Page 7 of The Lies We Tell

She jerked against his hold, her stomach flip-flopping at the sadistic gleam in his eye. “Why? She’s dead.”

“Are you absolutely certain about that?”

Of course she was. Wasn’t she? If her mother had been alive all this time, she would have reached out. There’s no way Eliana would leave her only daughter to suffer at the hands of her husband. She knew what a monster he could be. No. If she was going to stay away this long, it could only be for one reason. She wasn’t able to come back.

“I don’t believe you.”

Salvatore sighed, releasing her throat to reach into his pocket for his phone. She swallowed, wincing at the rawness as his thumb tracked across the screen searching for…whatever the hell he was searching for.

Then he paused, a grin that could almost pass for triumphant if it wasn’t stretched so wide, spreading across his lips. He turned the phone in her direction. On it was a photo of a woman staring out through the window of a small villa.

Tessa reached for the phone and then yanked her hand back, looking up at him. He dangled it in front of her, a taunt as much as proof. Taking it from him, she brought the image close to her face.

Using her fingers, she zoomed in on the figure, and her breath caught in the back of her throat. Mama. They had the same thick, dark hair, the same sloped nose, the same high cheekbones. People used to ask if they were sisters rather than mother and daughter.

She’d spent so many years praying for her mother to come home. Down on her knees, rosary clicking between her fingers, asking God and the Virgin Mary and all the saints to bring her mother back safely.

Eventually, she’d given up on the fantasy that her mother would come back or that she was even still alive at all. It was more likely her father had killed her and not batted an eye. He hadn’t even pretended to look for her, and two weeks later, he was moving his bastard son into the house. The boy he’d always wanted.

But the timing was too convenient. And if Eliana really was alive, where the hell had she been all this time? Why had she never come back to rescue her daughter from this nightmare?

“How do I know it’s really her?”

Salvatore sighed, plucking the phone from her fingers and clearing the screen. “Your mother didn’t want to accept her shortcomings at not producing a living heir. She didn’t want to treat my son as her own in this house. When I told her she didn’t have a say in the matter, she threatened to take you and leave.”

“What did you do?” Tessa breathed, heart hammering in her chest.

He tapped the phone against his palm. “You think I would let her just walk out on me? Let her take you when I needed you to secure a good match with a useful alliance? Of course not. So for the last eight years, she has been my…guest. When she behaves, I even let her go outside.”

The idea of her mother being a prisoner all these years made her sick to her stomach. Then again, was it very different from her own captivity? Locked behind the walls of her father’s compound unless he felt like letting her out to keep up appearances.

Tilting his head, he pinned her with an expectant look. “Now you have a decision to make. Your defiance or your mother’s life. You choose.”

She dropped her eyes to her father’s phone, capturing her bottom lip between her teeth. He could be lying. Trying to manipulate her into doing his bidding. But if he wasn’t. If her mother was alive and Tessa had the power to save her, to be reunited with her… Did she really want to take the chance and refuse?

Of course she didn’t.

“And if I choose to do what you say? What happens?”

“When everything is finalized, I’ll give your mother back to you.” He turned for the door, pausing with his hand on the knob. “But Tessa? If you disappoint me, the only way you’ll ever see your mother again is in pieces.”

He closed the door quietly behind him, and her legs wobbled as the threat settled in. Gripping the back of the chair in front of the vanity to stay upright, she squeezed her eyes shut. What if she went through with all of this for her father when she could find freedom in death, and he was doing nothing but stringing her along?

But what if he was telling the truth? What if her mother really was alive? Held captive by her father in much the same way Tessa had been these last eight years. Both of them existing in a prison they had no way to escape from.

Either way, she had to know for sure. Which meant she’d do exactly what her father wanted. But she’d hardly be a willing accomplice. Once he moved her into a position he thought would benefit him, she would do everything in her power to beat him at his own game.

And this time, she was going to make sure she came out on top.

Chapter Three

Matteo had the printed pages of the layout of the Antonetti villa spread out on the conference table. Between his assistant’s tech skills and Sienna’s advanced hacking abilities, the two of them had sourced blueprints from Antonetti’s most recent remodel.

Sienna was still working on getting eyes and ears inside the compound by cracking into the surveillance system, but it was advanced, and she wanted to be sure she didn’t trip any hidden alarms that would shut them out. Matteo wanted to be sure that didn’t happen too.

They still had two days before Antonetti’s deadline to deliver Drago to them. Matteo knew he wouldn’t. He had men sitting on Antonetti, following him across the Syracuse territory. It was business as usual.

No one had spotted Drago, but that wasn’t surprising. The villa was massive, with at least a dozen bedrooms and outbuildings for staff. Antonetti generations were usually much bigger than the meager showings they’d had the last few rounds. Salvatore was one of only three sons, the other two already dead, and he had his own problems fathering a male heir.

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