Page 97 of Veiled Vows

“You know…” Ren stops a foot away and stares down at the gun. “All those years ago, when I first found out what happened to my mom and how I was conceived, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t hate me. My existence was a reminder of the worst night of her life. A night where you terrorized and hurt her, where you took from her and then cast her aside like she was nothing. I never understood why she didn’t hate me, and honestly, I still don’t. She always looked at me with such love in her eyes, and she always did her best to care for me even when we were scraping by. I never went without food, without clothes or care. But she did.”

“Oh, boo hoo,” Santino snarls.

“So when I got older, I swore I would repay her. I would make sure she lived a life of luxury like she deserved, but it turned out she was holding too much pain. Youbrokeher, and caring for me was the only thing keeping her together. Until she decided I didn’t need her anymore, and I didn’t get the chance to tell her that I would always need her. So then you became my focus,Father. I was going to find you. And for decades, I’ve dreamed and entertained all the ways I wanted to hurt you. How badly I wanted you to suffer so you’d feel even a fraction of her pain. I’ve run so many scenarios, and even on the way here, I was thinking about it. How much pain can I put you through? And I’ve realized…you’re not worth it.”

Ren lifts his head and looks his father right in the eye.

“I have a woman who loves me. I have money. I have the power now. And you?” Ren sniffs quickly. “You’re nothing but a disgusting cretin of a man and you don’t deserve a creative death. You don’t deserve my time or my energy, you don’t deserve any more space in my mind or my heart. I’m going tomake sure the world forgets you so that not even your name will live on. You will fade into obscurity and stay there, forgotten.

“Why you fucking little piece of?—”

Ren quickly lifts the gun and shoots his father in the mouth causing his jaw to explode in a flood of teeth and gore. Santino’s head snaps backward, and Ren shoots him again as he flops back like a dead fish.

Then Ren shoots him again.

And again.

He empties the entire clip into Santino’s body, and then silence falls like a gentle blanket over both of us. Slowly, he lowers the gun, and it hangs limp from his fingers. When he turns to me there are tears in his eyes.

“I hate him,” Ren says brokenly. “I thought killing him would give me some incredible rush of feeling, or free me from this sadness I’ve carried since I was a child. But it’s still there.”

I approach him carefully and reach for the gun when we’re face-to-face. My other hand lightly cups his face as I caress his cheek while smiling gently. “It will take time. Which sucks, I know. But he’s gone. He’s not going to hurt you, or anyone, ever again. And I bet your mom would be so fucking proud that you worked so hard and for so long to avenge her. Because I know for a fact that even though you came to her through such a cruel act, she loved you. How could she not? A mother’s love makes them do everything and anything for their child. Look atmymother.”

Ren nods, turning his face into my palm. He sniffles and closes his eyes, allowing one single tear to escape from his lashes. I catch it on my thumb and gently wipe it away.

“The Gatti’s are no more,” he says quietly, opening his eyes. “My mother’s maiden name was Sato. I’ll go back to that.”

“Sato,” I repeat softly. “Beautiful. Although…” Stepping back, I holster my gun and loop my arm through his, starting to guide him back to where we parked. “Don’t you like Falzone?”

“Huh?”

His confused expression immediately makes me laugh. Perhaps it’s cruel for me to toy with him so soon after being released from the hospital. “Didn’t we establish that our feelings still exist? And are very much real? And you went through so much to keep me safe.”

“Uh huh.”

“So…the wedding was never officially called off. I mean, the venue is still booked, the dress is being worked on, and all the other caterers and stuff are still on speed dial.”

Ren stops dead. “You…still want to marry me?”

I stop in front of him, studying his handsome face from the curve of his brow down to the swell of his lower lip. “Of course I do. I love you. And if I’ve learned anything these past few months, it’s that shit changes so fast and I don’t want to wait around for the good things to get taken from me. So…yeah, I do.”

Ren’s face breaks into a wide smile and he surges forward, wrapping his good arm around my waist. “Holy shit.”

“Ren Falzone has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” I grin up at him. “You should take my name. Come into a family that truly cares for you. Besides…” My heart begins to race. “Given our new path in life there’s also something I need to tell you.”

Ren’s eyes dart back and forth across my face for a moment, then he frowns. “Why do you look nervous?”

Distance suddenly feels like the best option here, so I ease myself out of his grip and resume walking back to the car while he follows.

“I was going to tell you earlier, but then everything with Alto happened and when you claimed it was you and left, I was really angry and hurt and didn’t want anything to do with you. And then I was going to tell you when you woke up in the hospital,but I was waiting on some scan results to make sure everything was okay.”

“Jasmine…” Ren catches my hand and we stop in the parking lot. “You’re scaring me a little.”

My heart beats like a drum at the base of my throat and tremors shoot through my arms as I turn to face him. “I’m pregnant. And I didn’t tell you earlier because when I fought Alto, he hit me in the stomach, and I was really scared I’d lost it. Which ironically helped me decide whether or not I wanted to keep it. But I needed to check that everything was okay, that I was okay, and the baby was okay, and then time got away from me and I…” The look on Ren’s face brings me to silence. He looks a mix of shocked and alarmed.

“You’re pregnant?”

I nod quickly. “Mm-hmm.”

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