I nodded distractedly, but my gaze returned to Gaia. My wife had killed herself because of me. I’d been the final nail in her coffin, but her parents had built the fucking thing.

“Take care of everything,” I said. “I need to deal with something.”

Father gripped my arm. “Son, tell me you won’t do anything foolish?” I rarely saw fear in his eyes, but there it was.

“Not the kind of foolishness you fear. It’s an act of cowardice and a crime toward the ones left behind.” I ripped away from his grip and stalked away.

Faro hurried after me. “Do you need my help?”

“No.”

I took the car. Twenty minutes later, I knocked at my in-laws’ house. When they opened the door, I pointed my gun at them. “Let’s talk about Andrea and Gaia.”

The next day, their maid found them dead in their bedroom. They’d shot themselves, unable to bear the death of their son and daughter. That was the official statement.

The present

Slowly, I turned away from the fireplace, facing my young wife. She was pale, her lips parted in horror after my story. “When I married Gaia, she was in love with her half-brother. I didn’t know it back then. Her parents did but chose not to divulge the information. Maybe now you understand why I was wary of Christian.”

Giulia covered her mouth with her palm, staring down at the floor as if she couldn’t bear looking at me. I couldn’t blame her. It was a story that had shaken up even my father and Faro. “Oh my God.”

I grimaced. I hated remembering, and worse speaking about what happened, but even worse than all that was the look on Giulia’s face now that she knew the truth. “After I married Gaia, she asked me if her half-brother could become one of her bodyguards. I agreed because she was miserable away from home and I thought it would help. I wanted her to find happiness in our marriage.”

Giulia nodded, not looking up. “Her parents? You killed them.”

“I did. They betrayed me. Their lies cost Gaia and Andrea their life.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, horrified. Giulia was a good girl. Kind and positive, willing to see the light even in the dark. I’d dragged one woman into an abyss. I desperately hoped Giulia would be spared the same fate. “Gaia practically asked you to kill them in her last letter.”

“She knew me well.” Occasionally I would share details of my work with her when I’d been particularly shaken or when she asked, which didn’t happen often.

Giulia shook her head. She’d said our marriage would be doomed if I didn’t tell her the truth, but I had a feeling the truth just ended whatever had been blossoming between us. Losing Gaia hadn’t hurt. For one, because she’d betrayed me, and because I’d never loved her. Losing Giulia—I wouldn’t get over it. We hadn’t been together long, but in the weeks of our marriage, she’d brightened my days more than I thought possible.

“I never raised my hand against Gaia, not then either. I would have never killed her. Whatever you decide, you don’t have to worry about your safety, Giulia. I won’t hurt you.”

I couldn’t breathe. Hearing Cassio tell the story of what happened in a raw, bitter voice had unsettled me deeply. This was so much worse than I expected. The idea of finding Cassio with another woman tore at me. How much worse must it have been for him? Finding his pregnant wife with her half-brother, a man he trusted, and finding out his children might not even be his. It was too horrific to contemplate. Even I wasn’t sure what I would have done in a situation like that. Probably not killed someone, but I wasn’t a man raised to survive in the mafia.

Cassio smiled grimly seeing my expression. “That’s the man you married, Giulia. I understand if you’re scared of me now. I won’t stop you from moving into another bedroom, but you’ll certainly understand that we’ll have to stay married for Simona and Daniele. They can’t lose you too.”

I pushed to my feet, crawled on Cassio’s lap, and wrapped my arms around him even as he stiffened. I kissed him hard. God, this was horrible. Everything. It wasn’t okay that Cassio had killed a man in a jealous rage, but he was a killer, and he, like all the men in our world, had killed for less. Part of me understood.

Confusion mingled with hesitant hope in Cassio’s eyes. “What… what are you doing?”

I pressed my face against his throat. He wrapped an arm around me lightly. “Giulia? Say something.”

“I’m not scared of you.” I wasn’t. Maybe I should have been, but I’d always known Cassio was capable of brutality for something as trivial as power and money. That he killed because someone hurt him, it only showed he wasn’t an emotionless killer.

Cassio slipped a finger under my chin and nudged my face up. “You heard what I said.”

“I did. You protected Daniele and Simona. You kept Gaia alive despite what she did. I know it isn’t something many men would have done. It’s more than I expected, knowing the stories about you.”

Cassio’s mouth twisted cynically. “I suppose it’s good that your impression of me was already bad to begin with.”

I rolled my eyes, hoping to lighten the mood.

Cassio cupped my cheek. “Only you make me feel better by insulting me with a simple look.”

I gripped his shoulders, bringing our faces closer. “You wanted to let the past rest, and I want to help you. Stop thinking I’m going to do what Gaia did. I’m not her, and I definitely won’t end up in bed with my brother. Even thinking about it makes me sick. And I won’t cheat on you with anyone else either. I desire you, and I’m loyal. Can you get it through your thick skull?”

Cassio pointed at his chest. “In here, I know you aren’t Gaia.” He pointed at his head. “Up here’s the problem. I’m not a very trusting man, never have been. Now less than ever. But I’m trying.” He cupped my head and molded our mouths together before murmuring, “I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t. Not if you keep working on your trust issues, if you keep fighting for us, because I sure as hell am ready to go into war for this marriage and our children.”

Cassio moved back slowly. “What did you say?”

I pursed my lips. “That I’m ready to fight for us.”

“No,” he said gruffly. “You said our children.”

I flushed. Not only had I almost declared my feelings for Cassio, I’d also let it slip that I wanted Simona and Daniele to be ours, not just his. I’d known them for only a month, but I’d be at their side for many years. Hopefully one day they’d be mine in theirs and everyone else’s opinion. “I know they are yours… not mine, not really, but it kind of hurts if you say they are your children as if I don’t care for them—” Cassio jerked me toward him, kissing me fiercely. I clung to him, almost breathless when he finally pulled away.

“I don’t deserve you, Giulia, but my kids… our kids do.”

“I really, really care about them. Even if you never want to have another child, I’ll be okay because I’m going to raise them as if they were my own.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “It’s what I’d do too.”