Page 15 of Savage Betrayal

“Mom, what are you doing in here?” I ask breathlessly.

“I think you’re the one who should be answering that question. You told us he used protection.” Her eyes flash with fresh betrayal, her refined features twisting into a look of anger and despair.

“He did!” I insist, my cheeks flaming as the worst night of my life comes roaring back to my mind.

The pure bliss of my freedom, the wild adventure I never wanted to end, followed by the worst kind of humiliation and rejection. How has my punishment not been enough?

My mother grabs my wrist, pulling me from my chair as tears shimmer in her eyes. “We’re going to your father. You’ll take a test so we can know once and for all just how thoroughly you’ve ruined all of us.”

My stomach drops into my feet at her words, and I follow numbly as she drags me down the hall to the stairs. Heart hammering in my chest, I fight the fresh waves of mortification I must endure over one stupid night.

That night changed everything for me. That was the night I stopped being a child. The night all my juvenile fantasies were shattered. It destroyed my relationship with my family. Left me ruined, unlovable, a worthless burden my parents would rather be rid of than have to support. That night destroyed my naivete. It destroyed me. I only wish I hadn’t needed Leonardo Moretti to educate me.

“Giuseppe,” my mother says, knocking on my father’s office door.

“Come in.”

His booming voice makes my heart stutter, and I ball my fingers into fists to hide the way they shake. His demeanor shifts as soon as he sees our faces.

Utter disappointment darkens his eyes when he looks at me now, and he can only seem to spare me glances before he has to look away. As if the very sight of me offends him. Every time he does, it reopens the wounds of that night, reminding me of just how terribly I ruined things.

“Get out,” he commands the men he’d been meeting with.

Both send startled glances in my direction, then they rise from their chairs and leave without a word, closing the door behind them.

“Your daughter has been researching signs of pregnancy.” My mother’s tone could turn water to ice, and it doesn’t escape my notice that I’ve officially become your daughter, as if she no longer wishes to be associated with me.

At first, she’d been gentle, concerned when I came home that night. She thought I might have been kidnapped, violated. It was much harder for her to wrap her mind around how I could willingly walk myself into the Moretti house of my own free will. How I could give myself to him of my own volition.

The truth makes me less of a victim in her eyes because I was too ignorant and childish to see the foolishness of my behavior. Maybe she’s right. But that didn’t make me any less hurt, any less scared, any less angry. I hate Leonardo as much as the rest of them now, and I hate myself because I ruined our best chance of destroying him that night.

Father levels me with a silently furious gaze, the disappointment radiating from him in waves. But still, he doesn’t speak to me. Instead, he gives curt orders to my mother. “Send for the doctor. I want confirmation. And make sure it’s discrete. The last thing we need is rumors of a pregnancy scare getting out to further tarnish our good name.”

As much as I want to scream at my father, tell him to say something—anything—to me, even if it’s to yell, I bite my tongue. I’ve never felt so isolated, so utterly alone. My hand instinctively reaches for the millefiori necklace tucked beneath my shirt, but I stop myself so as not to arouse my father’s suspicion.

I turn without a word and exit his office with my mother, leaving her behind as I head straight up to my room. I suppose one good thing came out of my parents finding out. At least now I’ll know. That has to be better than all the worrying and then wondering if my worrying is causing the problem but being unable to control it.

Closing the door behind me, I fall back on my bed to stare up at my ceiling. He did use protection, right? I had assumed so that night. It looked like a condom. But the one thing I know about Leonardo Moretti after that night is I can’t trust him. About anything. I don’t know what his motivations were that night—aside from using me as a crass statement.

But I wouldn’t put anything past him now.

The bastard needs to be put down.

I just wish I’d understood that before I destroyed our family’s chances of uniting to take him out.

5

LEO

Don Valencia stares me down with thinly veiled hatred as I scan the docket of his most recent profits. I can’t help the smirk that tugs at the corner of my lips as his face slowly turns a deep shade of red, then purple. It’s taking all his willpower not to say something, and I take my time scanning the numbers to give him every opportunity to lose his temper.

And if he does, I’ll crush him.

“This looks sufficient,” I agree, handing back the papers after I’ve had my fun.

“And you’ll let my sons continue to run production?” Don Valencia asks, his tone clipped as he hands me the deed to his company.

I step close to him, lowering my voice as I give him a warning look. “They’ll do whatever the fuck I want them to. And right now, they have the opportunity to prove they can be good little minions who answer to me. If they get that right, then maybe I’ll let them keep their positions.”

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