I shook my head. “You guys have spent my entire life showing me what unconditional love is, only to saddle me with a husband who’s just doing his duty. Francisco doesn’t love me. He tolerates me on the best of days. Why would you guys do this to me?” I could hear the hysteria bubbling up in my voice. “Why would you…subject me to a marriage where my husband is probably going to spend all his time at The fucking Sapphire?!”
“Saveria, that’s enough!” Dad yelled. “You’re being unfair.”
My watery eyes nearly popped out of my head. “I’m being unfair? Are you serious, right now?” None of the men commented. “If this is such a great idea, and Francisco is such a fucking catch, why not tell me? Why keep it a secret?”
“Saveria, we will only tolerate your disrespect for so long,” Dad remarked, rather than answer my questions. “You will watch how you speak to us.”
I was in-fucking-furiated.
“You spent my entire life lying to me and manipulating me for a desired outcome that you three decided on years ago, and you want to talk to me about disrespect?”
“Luca-”
“Don’t,” I snarled, hurt and betrayal squeezing every chamber of my heart.
The problem with all this was that I knew Francisco was serious when he said it’d be him or no one. He’d kill anyone who got in the way of what he wanted. He was a Benetti, after all. If his mind was set on having me, and he had the backing of our families, I was done for.
I looked at my dad, and my heart felt like it was being shattered into a million pieces. “You won’t be walking me down the aisle.” His chest caved. “There will be no wedding.”
“Ria-”
I shut Uncle Ciro down. “There’ll be a marriage, but no wedding,” I clarified. “Tell His Highness, when he’s ready, we can get married here.” I didn’t bother to soften the resentment in my eyes. “After all, this where you guys shake hands on all your business deals, right?”
My dad stepped towards me. “Saveria, I know you’re angry-”
“You wish I was angry, Dad,” I corrected him. “I’m not angry. I’m past angry.” I glance at all of them. “You men run this organization on the principles of loyalty and family, but what you did to me was the complete opposite.” The tears started running out of control down my face. “I’ve never felt so betrayed by anyone in all my life.” Each man looked like he’d been sucker punched, but I didn’t care.
They didn’t deserve my mercy.
I turned to walk out of the office, but I wasn’t done shredding my relationship with my family. I turned in the doorway and said, “I will never forgive you for this. Oh, and you guys can tell your wives they no longer need to pretend to give a shit about me, when it’s clear that all any of you care about is what’s best for you.” I slammed the door behind me.
Once I made it to the reception area of Uncle Luca’s floor, Mica stepped in line with me as I entered the elevator. I stabbed the button for the bottom floor and started wiping at my tears.
“Ria-”
“Don’t, Mica,” I cried out brokenly. “I’m barely hanging on by a thread here. Please…just don’t.”
“What do you need from me?” Mica’s been with me since I was fifteen. He was only ten years older than me, but he was an old soul. He was also ruthless as hell. It’s why he’d been assigned to me.
“Did you know?” I whispered, afraid of the answer.
“Everyone knew, Ria,” he admitted sadly. “Everyone but you.”
I stared at the elevator doors. “I’m such a fool.”
“Ria, I don’t necessarily agree with how this was played out, but…come on, Ria. You had to have known,” Mica said. “On some unconscious level, you had to have known what you were being groomed for. If you were never going to become Boss, what else could you become but Francisco’s wife?”
I hated how he made sense.
I hated how it seemed so obvious now.
I hated how they took my chance at love away from me.
The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out into the lobby. We had just turned the corner when I saw Vincent strolling in. He got one look at my face and pulled me to him. “What wrong, Ria?”
I looked up at my older brother, and I didn’t know how not to hate everyone who knew. “You knew,” I spat. “You fucking knew, and never said a word.”
“Ria-”
“What kind of big brother are you?” I hissed, my anger renewed. “How could you not tell me? How could you all keep this from me?”
“Ria, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, worry in his eyes.
“Francisco!”
Vincent dropped his hands and stepped back, his face dropping in regret. “Ria-”
“Don’t you see what you’ve done?” I pleaded. “Don’t you see what…you’ve done to me?”
“Ria-”
“You’ve taken away my chance for love, Vincent,” I choked out. “I am never going to know what it’s like to be loved by someone who loves me because he can’t help himself, and not because he’s family and has to.” The tears of betrayal started again, and I was so sick of them. “I’m never going to have what Mom and Dad have. I’m never going to know what it’s like to be cherished.” Hate seeped through my voice with each word. “I’ve been sentence to a marriage that is going to slowly kill me every day, and for what?”
“Ria, don’t talk like that,” he begged.
I pulled out my phone, threw it on the floor, smashing it into pieces. I bent down, picked up the shatter phone and dropped it in my brother’s hand. “All of you,” I seethed, “can go to hell.”
“Ria!”
“Spread the word, big brother,” I snarled. “I don’t want fuck to do with anyone who knew and didn’t tell me.”
“Ria, you don’t mean that.”
I turned my back on him and walked out of the building, Mica at my back with Vincent yelling my name. Mica helped me into the car, walked over to the driver’s side, and off we went.
A few miles down the road, he said, “You know I have to tell your father, right?”
“I know, Mica,” I replied, my eyes closed, my head resting on the headrest. “But he knows he can find me through you, so I think he’ll give me my space.”
“So, where to?”
“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. I had nowhere to go. All I knew was my family. I had no one I could run to because I wasn’t going to knowingly put anyone on the bad side of The Holy Trinity. It wasn’t fair. I just wanted to get lost, but when your family owned the entire city, where could I go?
His phone started ringing, and I let the sound of my sobs drown out the ringtone I knew could only belong to one of the many people who’ve betrayed me.
Chapter 10
Francisco~
It was bad.
I stood in my father’s living room as our mothers sat heartbroken, and our fathers didn’t know how to fix it for them.
After Saveria left earlier, an alarm had gone out to everyone. She had run into Vincent on her way out, and when he showed up with her broken phone and her message that we were all basically dead to her, my father had called me, telling me what happened.
I had immediately called Mica who assured me he had her covered. After that, I had raced over, and everyone was a fucking mess.
Replaying what Vincent told our fathers, it appeared that Saveria’s issue was that she believed she was going to be in a loveless marriage. That wasn’t the case, though. However, if I told her I loved her now, she wouldn’t believe me, and I wouldn’t blame her. She’d think it was just a desperate ploy to bring her to heel.
Our parents fucked us and fucked us good.
“Do you think she was serious?” Aunt Frankie asked, looking over at me. Ria might be their daughter, but I was the one who knew her best, and as much as I wanted to make everything better for Aunt Frankie, I wasn’t going to lie to her.
“Yes,” I answered honestly. Her face fell and Uncle Phoeni
x cursed a blue streak as he took her into his arms.
“Maybe she just needs time to-”
“Aunt Robbie, Saveria isn’t like other people,” I reminded her. “She was raised the same as me. She was raised to do what needed to be done no matter the cost to her personally. I’ve seen her give in to her Fiore side, her Mancini side, and her Benetti side.” I peer over at her. “Ria’s not like you guys. She wasn’t brought into this world. She was born and bred for this world.” I looked at Uncle Phoenix because he knew the truth. “You knew one day she’d be tested. And you knew when that day happened, she’d pass. We just never expected us to be her test.”
“What do we do now?” My mom asked.
I wanted to tell her they’ve done enough, but I wasn’t that cruel, and my dad would kill me for speaking to my mother like that. So, instead, I said, “Nothing.”
“But-”
“Mom, she’s going to be my wife,” I reminded her. “That makes her my responsibility. It’s my marriage and I’m the one who’s going to have to fix this.”
“I never thought she’d…” Aunt Frankie trailed off, and my heart hurt for her.
I glanced around the room, and, while I didn’t want to be cruel, I wasn’t going to lie to them either. “Saveria’s not wrong, you know,” I said. “We’ve grown up watching all of you set the example of what a perfect marriage is supposed to be. You guys are practically a damn Disney movie.”
“Francisco, no marriage is perfect,” Mom said, correcting me.
I cocked my head at her. “I know that,” I told her. “But your love for each other-all of you-is undeniable. Hell, even Uncle Sal treats his wife like a rare gem, and he’s a fucking psychopath. But you guys set that example for him and Uncle Leo for when the time came for them to get married.” I let out a deep sigh. “I know you guys meant well. Am I’m sure, in your mind, you guys thought it would all work out magically because you guys believe in that shit. But Saveria wasn’t wrong. We did take her choice away to love someone with all her heart. We did ruin her hope for a fairy tale love. We took a major decision in her life away from her and held it close like the secret it was.”
“But…but you love her, right?” Aunt Frankie asked, worry in her voice that I might be right.
I softened my tone. “Aunt Frankie, I love your daughter more than anything or anyone in this world. I’ve always loved that girl. It was easy to let myself fall in love with her knowing she was going to be mine in the end. Saveria was being handed to me on a silver platter, so there was nothing stopping me from falling in love with her completely. But that’s not the issue.”
“Then what is?” Aunt Robbie asked.
“Saveria doesn’t just want to be loved, she wants to love in return,” I explained. “She wants to give herself completely to a man who she can trust to do that with.” I shook my head. “I’m not that man for her. I lied to her about sometime monumental. She’ll never forgive me for that. And because she’ll never forgive me for that, she’ll never allow herself to love me. That’s the loveless marriage she was referring to.”
“You’re right,” Uncle Phoenix said, confirming my worst fear. “We fucked up.”
“May…maybe if…I don’t know. Maybe if we give her time, she’ll-”
“Mom, time is the last thing I can afford to give Ria right now,” I said. “She will run. If she believes, for even one second, that there might be a way out of this marriage, she’ll run.” I let out a dark laugh. “I can live with her hating me forever. I can’t live with her married to someone else.”
“Surely, there’s something we can do,” Aunt Robbie said, hope lacing each word.
I looked at my aunt. “I still don’t think you understand, Aunt Robbie.” I looked at each adult in the room. “Do you know what happened when I told her this morning?” None of them answered. “She came after me. And I don’t mean she slapped me across the face and got hysterical. She came after me with every bit of Fiore and Mancini in her blood. She came after me with every bit of Benetti in her soul. Her apartment looks like a tornado hit it because she fought me like I wasn’t a grown man twice her size and three times her weight.”
“Oh, my,” Aunt Robbie muttered, in shock.
“Yeah, Aunt Robbie. We fought like true adversaries. Like enemies,” I replied. “I can’t help but feel like I’m the only person who’s noticed what Saveria has truly grown into. You guys see the sweet little girl who played house with her dolls. You’ve been blinded by her grace and femininity. Saveria is that girl who can rock a six-inch heel, but have no problem pulling it off to murder you with it.”
“I think you’re exaggerating, Francisco,” Mom said.
I laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant laugh either. “You let The Holy Trinity raise her,” I reminded her. “You’re in denial if you think Luca Saveria Fiore isn’t just as deadly as the rest of us on that side of the business.”
“When are you getting married?” Dad asked.
“I’m going to give her tomorrow to cool down,” I answered. “But I’m thinking Monday. The sooner the better.”
“And…and the wedding?” Aunt Frankie asked, and I knew why she was asking, but I wasn’t going to be able to help her.
“I’ll call Father O’Rourke and have him meet us here on Monday.” I hated breaking her heart, but it couldn’t be helped. “We’ll do it as she requested.”
“You’re seriously going to get married in your father’s office?” Mom asked.
I was losing my patience. “Yes,” I bit out. “Yes, because I don’t have a choice, Mom.” I looked between all three women. “Have you guys not been listening? Ria already believes this marriage is a sham, Mom. If I force her to wear a white dress and drag her into a church, she will burn the entire thing down to the ground.” I shook my head. “You guys are going to have to settle for our marriage and forget the wedding. The other kids can give you guys the big, grand weddings you want.”
“What if she really never forgives us?” Aunt Frankie muttered out loud. And when Uncle Phoenix didn’t automatically console her, that’s when she knew; that’s when it registered.
Uncle Phoenix looked my way, and the misery was there in his hazel eyes. Maybe Aunt Frankie had been naïve, but Uncle Phoenix hadn’t been. He knew what they were raising her to be and, unfortunately, they did a fan-fucking-tasitc job of it. He had also been there that night his only daughter killed Trent. He knew firsthand what she was capable of. And every man here took note of how she had been able to sleep afterwards. Not one nightmare or morning-after regret in sight.
The room was quiet as everyone absorbed the picture I painted of the real Saveria. This shit wasn’t going to be easy, and I had a feeling there was going to be a shitload of casualties by the time it was over, but it felt almost like having to step back and wait until a fire burned itself out.
A magnificent, uncontrollable, burning flame.
“I’ll see you guys later,” I announced.”
“Where are you going?” Mom asked.
“I’m going home, Mom,” I replied. “I’m going home, and I’m going to drink every fucking drop of alcohol that’s in my house in hopes that I can forget this fucking mess for one night before I have to tackle it again tomorrow.” Her face fell, and I almost regretted my words.
Almost.
I wasn’t as pissed off as Ria because I’ve always known what was coming for us, but I was pissed off. Yeah, I could have told Ria what was happening, but I had no reason to think our parents would steer us wrong. I followed their bad advice because it had been given with nothing but the utmost concern for Ria. Of course, I followed along.
And look what being a follower got me.
“Francisco, are you sure that’s wise with Luca…at loose ends?” Dad asked.
“Trust me, Dad,” I huffed. “If that girl finds trouble tonight, I’m the last person on earth she’ll reach out to. If she’s going to call anyone to go her rescue tonight, it won’t be me.”
“What happ
ened to her being your responsibility?” Uncle Ciro challenged.
“She’s not my wife yet,” I reminded him.
Uncle Phoenix stood up, and I knew shit was going to turn south quickly. “If that’s how you feel about the woman you say you love, that’s she’s not your responsibility due to a technicality, maybe Sal Jr. should be an option.”
“Phoenix-”
I held my hand up to stop my mom. I looked Uncle Phoenix in the eye and said, “Go ahead,” I challenged. “Give her to Salvatore. Give her to Sal Jr. and see what happens.”
“Stop it,” Aunt Frankie snapped, standing up. She looked around the room. “I think we’re all a little…unnerved right now, and maybe it would be best if we all took a breather before we make this situation worse than it already is.”
No one said a word, but we didn’t need to. She was right. Saveria’s hate was becoming contagious, so I walked out of the room before I could do anymore damage.
Chapter 11
Saveria~
I was out for blood and I knew it.
I was feeling destructive, and I wasn’t sure how to harness what I was feeling. The last time I felt this unhinged, I had killed Trent Hendricks. I felt like I was on a runaway train. I was on a runaway train, and even though the breaks worked, I was too angry to pull on them. Violence was swirling in my blood and there were only two ways to unleash it. I could kill someone again, or I could find someone and use them like I did Francisco the night I killed Trent.
Even after spending all night cleaning up my apartment and not sleeping for shit, I still felt like a live wire waiting to do damage to something or someone. I had resented having to call Geno and tell him we couldn’t be friends anymore in light of some new information that had come my way, and it had felt like another choice that had been taken away from me. We couldn’t even be friends at this point because of what I had been seeking in him, and that had pissed me off all over again.
I was still pissed off.
And that’s what brought me to The Sapphire.
The Vatican: (Standalone) (The Holy Trinity Series Book 5) Page 6
