in the middle of all this will only cause you more guilt. More pain. At some point there will be too much to ignore.”

“I have no need for your continued pseudo psychoanalyzing, Saverina. And I no longer need this engagement. What Dante did to his son and his wife is enough if you cannot fall in line. You’re overreacting to think they’ll be hurt. This isn’t about them.”

“You don’t get to compartmentalize it all like that.”

“Of course I do.” He pointed at her hand, because he could not do what needed to be done with her looking at him with wet, worried eyes. Talking about guilt and grief when revenge was all he’d ever wanted and it was now in his grasp. “I will need the ring back.”

The look on her face... He kept his hand outstretched, but he looked at the door behind her. Not cowardice...not hurt... No, something else. Regardless, feelings didn’t matter.

“I can see begging you not to do this won’t work, so I’ll only offer you this piece of advice,” she said, her voice raspy. “When you ruin not just Dante’s world, but two innocent people’s, the guilt will eat you alive. You want to play hard-hearted, detached stone, but you are a man. And no matter how you ignore your grief, your guilt, your heart, it is there. This won’t just hurt me and those two innocent people. It will destroy you.”

Good, was all he could think. Let it. He forced himself to look at her, at the tears tracking down her cheeks, because love was loss and pain, and that’s all it ever would be.

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