Chapter 26 #2
She swallowed, stumbling back a step. “No, no . You told me at the festival your feelings were real. You said you didn’t lie.
Why lie now?” Her lip curled, not in a snarl, but in a tremor of hurt so profound it almost looked like defiance.
She landed several punches on my bicep. “Stop lying!” She shoved me with surprising strength, but I didn’t even flinch.
It was her momentum that betrayed her, sending her stumbling back, off balance, the fight draining from her eyes.
“It worked, though, right? The constant lying…easing your pathetic fear of dogs, sharing sob stories about my lousy childhood, flying in that cardiologist for your father…. Heck , that specialist scored me bonus points since you were so grateful after your father’s party the other night.
You were so willing , weren’t you?” A snicker ripped from my chest as I shook my head.
“I almost pitied you when you practically begged me to make love to you.” I let out a cold, short laugh devoid of any humor.
“You want the truth? Here it is. It was an act. Every touch, every word—all calculated to get me exactly what I needed.” I stepped closer, invading her space now that her fight was gone.
“Did you honestly believe someone like me...?” I let the question hang, implying her foolishness, “would fall for a woman like you?” I sneered, and a flicker of pain crossed her face, so I pressed harder.
“You think anything could be more important than my family? Than my mother? You were a means to an end, Gemma. A reset button.” I bit the inside of my cheek as her eyes welled up.
“I need this charade finalized. I need you gone so I can get back to my real life.” I thrust the pen once more.
“Now sign the papers. There’s someone else waiting—someone who actually belongs in my world.
Someone I intend to marry now that this… inconvenience… is dealt with.”
She choked on a sob. “All this time… you planned on marrying another…” Her nose wrinkled. “Let me guess? That Valentina woman.”
I gave a curt, indifferent nod, twisting the knife. “Does it matter who? Just sign.”
Sobbing, her shoulders shook.
I swallowed hard, forcing my gaze over her head toward the wall, clenching my jaw until it ached. Don’t look at her tears. Don’t look . If I did, the carefully constructed cruelty would shatter.
She snatched the pen and signed the document, the cheap plastic rattling against the paper between her trembling fingers.
Her sobs softened into broken hiccups as she wiped furiously at her nose with her sleeve.
“I hope you’re happy,” she whispered, the words ragged.
She faced me, her eyes bloodshot but starkly clear now, stripped of illusion.
“You and Carina won.” Her voice was small, hollowed out.
“You kept your vow.” Shaking her head, she lugged her bags, the movement jerky and uncoordinated.
I stepped forward to help, but she shoved my hand away and passed me one last glare. “Congratulations.” With that final word, she stumbled forward, her legs unstable as she wheeled her luggage through the automatic doors, not once glancing back.
Sinking into the driver’s side, I placed my head on the wheel and belted out all the fury from my lungs.
I switched on the engine and sped out of the airport, headed for home. No. Not home. My prison. Once parked at the villa, I charged inside. “Carina!” I paced the foyer, my voice echoing off the high ceilings.
She descended partway down the stairs, stopping on the third step, her eyebrows raised at the commotion. “Enzo?”
“Happy now?” I slammed the divorce papers onto the round foyer table, the sound sharp and brutal in the sudden silence. “She’s gone.”
Carina gave a swift nod. “I’ll call Giancarlo and have him finalize it.”
Of course, she wouldn’t delay contacting the Calafiore family lawyer.
After all, this entire procedure should be resolved fairly quickly since we had Gemma sign an Accordo di Rinuncia Parziale at the ceremony, a partial waiver agreement that would streamline any future separation proceedings.
It even stipulated divorce rather than annulment, a detail Carina insisted upon.
An annulment, given the lack of consummation, might have been technically possible, but Carina would never allow it.
No, the taint of divorcee was the point, stinging far worse than a quiet dissolution.
Even back then, Carina was thinking of the cruelest way to burn Gemma.
But of course she would. She’d been planning this revenge for years.
“This is for the best.” My mother touched the pearls at her neck, her throat bouncing. “Believe me, I’m not wrong about this.”
“For the best.” I snickered. The nerve of this woman.
I grabbed the nearest object, a heavy crystal vase filled with lilies, and hurled it at the marble floor.
Water splashed, glass shattered, and the air filled with the cloying scent.
“When you robbed me of my childhood… was that for the best? When you made me live up to a promise I never should have made… was that also for the best!”
Her jaw clenched, but otherwise, she remained unflinching.
“Go on then, call your enemies, tell them the good news.” I spread my arms out wide. “Your obedient son will marry the De Luca girl. After all, it’s for the best ,” I spat the words.
She stomped her foot, as if the action would quell my outburst. “It’s our one chance for safety.”
“It’s also your one chance at getting your way.
Rest assured, Carina. You’ve sent Elisabetta’s daughter back to her heartbroken.
” I pounded my fist against my chest. “My heart’s broken, too.
” I spat as tears leaked down my cheeks.
“But as if a mother who turned her back on her sons would care about our feelings.” The grudge from all those years ago bubbled to the surface.
Her nostrils flared, a pink hue staining her cheeks.
“For once, you could’ve given me your blessing.
Instead, you threatened her, dangled her life above my head like a sick pawn in a game.
Now you’re blackmailing me into marrying some mobster princess.
” I clapped my hands, unbothered to wipe away the tears.
“ Bravo , Carina, bravo! You outdid yourself as the worst mother in the world.” I paused when reaching her on the staircase, indifferent to her stark white complexion.
I should have reprimanded her years ago, long before she puppeteered my life.
“Just know, this wedding will change nothing. I will not be some lowlife made man despite how much you’ve steered us into this lifestyle.
I’m fully Cammarata .” I stormed past her, having said my peace.
“You’re not a Cammarata.” Her words stopped me dead in my tracks.
I whipped around, my heart hammering in my chest. “What did you say?”
“I said you’re not a Cammarata.” She sank to the step as though the confession drained her of energy. “You’re a De Luca.”
What felt like a dagger struck me to the core. My lips thinned, and I descended the few short steps to face her, a snort bubbling to the surface.
“I’m not lying.” She wrapped her arms around her midriff. “When Vito learned I broke off our engagement, he kidnapped me. There’s an old custom in this town amongst those in my dark world. If a woman refused to marry her rapist, she’d be dubbed a Donna Svergognata .”
Donna Svergognata. Shameless woman. The translation hammered into my skull. Staring at the floor, the cold marble penetrated into my soles. Or maybe shock brought on the sudden chill. A wave of nausea crashed over me.
“Do you remember Martina, the nun from the orphanage?” Her gaze drifted far away, as though back in time. “She worked for the De Lucas, as a maid. Without her help, I’d have never escaped.”
My breath came in ragged gasps, as if my lungs rejected the air, the blood that now coursed through me. It was tainted, De Luca blood. “What happened after you escaped?”
“My father disowned me for shaming the Calafiore name. Vito contacted him to negotiate what they called a rehabilitation marriage , since I was now considered a shameless woman, but I rejected my father’s wishes.
” She bit her lip, pooling tears gathering at the edges of her eyes.
“I eloped with Lorenzo, and never told him what Vito did. Soon after, I discovered my pregnancy. I waited until your birth to arrange a DNA test behind Lorenzo’s back. ”
And this test revealed my paternity by not matching Lorenzo. I ran a fist over my mouth. “You pretended I was his. Mannaggia , you named me after the man! And you never told him?”
“No.” She choked on a sob. “I didn’t want to lose him. I certainly didn’t want Vito to learn about you. So, I pretended you were his.”
I shared the same blood with our sworn enemies. Nicolo… my half brother. My one memory of Vito surged in my mind, every detail intact, as if the event occurred yesterday. Who’d ever forget their first kill?
“You should have been mine.”
I sure comprehended his words now. I relived the gun pointed at my head; the hatred pouring out of his bright green eyes.
My breath hitched. Eyes I now recognized mirrored my own.
Those times I recalled that night, I neglected to see our uncanny likeness.
In a flash, his scowl had faded as awareness registered.
He must have comprehended I looked an awful lot like him in those few seconds before I shot him dead.
“Is this why you sent us to the orphanage?” After losing Lorenzo and no longer needing to deceive him, she couldn’t bear to raise the child who resembled her rapist? “Do you hate me? You hate me because I’m the son of Vito.”
Her brows squished together, and she stood, caressing my jaw.
“Hate you? No Enzo. Even once I discovered your paternity, I never hated you. I never saw you as Vito’s.
You were mine. Mine alone.” She swiped at her tears.
“I spiraled into a mental breakdown after Lorenzo’s death…
then more so recovering in the hospital after Vito shot me.
Vito’s death urged the De Luca family to come for me with a vengeance.
Without the help of my father, I struggled to protect you and your brother, so I sent you both to the orphanage under the care of Martina.
I do admit, those few photos Martina sent me from the orphanage, you’d grown more and more into a copy of Vito.
Guilt ate me alive because how was I to tell you the man you killed was your father?
I didn’t want you enduring any more misery than you already had. ”
I flexed my hands to dispel the tremors twitching my fingers.
“But why an orphanage with Martina? Why not send us to my father’s—” Did I have any right to call him father, especially now that the truth was out?
“to Lorenzo’s family?” And what of my grandfather?
I had considered Pietro Cammarata my family my entire life.
Although not a loving or affectionate man, he would have been a better option than the orphanage.
After all, the old man did leave us his company.
“The Cammaratas were wealthy, but they were clueless when it came to dealing with the underworld. Pietro was willing to take you both when I needed to go on the run, but he refused my suggestion of hired guards, and he was completely against having you boys trained in firearms, even though I explained it was to save your lives. I couldn’t risk it.
You and your brother needed to stay hidden. Martina was the safer option.”
I poked my chest, more forceful than intended. “If I’m a De Luca, why am I marrying this girl?”
“Like I mentioned before, Bianca is adopted, there’s no relation between you.
” Carina’s shoulders slumped. “We all make sacrifices for those we love, Enzo. You just have to ask yourself, is this sacrifice worth it? Is saving your family, the woman you love… worth it?” She patted my shoulder and ascended the stairs, leaving me an absolute mess.