Page 12 of His Enemy's Daughter
“I understand.” The words come from somewhere outside my body. “Goodnight, Father.”
“Goodnight,figlia mia.”
I make it to my room before the shaking starts. I close the door, apply the lock, lean against it until my legs give out, and I’m sliding down to the floor in a dress that costs more than what some people could ever boast of throughout their lifetime.
In a few days, my father will announce which man he’s chosen to be my husband, and I’ll smile and accept it because that’s what dutiful daughters do.
I pull out my phone with shaking hands and stare at Dr. Muni’s contact info. I want desperately to call her, to break down, to admit that I can’t do this anymore.
But what would I say? That I’m trapped? She knows. That I’m suffocating? She knows. That I’ve spent twenty-eight years being groomed to be someone’s perfect wife, and I don’t know who I am underneath all the training?
She knows that too.
I put the phone away without calling. Instead, I sit on my bedroom floor in my glittering gown and practice the smile I’ll wear when my father tells me which man I’m going to marry.
Perfect. Obedient. The dutiful daughter of Sabino Picarelli.
And somewhere inside this expensive dress and practiced smile, the real Regina—whoever she might have been—counts down the days until her beautiful cage gets even smaller.
The countdown has begun, and I don’t even know how long I have left to be myself.
Not that I’m entirely sure who that is.
4
Mauricio
“You’re staring at that building like it personally offended you.”
I don’t turn away from the window when Tiziano speaks, too focused on the glass-and-steel structure across the street that houses one of Sabino Picarelli’s “legitimate” business operations. Three days of surveillance have taught me the patterns—shift changes, security rotations, the careful choreography of people moving in and out with the precision of soldiers following orders.
“I’m staring at it because it’s familiar.” The admission tastes like rust. “This whole territory is familiar.”
“Should it be?” Tiziano moves to stand beside me, following my gaze to the building that looks like any other corporate headquarters if you ignore the armed guards trying to pass as security.
“The Moretti job.” I say it quietly, testing how the words feel after fifteen years of not speaking them aloud. “Fifteen years ago, when everything went to hell and I ended up inside—we were trying to establish a foothold in Picarelli territory.”
The silence that follows carries weight. Tiziano’s too smart not to understand what I’m implying.
“You’re saying the job that sent you to prison was sabotaged by the same man currently threatening Simeone’s family?”
“I’m saying we underestimated Sabino Picarelli’s reach and ruthlessness.” I finally turn to face him, seeing my suspicions reflected in his winter-pale eyes. “We thought we were being clever, moving into territory he’d neglected. Turns out he doesn’t neglect anything—he just lets you think he does before crushing you.”
“Christ.” Tiziano runs a hand through his dark hair. “Does Simeone know?”
“Not yet.” I move away from the window, pacing the small surveillance room we’ve set up in a building with a perfect sight line to Picarelli’s operations. “I wanted to be certain before bringing him old ghosts. But the more I dig into current threats, the more I see patterns from fifteen years ago.”
“Patterns like what?”
“Systematic intimidation. Careful escalation designed to destabilize without triggering all-out war.” I tick off points that have been haunting me since I started analyzing Simeone’s intelligence files. “Testing boundaries to find weaknesses. It’s the same playbook Picarelli used before—push until someone pushes back, then retreat and regroup.”
“So what’s different now?” Tiziano leans against the desk, arms crossed. “Why come after Simeone after all this time?”
“Because Simeone’s empire has tripled in size.” The answer comes easily, born from three days of obsessive analysis. “Because what used to be separate territories are now overlapping. Because Sabino sees Simeone as a threat that needs to be neutralized before it becomes unmanageable.”
“And the best way to neutralize Simeone—”
“Is to go after what he actually cares about now.” I finish the thought. “Not territory or money or power. His family. Loriana and Alessandro represent vulnerabilities he never had before.”
