Page 31 of The Forbidden Secret

I hadn’t been able to call Maggie again—not since learning how closely she was being watched. I knew she had to be close to giving birth by now, and there was so little time left. I couldn’t wait out Clide Newton and his plans forever. There would come a time when I would have to make a decision to leave and hope they didn’t find me.

Judging by Jaimie’s frustrated expression, I would need to be making that decision soon.

“Your fucking Dad,” she said. “Excuse the vulgar words, but this motherfucker has no problem hurting the women in his life, does he? I have worked for him and saw the way he treats his associates, specifically those who were women. I never considered how he coped with having four daughters and no sons, but I’m beginning to see the clear picture. Aria told me some things about him, but I couldn’t fully believe it until you.”

I considered my oldest sister and her situation. She had been happy to go into the Rissi crime family to find a home. I envied her decision. She had always been the strongest of us. The smartest, too.

I had always believed her to be invincible to our father’s cruelty. Even as she endured, she never came close to breaking. She didn’t hide from him. She didn’t complain. She justendured.To hear that she told her story—herawfulstory—to someone else had my gut clenching.

I had never even bothered to ask her about her experience.

“He is… not an easy father to have.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Aria made it sound far more passionate than that.”

I bit my lip before deciding on a response. “Talking about the things I’ve gone through because of him won’t change any of it. It will just bring up an irrational anger that will help nothing and nobody.”

“Have you told Zeke about any of it?”

I sealed my lips. I had not told him anything, but there were things he surely knew about me and my situation. He didn’t need the specifics. Nobody did.

“Well,” Jaimie continued when I didn’t reply immediately. “Your father has effectively made matters more difficult and messy. He has pledged a substantial number of his soldiers to bring you back. I questioned one of them and learned that his demands were simple. It doesn’t matter what state you’re in; he still expects you to come back. He encouraged his men to rough you up as a consequence of escaping.”

My heart raced at the words, but I didn’t show any reaction beyond mild frustration. “That sounds like something he would do.”

She began sweeping the last pieces of glass into a dustpan, staring at them with a furrowed brow. “It’s appalling. He’s only doing it to pacify Clide Newton. The more I learn about the connections between Clide and the crime families, the more precarious the situation becomes. Clide has been in businesswith Giovanni Rissi for years, but Giovanni has a moral code that Alonzo lacks. Clide uses the Rissis to launder businesses and to establish general business partnerships. It seems that they have gone in together on lab-made narcotics and a few other business ventures.

“Alonzo, on the other hand, does the dirtier dealings. He does human trafficking, which is something Giovanni said that Clide has been interested in for a while. Over the past two years, they have been dipping their toes in together, and as a favor to Alonzo, Clide agreed to break you in, Evelina.Break you in.Like you’re a fucking toy.”

The words should have hurt, but I feltnothingwhen hearing them.

Nothing about my father’s dealings surprised me. Hell, the mafia was a crime syndicate, and there weren’t rules or regulations. People did whatever they pleased, and there were no boundaries for most.

If I had heard how much my father didn’t care for me a year ago, it may have stung. But my priorities had shifted. He showed me exactly what Ididn’twant to be as a parent. This entire situation showed me how far I needed to go to be safe from that monster.

Bothof the monsters who hunted for me.

“But Giovanni won’t pledge any men to hunt for me?”

She shook her head and dumped the glass into the trashcan. “He keeps his hands clean of any form of human trafficking and has made it clear to Clide that he won’t throw his support behind it. But he does have enough businesses entangled with Clide that angering him beyond that boundary would be dangerous. Hecould lose a quarter of his men and a huge chunk of his wealth. Under different circumstances, he may have risked it…”

The unspoken words were clear. With my father coming at Giovanni and posing a clear threat, Giovanni couldn’t risk his entire family and his position to help a girl he had never met.

I rounded the counter and sat on a bar stool, propping my chin on my left hand. “What do we even do about this?”

“Zeke is going to see what he can figure out. He’s going to talk with Giovanni right now.”

Sothatwas why he was so angry. The night we had shared melted into my mind, and my stomach tightened as I recalled falling asleep and waking up to start over again. And again. It wasn’t until the sun had risen that I finally made my way back to my bedroom, torn about the information I knew and hadn’t shared with him. I needed to tell him so many things, but I kept my mouth shut. Last night, I had considered telling him what I saw on the computer. As I was chopping vegetables and reading a book that I had no interest in, the weight of hiding another thing from him felt unbearable.

But when I had felt him out and told him that I didn’t need anything emotional, he had seemed relieved. Happy. So, did it even matter what I knew about him if our bond would never be more than physical?

I shut off the thoughts and said the first thing I could think of. “He must be eager for this to be over if he broke the glass after hearing that news.”

Jaimie snorted. “Yeah, okay.”

“What was that reaction for?”

Her brows rose up her forehead. “You think he wants this time with you to end?” I nodded once. “I pegged you as a little more self-aware. He’s angry because he wants you to be safe, not because he wants to get away from you, Evelina.”

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