Page 279 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

For a split second, she’s quiet, save for the soft whimpers slipping from her mouth.

“I really hate you,” she mumbles with a sniffle. She tries to push away from me, but I keep my grip around her waist tight, knowing she’ll crumble to the floor if I let go. “I hate everything you stand for, the way you hurt innocent people, the way you try to make them fear you. You turned into your father. I saw it happen when you chose your family over me years ago. You never cared about me. You only cared about making your family happy. You’re evil and vicious, just like them, and you don’t give a damn about anything but money and power,” she says, the tears now streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m just trying to do my job, Chella. If people cross me, they get punished. That’s how this works. Your brother fucked me over, plain and simple, and now he needs to deal with the consequences. Our past doesn’t factor in. This is about me and Frankie. It has nothing to do with my family or what happened in Sicily.”

“He was desperate,” she says, her voice pleading. “He was just trying to do the right thing for us.”

“And in doing the right thing for you, he screwed me pretty damn hard. Caused a lot of problems for my organization that I need to fix. He created a huge goddamn mess, Chella. A big one. If he wants to keep you alive, he’s gonna have to figure out how to clean it up. Fast.”

Her puffy, red-rimmed eyes make my throat tighten and my resolve falters.

She doesn’t deserve this. She didn’t make the asshole decision to dick me over, Frankie did.

He’s the one who needs to suffer, not her.

And hearing her tell me that she hates me…that stings. Yeah, I let her go because what the hell choice did I have? Was I supposed to run off with her at eighteen and get cut off by my family?

Family always comes first.

Always.

I hated like hell to see her go, but I had no choice.

And I never stopped loving her either.

Clearly, she doesn’t carry the same torch for me.

As I stare down at her, overdosing on her raw beauty and vulnerability, I realize what I need to do…how I can make things right for everyone involved.

Frankie will pay, but so will I.

CHAPTER10

MARCHELLA

So much suffering. When the fuck will it ever end?

Roman helps me settle back onto the couch but I shove him away. I don’t need his help. I need his mercy.

But everything he just said confirms one thing.

He’s still my enemy.

My head falls into my hands, the sobs exploding from my chest.

I hate that I’m crumbling in front of this man. I hate that I’m so emotionally broken that I’m allowing myself to lose my shit in front of someone I loved to the ends of the Earth who has just basically threatened to kill me and my brother if he doesn’t get what he wants.

Because the truth is, while my situation is dismal at best, I still manage to pop out of bed in the morning. I still have some shreds of positivity left in me. I still have hope, dammit!

But everyone has their breaking point, I guess.

And since I’m already fractured, I guess it was only a matter of time before I cracked open completely.

God, what I wouldn’t do to feel my mother’s arms around me, to hear her soothing and syrupy-sweet voice whisper that everything will be okay…that this, too, shall pass.

I have clung to that saying for the better part of the last year and you know what?

Shit’s only gotten worse! Nothing has gotten better!

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