Chapter 14
“Dammit Alcee.”
“I know, Mercurio.”
“He wasn’t Don back then.”
“Nope. He is now. Anyway,” she was watching the subject of their conversation on his phone in the apartment across the way doing circles and possibly yelling, “he didn’t see me, at least not directly. We chatted through a closed bathroom door because he recognized my name as the Mariani Principessa who he refused to marry. Did you know he called off the wedding for his own reasons? It wasn’t anything to do with me. Didn’t even know I’d lost my virginity.” She was babbling ríow as the man she discussed moved to the window and looked out as if searching for something and she and the girls backed away nervously. “I managed to get out of the office and back home.”
“You ran off tonight and didn’t tell him who you were to him or about Antero?”
“I needed to regroup, Mercurio. What was 1 supposed to do? Blurt it out? Hey Don Lozano, you might not remember me but six years ago we fucked in a hotel room where I lost my virginity oh and by the way you have a son?”
“Yes. It’s exactly what you should have done. You ran like a coward.”
“I needed a minute to breathe.”
“He called Dad and threatened him.”
She felt her chest expanding as her lungs filled with a whoosh of air, “why?”
“I was in the office with Dad when he called. Dad answered him on speaker. He started off the conversation by asking if it made Dad feel like a man when he tortured his own daughter, his Principessa over something which wasn’t her fault. He told Dad he only found out today how Dad believed the reason he cancelled the engagement was because you lost your virginity. He said he cancelled it because he’d met someone else.”
“What did Dad say to this?”
“He said he was justified in disciplining his daughter for acting like a whore and sullying herself to the point she was no longer valuable to the Mariani family.”
“Prick,” she muttered under her breath.
shape or form because Dad removed his protection from his “Don Lozano told Dad said if he found out that you or Antero suffered in any way, own blood, he’d bring a war straight to his doorstep. It wasn’t a threat any of us are taking lightly because Lozano doesn’t usually call anyone. He has Bastiano arrange all his appointments so if he was calling and speaking himself, he meant it. Dad asked me to call you to find out what the hell was going on. Shit, Alcee. Dad thought Lozano was misunderstanding something but if he’s figured out Antero is his kid,” his voice trailed off. “Fuck!”
“Antero is my kid.” She wanted to sound stronger than she felt. Not a court on the planet would deny a man his right to his son, especially a wealthy man with as many connections as the Lozano family held. It would be nothing for him to pay off a judge and simply take her son from
him.
She looked over to her son who was asleep on the sofa nearby. They had been starting to leave when the cars had all pulled onto the street. She fought the way the tears were filling her eyes at the possibility of losing him.
“You need to meet with him and sort this out, Alcee.” The warning in her brother’s voice told her if she didn’t do it, he’d make it happen.
“What if he takes him from me?” she expressed her fears to her eldest brother, wishing just for once her family was normal and someone, she was blood–related to would care more for her than maintaining alliances or treaties.
*Figure it out, Alcee. You’re my kid sister but if he demands we join in him ripping the city apart to find you, we won’t have a choice. Our family is powerful, but it has nothing on his. He eats little boys like Dad for breakfast and Dad is telling me to turn you over if he’s looking for you.”
“He shot his own father, Mercurio. How can such a man be good around my boy?”
“Rumor has it he caught his father embezzling money from one of Torquato’s personal companies. He said if the old bastard wanted to take something from him, he was taking what was his and shot him in the leg and forced him to sign over the family.”
“He’s ruthless.”
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Chapter 14
“He’s not anyone to screw around with,” her brother commented quietly. “I have to tell Dad.”
“Go ahead,” she sighed.
“Where can we come to you? We will deliver you to Don Lozano to save the peace.”
“You can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll do this my own way, Mercurio. Dad is no longer the head of my family. He doesn’t get to weigh in on my choices or decisions.”
“Alcee.”
“No. He threw me out. He left me and my son to the wolves. Do you know I was in a grocery store once and one of the sons of a rival family came up to me and put his hand on my belly and told me he’d claim me and my bastard, but I’d have to service both him and his brother? Where was Dad as my family then? I called my father for help, protection and he told me I was not his. My employer was a good man and protection was assigned to me by him once Dad threw me out and it was their protection which got me out of there. My boss. Do you get it, Mercurio? Not my own so–called family, not you or my other brothers or my father’s capos but my boss put protection to me. You don’t get to try to use me as a bargaining chip for a new alliance. Fuck Dad.”
“We failed you but
of your help. If he comes for “There is no but. I don’t need your help dealing with Don Lozano. If he comes for me, I’ll deal with it without you, well, there isn’t anything I can do with that. For now, I need to figure out my next steps and sharing my plans and the details of my life are none of your business. I’m hanging up now.”
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Sounds like her brothers are “yes men” and can’t think for themselves.
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