Page 42 of The Mafioso’s Bride

He looks toward the stairs. “She asked to speak to Antonio.”

My case lands on the marble floor. “Where is she?”

“I reminded her that you said she never had to go near him or speak to him. She said you already told her. She chose to go.”

The basement door stands open.

“Is anyone in the room with her?”

Mattia’s answer comes half a second late.

“No. Two men are outside the door.”

I take the stairs two at a time.

Giada

Luca told me Papa was in the basement before he left for Corsini headquarters. He said I would never be required to go near him or speak to him. He promised Papa couldn’t reach me.

After Luca left, I asked Mattia to take me downstairs.

“You don’t owe him a conversation,” Mattia says outside the steel door.

“I want answers. Stay outside. Don’t interrupt unless he gets out of the chair.”

Mattia checks the restraints through the open doorway. “I’ll be right here.”

The basement room has a steel door, a drain in the concrete floor, and my father tied to a wooden chair.

Blood has dried beneath his nose. His left cheek is swollen. His white shirt is open at the collar and marked with brown spots. Another guard waits at the bottom of the stairs. Neither man looks at Papa for long.

I remain inside the doorway.

Papa raises his head. “There she is.”

His upper lip lifts. At home, this look came before he called me defective.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

“Your new family dragged me here.” He pulls against the restraints. “Come untie me.”

“No.”

The rope creaks as he pulls against it again.

“Useless as ever.”

The concrete beneath my socks sends cold through my feet. I came downstairs in thick socks, but I forgot my shoes. Luca would tell me to go upstairs and put them on. He would wait while I did it.

Papa follows my attention to my feet. “He lets you wander his house dressed that way?”

“They are clean.”

“Christ. Twenty years old and you dress as a child.” His split lip bends. “Did Corsini tell DiCenzo to indulge you?”

My fingers press into the seams of my trousers. “Luca chooses what happens in his home.”

“Does he?” Papa gives a short laugh and stops with a wince. “Corsini ordered him to marry you at the altar. DiCenzo obeyed. Everyone in that church watched him turn our alliance into a joke.”