Page 26 of Savage Claim

Serafina snorted. For such a pretty girl with bright blue eyes and beautiful lips, it was a really unattractive sound. “How could you do that to your family?” she asked. “Make friends with some doppelgänger that Lorenzo is mooning over? You’re sick.”

It was like her words flicked a switch in my head. I was completely fine with being the target of their disdain. I had figured that would be their reaction to me, given what I’d learned about the Cosa Nostra in the last few months. But for her to speak to Amalia that way?

“I’msick?” Amalia asked and smiled in a way that I had never seen before. Sugary but with a cruel edge to it. “Sera, you spent the summer in Italy because you kept sneaking that guy you met clubbing in through your window. Your father had his femur broken.”

Serafina’s cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red. “That’s not…” She floundered. “Why would you even bring that up?”

Amalia shrugged. “If you’re going to imply that I’m betraying my family by befriending my cousin-in-law’s fiancée, I thought it would be prudent to remind you that on the scale of betrayals, at least I didn’t fuck around before my marriage.” She leaned on her elbow, casual as anything. “How old are you, anyway?”

I touched Amalia’s hand. If she kept talking, I was fairly certain that Serafina’s head would explode. “Thank you,” I murmured to her.

“You don’t even lookthatmuch like Sienna anyway.” This was from Gia, who apparently, hadn’t warmed up to me at all since her visit. Her eyes met mine, and she sneered. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said.

My lack of a reaction seemed to incense the women around me. Serafina’s cold eyes pierced me; her lips twisted into an ugly frown. “I always thought Lorenzo had a discerning eye, but I guess he’s not too picky.” Her eyes traveled from my face to thesheer paneling of my dress. “Or maybe he just has a thing for freak shows.”

I fully expected someone to bring up my scars. It was the exact reason that I didn’t want to wear this dress anyway. But her words didn’t sting as much as I would have thought. Instead, it was like a wall of ice came up in my mind and I straightened my back.

“Serafina, what’s the worst thing that your father ever did to you?” I asked in a voice so deadly calm that she jerked back, blinking over and over.

“That’s none of your business,fottuta puttana.”

“Sera!”I guess the meeting is finished, I thought as the men came filing back into the dining room. “I thought that summer with your aunt and uncle would be sufficient to teach you some manners.”

It was fascinating to watch the girl go pale as she apologized to her father and swore that she didn’t need to go back. I laughed. I couldn’t help it. She whipped her head around to glare at me. I held up my hands. “Sorry,” I said. “I just…is that the worst thing he’s ever done? Sent you to some relatives in Italy?”

If she could eviscerate me with her stare, I would have been in pieces all over the room. “They made me work on their farm.”

I hummed. “That’s rough,” I said agreeably. The whole of the dining room was staring at us now, and I had that feeling, again, like this was a test, and I wasn’t sure if I was passing or not. “I’ll bet they took your phone too, huh?”

“Do you have a point?”

I pushed out of my seat so that she had a good look at my scars again. “You noticed these, right?” I raised my arm so that everyone knew exactly what I was talking about. “Get a good look everybody.” I kept my tone light, almost singsong-y, and I smiled, full of faux sweetness, at Gia and Serafina in particular. “My father ran up a debt, and when that debtor came for the money, he offered up my kidney.”

The color slowly drained from Serafina’s face, and a savage part of me was glad for it. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Too bad,” I said with that wide smile, which made my face ache. “Since you’re all just dying to be in my shoes, I can hire someone to pin each of you to a cold tile floor while I try to dig out one of your organs. Since I went to nursing school, maybe I won’t botch it. Maybe you won’t end up passing out from blood loss and having your heart stop while someone tries to save your sorry, pathetic lives.” My voice was getting louder and louder as I spoke, and all of the women were staring at the table or the wall now.

Any place but at me.

A hand slid around my waist, and I didn’t have to look to know that it was Lorenzo. “You’ve made your point,dolcezza,” he said and dipped down to press a kiss to my throat. “And I think, on that note, it’s time for everyone to get the fuck out of our house.”

CHAPTER 17

Isabella

Irode the high from what Elio called my ‘mic drop’ moment for all of two hours before my own shame slammed into me like a Mac truck, and I’d spent a sleepless night spiraling in embarrassment.

“I can’t believe I played into all of that drama,” I groaned over breakfast with Amalia the next morning.

Amalia nibbled at her toast almost daintily. “I think it was fantastic,” she said. “Sera was being a real bitch.”

I whimpered even louder and thumped my head into my arms. “I played ‘my trauma is worse than your trauma.’ I’m so irritated with myself.”

“But you weren’t wrong. She was sent to work on a farm in Italy, yes, but she was with people who love her, and who took good care of her, and she had a rebound with a man named Fernando who has been trying to get her father to agree to their marriage ever since.”

Well…that made me feel marginally better. “Still, it wasn’t right for me to shove my own horror story in her face.”

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