Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
32
LENORA
I was getting dizzy from going over the plan so many times, but I agreed that it was a good one. As long as I kept up the ruse, it should work. I was sure I could do it. After all, I’d coasted through life pretending. Thinking back on it now, I had been so trusting of my parents, my father specifically. He’d even pitched my arranged marriage as some sort of favor to me because I needed a strong man, a wealthy man, to take care of me when he was gone. He’d continuously said that, and I bought into it for many years. I’d even bragged about it once or twice in college when my few friends were obsessing over finding their soulmates. I’d said, “Thank God I don’t have to worry about that.” But then, Papà chose Adriano Salvati, and my acceptance of it faltered.
It wasn’t just that he was too old for me and I wasn’t attracted to him. Adriano was very popular amongst the ladies back in Italy. I took comfort in that. I had no qualms about turning a blind eye to his indiscretions if it meant he’d spent less time trying to touch me, until he expected me to start popping out kids. I shivered at the thought. I’d been wanting an out so badly that I hadn’t even stopped considering what it meant for my father. And that was before we found out that he had their mothers murdered. I went through the plan again and shut my eyes, willing the pain in my chest away.
If I went through with this, I’d be sealing my father’s fate. My actions would set the plan in motion, and if Rocco made good on his promise, I’d never see my father again. I understood that what he’d done demanded some sort of punishment. If I tried, I could understand why they wanted to kill him. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew my father was horrible, but he was still my father. He was still the man who untangled my hair when I was little and taught me how to ride a bicycle. He was still the one who gifted Aanya to me when he saw how lonely I was during his visit, the summer of my junior year at boarding school. We didn’t always get along. He made decisions for me that drove me crazy, but he was still my father. I couldn’t explain this to anyone except maybe Dominic, and I was sure he wouldn’t understand since our dad murdered his mother. Rocco was out for blood. I was scared about what would happen if he made good on his promise. Would I see him the way I did now, or would he become a monster like everyone said my father was? I swallowed back my sob. I was sick of crying.
“Hey.” Dominic walked over and sat opposite me on the Greyhound we were traveling back to New York in. Another ruse.
“Hey.” I pushed my back against the wall behind me and stretched my legs on the empty seat beside me.
“I noticed you’re keeping your distance,” he said, “from Rocco.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without the words sounding tortured.
“Are you. . .over?” He frowned.
“I don’t know.”
He stared at me. “It’s because of Dad.”
“How am I supposed to accept that he’s going to murder my father?” I whisper-shouted. “How can you be okay with this?”
“You don’t think I’m struggling?” He leaned forward, taking over the aisle as he rested his elbows on his knees. “It’s fucking tearing me apart, but it’s what has to be done.”
“Why?” I swallowed hard. “Why can’t he just go to jail? Why do all of you always have to take matters into your own hands and not abide by the same laws as everyone else?”
He looked away briefly. “It’s all we know.”
“He’s your father,” I said, then lowered my voice. “He’s our father. What will Gabriel say?”
“I think Gabe would agree with the plan.”
I crossed my arms and shook my head, turning my attention to the back of the seat in front of me. Gabe had grown close to Dad. There was no way he’d agree with the plan.
“He killed our mother, Nora,” Dom said. I looked at him again. “He killed three innocent women just because he fucking could. And then he hid it from us for almost fifteen years.”
“I know.” I bit the inside of my mouth. “I get it. He’s a monster. You deserve justice, I know. I’m just saying there are other ways.”
“Why did you take the USB drive?”
“You know why.”
“You wanted to blackmail him with it. What was your end game?”
“I was hoping he’d just call off the entire thing.”
“Lenora.” Dom shot me a look like I was naive. Maybe I was. “You can strip him of everything, and he’d still force you to walk down the aisle.”