Page 69 of The Lies We Tell

“Do you know where your emerald and diamond necklace is? The one that’s always been passed down from mother to daughter. I looked for it after you left, but I couldn’t find it.”

Tessa gripped the edge of the bed until her knuckles went white and her fingers ached.

“The, uh, emerald and diamond choker, you mean?”

“Yeah. The one grandma gave you on your wedding day.”

“I took that one with me. Sorry, baby. I couldn’t bear to part with it.”

“I understand,” Tessa said softly. “Thank you.”

“Happy now?” her father’s gruff voice said.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Tessa sat up straight and tightened her grip on the phone until her fingers stopped shaking. “Yes. That was all the proof I needed.”

“Good.” She heard the sound of a door slamming. “Now we can stop playing these fucking games. What information do you have for me?”

She cleared her throat, the plan slowly forming in her brain. “We need to meet in person.”

“In person?” her father snapped. “Why?”

“Because it’s too much information to send via text. If I could scan everything in using a computer and send it, that would be easier, but that’s too risky. And taking photos of every single document would be a waste of time. It’s better to meet.”

“You have documents?” His tone dripped with greedy interest. She’d hooked him. “Of what?”

“Assets,” she said simply. “Lots of assets.”

An engine growled to life in the background, but her father was silent for a beat. Calculating his next move. “I can send Tomaso to—”

“I’m not giving anything to your bastard.” Tessa tried to lash her temper when her father snarled. She needed to keep a cool head to get her way.

“You do not call the shots here, girl. I do.”

Her anger sparked, but she tamped it down and said evenly, “Since I’m the one who has the information you want and you can’t get it anywhere else, then I’ll call the shots just this once. You and me. In person.”

He swore under his breath. “I have urgent business to take care of. I can’t meet until Friday.”

Three days. She could work with three days. “Friday is fine. Afternoon is better.”

He gritted his teeth so loud she could hear it across the line. He really hated taking orders from her. But he wouldn’t get to see her any other way. She was done letting him be in control.

“Two?”

“Yeah. Friday at two.”

“Great,” he replied, though the word was drenched in sarcasm. “We’ll meet at the same store as the first time. And Tessa?” he added before she could hang up. “Don’t forget who’s really in charge here. I can kill your mother at a moment’s notice if you do anything stupid.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

She disconnected the call and carefully set her phone on the edge of the nightstand. She was going to do what she should have done a long fucking time ago. Tell Matteo the truth. Because the woman on the other end of the phone today was not her mother.

Tessa had known it from the first word. Eliana Antonetti’s voice had an almost musical quality to it. Lyrical and sweet. The woman she talked to today sounded nothing like her mother. No matter how soft she tried to make her voice.

And her mother never would have said her father could do a better job as a parent. She was constantly apologizing for Salvatore’s shortcomings and promising Tessa she would do everything in her power to make sure she had a good match with a good man who would love and cherish her in the way her father wasn’t capable of.

The question about the emerald and diamond choker that didn’t exist was just a final confirmation of what Tessa already knew. Her father never had any idea where her mother was, and he counted on Tessa being too stupid to realize it.

Running her fingers through her hair, she twisted it over her shoulder and pushed away from the bed, crossing to the closet and opening the top drawer. Unearthing the velvet bag with her mother’s pearls, she dumped them into her palm.

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