Page 50 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

Aunt Maura smiles. “It was a nice story to tell all of you, but that’s not why they married so young.”

“What are you talking about?” Anticipation knots my stomach.

“They were arranged, Heaven,” she says in a low voice. “Because the families needed an alliance against a common enemy. Your mother was the only girl in her family, just as you are, and she was arranged to marry your father to keep peace.” Aunt Maura shrugs. “It was the only way to defeat the evil force that would have crushed them both.”

“How could you not have told me this? How could you all keep that secret for so long?”

“It didn’t matter why they came together, dear. After years passed, they grew to love one another, and they were able to preserve their families through the union. They moved here to the States to raise a beautiful family and grow and prosper. How they got together didn’t much matter after everything they achieved together.”

I press my fingertips together. “Jesus…”

She drops a kiss on the top of my baseball cap. “I know how badly you want to lead this family, Heaven. And I know the kind of opposition you’ll encounter, being a woman. But whatever happened, maybe this is the way to prove your loyalty to the family, to show that you can accept responsibility. It may be a different path than you’d anticipated, but in the end, it is a greater show of strength to make the hard choices and stick by them than to resist them.”

And by that, I need to clean up one of Conor’s messes in the worst way possible. But I reserve this last bit, because even though Aunt Maura has become my confidante over the years of living in the middle of Testosterone Central, and taken on the role of mother figure, there’s still plenty she doesn’t need to hear.

I lean back against the chair and stare up at her. “I said I’d do it, but there has to be another way than marry a man I detest.”

“He’s handsome and you don’t know him.”

“I know enough.” Heat snakes through me with the memory of what he did.

“Look at it this way.” She takes my hand. “There’s no better way to prove you’re capable of leading the family than by taking control of an issue before it has a chance to control you.”

I stare up at her. She’s damn wise, I’ll give her that. She knows more than anyone how badly I want to step into my father’s role.

I could dig my heels in and refuse, but then all of the blood spilled as a result will be on my hands.

Not Conor’s,mine. Just like Matteo Villani said.

Which is completely fucked up. But that’s how things work in our world.

She who has the power to control the bloodshedmust.

Fuck me.

Something shifts in the air and my aunt goes still, her gaze shifting behind me and up and I know who it is.

“Amore mio,” his silky, rich voice says.

Shivers run through me as it hits home and I close my eyes.

To save my world and everything I love, I have to marry Matteo Villani.

“What?”

“Heaven,” my aunt whispers.

I take a breath, open my eyes and turn. He’s gorgeous. The devil. A bastard. And he smiles.

“I’ll give you a little time,amore mio. Say…thirty minutes?”

“For what?”

“What do you think, Heaven? You’re coming home with me. Tonight.”

CHAPTER10

MATTEO

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