Page 32 of His Enemy's Daughter
“Because you needed to make this choice yourself. Telling you I knew would have pushed you away or made you feel obligated to include me.” He shifts to sit beside me. “I wanted you to have agency, even if it meant keeping secrets.”
“Giordano—”
“Let me finish.” He takes a breath. “I’m telling you now because Lorenzo Di Noto changes everything. Six weeks isn’t enough time for whatever you and Barone are planning. You need to accelerate, and you need help. Help I can provide.”
“No.” The refusal is immediate. “I can’t drag you into this. Father would kill you.”
“He’s going to kill pieces of you by marrying you to Di Noto.” Steel enters his voice. “I’d rather risk my life helping you escape than watch you die slowly in a marriage that destroys you.”
“You don’t understand what you’re offering.” I turn to face him fully. “We’re planning to dismantle Father’s entire operation. If it goes wrong, everyone involved dies. Painfully.”
“I understand exactly what I’m offering.” No hesitation. “Regina, I’ve spent eighteen years watching Sabino brutalize people I care about.”
I want to say yes. God, I want to accept his help so badly it physically hurts. But the image of what Father would do if he discovered Giordano’s betrayal freezes the words in my throat.
“I need to think.” I pull away gently, standing on trembling legs. “Let me talk to Mauricio first. Figure out if there’s a way to include you without putting you at risk.”
“There’s no way to do this without risk.” But he stands too, accepting my need for space. “Just promise me you’ll consider it.”
“I promise.” The lie tastes bitter but necessary. I won’t condemn him to Father’s vengeance if our plans fail.
After he leaves, I lock the door and pull out my phone with shaking hands. The encrypted app glows on the screen. I type three words:
Code Red. Now.
His response comes within seconds:
Location?
Safe house. One hour.
I’ll be there.
The hour passes in a blur of covering my bruised cheek with makeup and slipping out through the service entrance I’ve memorized for exactly this purpose.
The safe house is dark when I arrive, but Mauricio’s car is already there. He meets me at the door, and the concern in his storm-gray eyes when he sees my face nearly breaks my remaining composure.
“What happened?” His hand hovers near my cheek. “Regina, what the fuck happened?”
“Father chose my husband.” The words come out flat. “Lorenzo Di Noto. Six weeks until the wedding.”
“Christ.” Color drains from his face. “The heir from the gala? The one who—”
“Who told me educated women make difficult wives? Yes.” I push past him, needing space. “Father announced it tonight. When I tried to refuse, he reminded me exactly how little my opinions matter.”
“He hit you.” Mauricio’s voice drops to something dangerous. “Sabino hit you.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I wave away his concern even though my cheek still throbs. “What matters is that I’m on a countdown now. We have six weeks to either execute our plan or I resign myself to becoming Lorenzo Di Noto’s perfectly controlled wife.”
“Executing the plan in six weeks is—” He runs a hand through his silver hair. “Regina, that might not be enough time.”
“I don’t have time!” The shout surprises us both. “I have forty-two days. So either we accelerate the timeline, or you help me disappear right now and forget about dismantling Father’s empire.”
Mauricio moves to the window, staring out at city lights while his mind races through possibilities.
“If we accelerate,” he finally says, voice measured, “the risks multiply exponentially. Mistakes become more likely. People could die, Regina. Innocent people caught in the crossfire.”
“And if we don’t?” I counter. “I definitely suffer. Is my guaranteed destruction worth protecting hypothetical innocents?”
