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“I have nothing to say to you.” Ana moved to end the call.
“I didn’t do it! Please–listen to me.”
A long pause stretched out.
Celia seized the opportunity, coaxing lowly, “Just give me five minutes. I will make it worth your while.”
Manipulative little witch.
Ana didn’t have time for this–or the patience–after everything that had happened today and over the past week. After uncovering wide-scale financial fraud and assassinations, Celia’s petty rumor-mongering seemed trivial. Oh, she would get her comeuppance for it, no doubt. But only after the Vitello issue was handled.
“I am in the middle of–”
“Just five minutes. Don’t you want answers?” she asked.
Closing her eyes, Ana cursed her a thousand times over. Of course, she did.
It wasn’t the most pressing issue right now, but she wanted to know why this woman, who barely knew her, had chosen to spread such vicious lies.
With her voice as cold as ice, she said, “Tell me, then–what explanation do you have for those texts?”
“Well…none, because I didn’t send those.”
Ana scoffed. “Everyone says you did.”
“Just like everyone says you fucked your guard?”
Silence fell over them as Celia’s mocking words hung in the air. Ana shifted uncomfortably, the jibe making its mark. Noticing Grandfather’s close attention, she frowned and rose out of her seat before wandering out to the adjacent hallway, where it was quieter.
“Who are you claiming sent those texts, then?” she asked skeptically.
“I wish I knew. I’ve tried asking around, and everyone is tight-lipped. They don’t want to even accidentally be associated with me,” Celia griped. “All I know is that those texts had to have been spoofed because it was not me. Gio gave me such hell last time, just for looking at you the wrong way. You think I’d cross him again by pulling this stunt?”
“This ‘stunt’ benefits your father,” Ana accused.
“Please. He’s even more pissed at me than you and Gio are. His deals have been falling through ever since the second set of texts came out.”
That was the whole point of those texts. To counterattack the malicious gossip the Russos had been spreading and to sever the Family’s ties with them. It was only because they’d been outed as the villains that they were now slinking back with their tails between their legs.
Before that, they hadn’t said a word. Not in apology or sympathy.
They hadn’t cared.
Why should they have? They’d successfully knocked Ana, and therefore the Don, off their pedestal. Making business dealings more difficult for Gio…and much easier for Russo.
“There are people offering statements against you, Celia.” Ana shrugged. “It’s your word against theirs.”
“Oh, I know…and I bet the first one to speak up was Sophia Cazzola.”
Ana paused. Sophia was in fact the first person to name Celia as the villain, but she couldn’t betray that.
“The loudmouth has been bragging about it ever since it came out,” Celia huffed. “How she got her revenge on me.”
“I thought she was your friend–?”
“Friend? Is that what she told you?” Celia choked at the absurdity. “That sneaky little bitch. She would never step foot in the same room as me, let alone befriend me. Not after I supposedly slept with her husband.”
Ana’s brows shot up.
