Page 126 of Marry Me Not
My pulse beat loud inside my ears.
“Then you admit it,” I said. “Your family killed my father.”
A thin smile touched his lips. “Our father.”
Wind moved through the garden. Somewhere in the distance, a bird called once and then went quiet. I became aware of my own fingers pressing into the surface of the iron table.
“What did you just say?” My voice came out low.
“Gino Ferraro was my father too.” Dominic held my gaze with those all too familiar eyes.
But no.No. Lots of men had similar eyes.
I stood so fast the chair scraped behind me. I snatched up the gun and pointed it at him. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to buy that.”
He looked almost bored as he glanced at Fabiana. “This is what they mean when they talk about unruly younger brothers, isn’t it?”
“Younger?” My mind whirred. “You’re inventing a blood claim so you can position yourself to lead the Ferraros.”
“I am not looking to lead your family,” Dominic said. “I already have my own.”
My collar felt damp. “Fabiana, why did you insist I sit here and listen to this?”
“Cosimo,” she said gently. Her eyes shone. “Justlookat him.”
I looked.
Fuck me. It wasn’t just the eyes. It was the line of the nose. The angle of the jaw. The shape of his mouth.
And it wasn’t just my father. It was Rom. Alessio.Me.
My breath got stuck in my throat as shock rang through me.
Fabiana stood and curved her small palm over my shoulder. Her touch calmed me. Slowly, I lowered the gun.
“How is this possible?” I forced out. “If you’re the eldest… Dad had a child before he met Vita?”
He nodded. “Gino and Rena were seeing each other in the weeks before he met Vita. A short-lived affair. The moment he met Vita, my mother ceased to exist for him. Unfortunately for him, by that point,Mammawas already pregnant with me. Terminating the pregnancy was out of the question. Her family would never have permitted it. She went to Gino. He told her he would provide for the child financially, but that he had no interest in a relationship with her or with me.” The smallest hint of bitterness slipped into his expression. “By that point, your mother had already sunk her claws into him.”
That part checked out. Dad had always told us he’d fallen for Vita at first sight.
“That arrangement might have held,” Dominic said, “if my mother’s family hadn’t come under threat soon after. The Santoros were never a major power in the city, but they were established enough for the Riccis to decide we were worth absorbing.Mammawent to Gino. She told him she wanted nothing from him—no money, no acknowledgment, no relationship. Only his backing in the conflict. One clearstatement from the Ferraros, and the Riccis would have retreated. They were opportunists, not warriors. They were looking for easy territory, not conflict with the most powerful family in New York.”
Jesus. Dad should have helped them. It would have cost him almost nothing.
“Vita convinced him to refuse,” Dominic said. “She did not want him to help the woman carrying his child. She was probably betting the situation would get bad enough that my mother and I would be dealt with for her.”
I thought of Vita and the things I already knew she was capable of. There was no doubt in my mind that she would’ve resented any competition for Dad’s attention.
“Gino refused my mother the first time she came to see him. And the second. By the third visit, she was seven months pregnant. Her father had been butchered in the street, and her brother’s body was hung from a bridge.”
The terrace was very quiet.
“Your father was so completely under Vita’s influence that he turned away a woman pregnant with his child while her family was being destroyed. He could have stopped it all with a single phone call.” Dominic held my gaze. “I don’t tell you this to condemn him. I tell you so you understand why my mother ordered that bomb to be placed.”
Fucking hell. I exhaled slowly.
“A few weeks later, my mother fled to Italy with what remained of her family and had me here, near Grottaglie. They rebuilt. Bythe time I was ten, we were the most powerful family in this region.”
