Page 8 of The Don’s Omega

“Of course I did,” I grate out. “I don’t do well with ultimatums. I won’t be brow-beaten into claiming an omega.”

“Are you happy with your decision?” Noemi asks.

I shrug. “To be honest, yes. I didn’t make the decision lightly. I thought carefully about what life might be like with Sandro as my omega.”

Mama sighs. “But in the end, you didn’t give him what he wanted.”

“No.” I grimace. “And it wasn’t for lack of trying to talk myself into it. The final night, I kept thinking how everything would be easier if I just went to him. You’d stop worrying about me. Sandro would be happy. I’d have an omega beside me and an heir would soon be on the way. I knew if I gave the elders what they wanted, everyone would stop holding their breath.”

“But you didn’t go to him,” Mama says.

“No, I didn’t. I couldn’t do it. It felt wrong.”

The room is very quiet as they watch me.

“Marcello.” Mama leans toward me. Her voice is so gentle it almost hurts. “Did you love him?”

“I was fond of him,” I say. “He made me laugh. He kept me company when I was lonely. And I wanted to love him. Some nights I almost thought I did. But when the clock ran out on his ultimatum and I knew it was over, I felt relief. Not grief. Not regret. Relief. And an alpha shouldn’t feel relief when he loses the omega he loves.”

Mama’s face softens. “You’re right. If he wasn’t the one, then you made the right decision. Marriage is difficult enough without being tied to someone you don’t love.”

Ginevra makes a soft sound. “Mama, I had no idea you were such a romantic.”

Mama shrugs. “I have my moments.” Her tone is flippant but we all know she adored Father. There’s no doubt in our minds he was the love of her life and vice versa.

“But if you were fond of him, and he wanted to be with you, I don’t understand why you didn’t just claim Sandro and solve this issue.” Ginevra says. “Since you were apparently aware of what the elders wanted of you in that respect.”

“Perhaps he didn’t want to be stuck with just one omega the rest of his life,” Noemi says softly. “Maybe he wanted variety and he wasn’t ready to spend his life with only Sandro.”

Ginevra snorts derisively. “Most of the Foschini bosses had other omegas on the side. Marcello could have done the same.”

Mama scowls. “Papa never once cheated on me. The Foschini men take marriage very seriously.”

Ginevra looks unconvinced. “I know that Papa was faithful to you. But I’ve heard too many salacious stories about our grandfather and great-grandfather to believe they all were as honorable as Papa.”

Mama’s mouth is a grim line, but she doesn’t argue. She’s heard the same stories.

“Anyway, that isn’t why I broke it off with Sandro,” I say. “There were other more serious things that gave me pause about claiming him.”

“Like what?” Mama asks.

I hesitate. “Well, to be completely honest, it occurred to me that if I gave him a child, that child would be half Lucchese.”

Noemi wrinkles her brow. “Naturally.”

“The problem with that is the Lucchese family is power hungry.” I lean back in my chair. “They would have spent the next twenty years using that child as a hook in my mouth to drag me wherever they wanted me to go. Even if having an heir is important, who I give that power to is equally important.”

Noemi blinks at me. “But you have to eventually take an omega and have an heir.”

“Yes, but more and more I think that whoever that omega is, they shouldn’t be a part of one of the prominent families. They’re all too power hungry. They’d use the child to try and control me.”

Mama’s gaze is shrewd. “You’re probably not wrong.”

“No, he’s not,” murmurs Ginevra. “Your point is valid, Marcello. The problem is the senior capos and the more powerful families need you settled with an omega and an heir on the way to feel comfortable. They’re concerned about themselves. It’s not really even about your love life per se. It’s about their security.”

I nod. “I know. That’s why it’s complicated.”

Ginevra sighs. “Since you dumped Sandro, all those old alphas see is you ended a two-year, seemingly stable, relationship without warning. Now you have no omega, no heir, no plan for what happens after you.”