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“You’re his daughter. You should see him before his death.”
“I’m not going,” she says resolutely. “I have nothing to say to him.”
“I didn’t ask you to say anything. But he at least deserves to see his daughter before he passes. Both of them,” I add meaningfully.
That gets a reaction out of her, just as I was expecting. Her body tenses.
“Where’s your sister, Aurora?” I ask.
“None of your business.”
“She left New York a couple of hours ago,” I say, answering my own question. “Lucia’s currently on a flight to Brazil. Let me guess, to see your aunt? Did you honestly think I wouldn’t know, Aurora?”
“Leave Lucia out of this,” she hisses.
“It was a smart call. Getting her to leave so quickly. But remember, there’s nowhere in this world that I wouldn’t go to get what I want. If I wanted to get Lucia back in this city, I could do it so easily,” I say confidently.
“Are you threatening me into going to see my father?”
A low laugh escapes me at that. It’s humorless, entirely without feeling.
“No, sweetheart. There’s no reason for me to do that. I only wanted to inform you about his death out of courtesy. Because I thought you deserved to know and have a chance to see him one last time. I was trying to be humane.”
“Nothing could ever make you humane, Nico,” she murmurs.
“Be that as it may,” I continue. “I’m going to ask you one more time, Aurora. Are you coming with me or not?”
“No.”
“All right. According to the doctor, Valerio only has four days to live, maybe less. Which means you have four days to think it over. Find a place in that cold, dead heart of yours to start caring about your father’s death.”
“I’ll let you know if that happens,” she grits out.
“We’ll talk again after your father passes, princess,” I say, my tone mocking.
Her eyes narrow. “What more could you possibly want from me?”
I smirk at that, because while I might have come here in order to speak to her about matters much bigger than her father’s impending death, there’s a lot more riding on this little reunion of ours. I didn’t end ten years of silence simply because of I wanted her to see her father. I’m not a fucking saint.
“You have no idea, sweetheart.”
CHAPTER 5
AURORA
As soon as he walks out of my house, I lock the doors. I walk back to the couch and practically fall onto it, clutching my rapidly pounding heart. I tell myself that I did all right. I held my own against him.
Despite how much it scared me to be back in his presence, to be sucked into that intense blue gaze and feel like I could scarcely breathe, I still managed to pretend otherwise. I’m sure he was surprised. He probably expected me to be that same girl he grew up with. The one that was entirely at his mercy. The one that would have done anything he asked.
But she died that day ten years ago. He killed her. And he doesn’t even know it. My feelings toward Nico weren’t the only things I had to pretend away, however.
My heart continues to pound as I remember what he said about Valerio’s impending death. I don’t hate my father. I never really have. What I feel for him is nothing. With Nico, it takes a lot of energy to convince myself that I don’t give a fuck about him. But with Valerio Maranzano, there has never been any doubt in my mind that I feel nothing toward him.
A long time ago, my sister and I decided we didn’t have a father. And Valerio seemed happy enough to let us go on believing that. He let us go and we haven’t looked back since then.
He’s never been much of a father to us anyway. So, Nico showing up to convince me to see him in his final days is ridiculous. What would I even say to him? Is he even in a state to listen to me? No, I have no reason to visit Valerio.
Right now, I’m sure he’s surrounded by the dozens of men he used to lord over. His people, his real family. The only thing he ever really cared about was power. I hope he chokes on it on the way to hell.
