Page 58 of Luca

“Well, since you’ve already fucked me over with the Russians, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Good luck running to any of our father’s associates now once you find out who you really are. They’ll throw you on your ass like yesterday’s trash. Yes, my father killed our mother. She was going to leave him and take us with her. Maybe she thought running to Italy with her family would save her, but Father wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted to raise me to take over, and she wasn’t going to take my birthright from me. He caught up to her and killed her, then staged it as a car accident.”

“How could you still want anything to do with him after learning that, Carlo? She was our mother!” I’m shaking with volatile rage at the way he so flippantly tells me that he’s known this for God knows how long.

“What happens between a man and his wife is his business. He had every right as her husband to deal with her as he saw fit. I’m not going to question his decision. She would have taken me from what I was born to be.”

I scoff. “Yeah, that turned out really well for you, didn’t it?”

“I may be down, Giada, but I’m far from out.” He pauses, and I stare at Luca, whose face is a mask of unreadable emotion. But if I had to guess, I’d say underneath, he’s as angry as I am. “Here’s the kicker, though. He found out you weren’t his daughter. That she fucked some bodyguard of hers and he promised to save her from the life she was completely ungrateful for.”

My eyes widen and Luca’s mirror my shocked expression. It also doesn’t pass my notice that I’m a lot more like my mother than I would have ever thought, considering I’m standing in front of my former bodyguard turned husband.

“What do you mean? Who’s my father?”

“I don’t know his name. Doesn’t matter. He was killed the same night as our mother.”

“Why the hell did he keep me? Why not give me away when he found out?” It’s not as though my father, or rather Francesco, has an altruistic bone in his body or had some sort of attack of conscience.

“To punish his dead wife who betrayed him. He told her that he would tie you to this life forever. That he would use you and your future marriage for his gain. He had a son who would take over and a daughter who could facilitate an alliance with a powerful family. And if you didn’t fulfill your end of the bargain, he would make sure you joined her in the afterlife sooner rather than later. And wouldn’t you know? You’ve decided to run off and shirk your responsibilities.”

“Are you out of your mind?” I yell into the phone. “I’m not going to live out some asshole’s vendetta against our mother. I don’t give a shit if it’s for the man who I called father for the last twenty-two years.”

“Then I will find you and you’ll join our mother,” Carlo threatens.

“You aren’t going to get anywhere near her, you sick son of a bitch,” Luca growls, grabbing the phone from my grip.

“I should have fucking known,” Carlo says, and I can imagine the sneer on his face so clearly. “Luca Bennetti. I’ve been looking for you. I see Giada convinced you to forfeit your life to help her with her little plan. Is her pussy really that good?”

If Luca grips the phone any tighter, he’s likely to break it. “You will not talk about my wife. You don’t think about her or speak of her,” he growls through a clenched jaw. “I’ll be seeing you real soon, Carlo.” Luca disconnects the call and looks at the phone, taking several deep breaths to calm himself down. “Fucking scumbag,” he mutters before pocketing the device. Well, at least he didn’t smash it into a million pieces like I would’ve expected.

When his angry blue gaze finds mine, his eyes soften, seeing the look of devastation that I’m sure is written all over my face.

“Sweetheart,” he whispers and opens his arms. I don’t waste a second and fall into them, allowing the tears to run freely down my face, soaking his white button-down shirt.

“How could he know what Francesco did and still blindly follow him? How could he possibly be okay with even being in the same room with him?” I tilt my chin up and look into Luca’s sympathetic eyes. “Everything I thought I knew about myself, Luca, who I thought I was…gone. Francesco isn’t my father. Oh my God. He killed my real father and mother.” Tears pour from my eyes. He knows exactly what I’m feeling, doesn’t he? Who I thought was my father sentenced him to the same fate years ago as well.

Luca pulls me closer, rubbing small circles over my back. This is so screwed up. Everything is just…fucked.

Luca walks us over to the sofa and sits, placing me across his lap and cradling me in his strong arms as I cling to him.

“There you go, sweetheart, cry it out.”

And I do. I cry harder than I ever have in my life, probably harder than I did when I found out my mother had died. Back then, it was a nanny comforting me because that’s what she was paid to do. Now, it’s my husband, the one person in the world I know I can rely on, take comfort in. Someone who knows exactly what I’m going through because he’s been through it himself.

“He’s a monster. Francesco and Carlo. They’re both monsters.” That doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word to describe the horrible humans that’ve put both of us in this situation.

“They are. But I promise you, Giada, They won’t get away with it.”

I wake in the bed Luca and I have been sharing for the last two nights. God, has it only been two nights since my world imploded? First, escaping the only life I knew, then marrying Luca, and today, finding out who I thought my family was…isn’t. I don’t know how to process any of this. My mind is like a battlefield warring with itself. Anger at being lied to, rage at what Francesco did to my mother and real father, and gratitude that I have Luca next to me.

I turn and face my husband, whose eyes are open, his soft gaze wary with worry.

“You carried me up here?” I rasp out.

“Yeah, figured it would be more comfortable for both of us here instead of the couch.”

Always taking care of me.

I lean in and brush my lips against his, seeking a comfort only he can give me. When I try to deepen the kiss, he pulls away.

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