Page 101 of Tormented Diamonds
She quirks her little heart-shaped lips. “I don’t want Daddy to be bad.”
And I don’t want him any other way.
“Good and bad are just labels, Rosie. There are people who’ll judge you; not because they don’t like you, but because they don’t understand you.”
“That’s not nice.”
I smile. God, I dread the day she loses this straightforward innocence. She’s too little to know the scarlet letter her last name carries, so I pull a quarter from my pocket and explain it to her in a way she’ll understand. “See this coin, my love? Most people think there are only two sides, but that’s not true.” I flip it vertically. “See this thin part that separates them? That’s called a gray area. It’s neither the front nor the back. It’s stuck somewhere in the middle, holding them both together.”
“So, Daddy isn’t on either side. He’s both?”
My heart squeezes. Gianni is convinced Nero will be the first Marchesi to rule the Five Families, but I’m not so sure. I think his sister might give him a run for his money.
“That’s right. Daddy isn’t a good or a bad man, or the front or back of a coin. Not all heroes wear white.Sometimes they wear black and look a little scary.”
“So, Daddydoesn’thurt people?”
Christ, this kid is like a mental ninja. Gianni’s right. She’s too much like her mother. Maybe those family footsteps should lead her in the opposite direction.
“Your friend hurt you by telling you that. Do you think that makeshera bad person?”
She purses her lips and thinks for a moment. “No.”
“Then you should always judge people by how you feel here…” I press a finger gently to her heart. “Not by what they say here.” I move my finger to her lips. “Do you understand?”
She nods her head. “No.”
An amused smile tugs at the corners of my mouth as I lower her to her feet. “Good talk, Ro. Go play with your brothers.”
Rosalia’s concern with her father’s morality is forgotten within the first few seconds of Renzo’s announced water gun fight. Taking the opportunity, I step through the double French doors into the kitchen to find Gianni leaned against the island, phone in hand, a scowl chiseled on his face. Something about the way he stares at the screen unsettles me, but I’ve learned over the years not to ask questions. If it’s important, he’ll share with me; otherwise, he likes to keep family business contained to Anton, Paulie, and occasionally Owen.
I watch him for a moment, marveling at how time has managed to make him even more ridiculously attractive than the day I met him. He still has the same thick onyx hair, only it’s a little shorter and dusted with signs of an emerging silver fox, and that penetrating dark gaze still makes me catch my breath. Biting my lip, I drag my eyes down the hard, muscular body most twenty-year-olds would give a kidney to have.
But what makes him the most appealing isn’t physical. It’s watching him with our children. Gianni is the father both of us wish we’d had. Our boys are protected and loved,and Rosalia is in another stratosphere of revered. She’ll forever be Daddy’s little girl. I honestly feel sorry for the man she falls in love with.
Folding my arms across my chest, I lean against the wall and clear my throat.
Gianni looks up from his phone, his frown tipping upward as he nods toward the backyard. “What were you two talking about?”
I shrug. “Just girl stuff.”
Pocketing his phone, he pushes off the island and closes the distance between us. The comforting scent of spice and burnt pine surrounds me as he hooks his finger under my chin and tips it up. “What’s on your mind, Doc?”
“Nothing, I just…” A sigh works its way from my chest. Turning, I stare out the glass to where our three children play happily in the sun, blissfully unaware of the bloody world they were born into and the crowns that lie in wait. “I worry about them. There’s only so long we can shield them from who they really are, Gianni. I just hope they’ll understand.”
“If anyone can help them to do it, it’s you.” His arms wrap around me from the back, anchoring me to him and this life we’ve built. “If you can save me, you can save anyone.” When I shake my head, he presses his lips to my temple. “We’re a family first, Becca. They’ve known nothing but love.”
“Will that be enough?”
“A wise woman once told me that love doesn’t keep receipts.”
I chuckle. “She sounds pretty smart.”
“She is. That’s why I married her.”
There’s a comfortable silence, one I feel a need to shatter for some odd reason. “Is everything okay? You seemed kind of tense a few minutes ago.”
He stiffens behind me, his grip tightening. “Just business. Nothing I can’thandle.”
