Page 35 of Last Hand

“You could’ve let me go,” she says. “You didn’t want peace. You wanted to win.”

My father scoffs. “Don’t pretend I’m some monster. I gave you everything. Everything you could ever dream of.”

She laughs, and there’s no warmth in it. “Except being free of you.”

“You haven’t asked for freedom since Leone was born.”

“And if I had?” she asks coldly.

“You wouldn’t have been leaving with my son.”

The air shifts and grows tense at my father’s words. My father stares at her as if he doesn’t recognize her.

“You act like I haven’t taken care of you, like I haven’t loved you and that you don’t love me back.”

“You took everything,” she says. “What else did I have left to love besides the man who made sure I couldn’t go anywhere else?”

The pain on her face guts me.

And for the first time, I wonder if I’m any different from my father.

I say I love Fallon. I tell myself I’m nothing like this man. The moment I lost her, I did everything in my power to drag her back to me, then imprisoned her. No questions. No choices. I am just as bad, forcing a baby on her and then threatening to take it away.

I clench my jaw.

I won’t do to her what he did to my mother. Once Fallon’s safe, if she wants to leave, she can. I won’t hold her hostage. I won’t trap her. I’ll fight for her, yes. I’ll never be the man who makes her love him because he’s the only thing left.

All I’ll ask is that she doesn’t keep my child from me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him.

“Because your mother hated you,” he says without hesitation. “You reminded her of what I did. Every time you cried, she saw the way I forced myself on her. And I didn’t want to explain to my son that he was born from violence, not love.”

Milo looks away.

“This is why you hated Lydia; you knew where she came from?” he asks.

My father shakes his head. “At first I thought she was a gold digger. Did you know Lydia was supposed to marry someone else?”

My stomach twists. “Who?”

“Anton Volkov.”

Milo jerks upright. “Volkov?”

“Yes,” Vittorio says. “Her marriage to Volkov had been arranged by Anatoly years ago. A union that would have sealed a fresh alliance between the Russian factions and the old Volkov cartel. Lydia was the bargaining chip.”

I shake my head. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would she come here? Why marry me?”

“Because she ran and needed protection,” my father says, voice flat. “The wedding was imminent. She fled before the ceremony and disappeared. Next thing I know, she’s working at one of our clubs. Right under your nose. Charming her way into your world like she was born to it.”

I stare at him. “You think she used me to escape Volkov?”

“I know she did.” My father sighs, eyes distant. “If I’d been in her shoes, I might’ve run, too.”

“That man’s a fucking butcher,” I growl. “He collects wives like trophies. Sienna would be—what—his fifth?”

“Sixth,” Milo corrects. My father looks over at me.

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