Everyone said the same thing: the revered Godfather of Sicily's jewelry empire never lied, that he loved me with every fiber of his being, heart and soul laid bare.
But now, those words made my stomach turn. Every syllable drove into me like a needle through flesh.
I thought of the plan I'd just agreed to with that man. I steadied myself, forcing the hatred and trembling back down into the pit of my chest.
Expressionless, I helped a dead-drunk Samuel into the armored sedan.
He collapsed against my lap, the permanent furrow between his brows finally smoothing out. Stripped of his cold calculation, he looked almost harmless. Like a child.
"Selene... why... why can't it be me..."
The slurred murmur drifted up, and my entire body went rigid. I finally made out the name he'd been whispering through countless midnight dreams.
Selene Blanc. The woman who destroyed my mother. Who destroyed everything I had. The same woman who'd bullied me relentlessly, who dragged me into the dark. She was the moonlight he'd carved into his bones, the one he kept hidden in the deepest chamber of his heart.
Samuel had never forgotten her. Five years of tenderness and devotion had been nothing but a performance, a farce staged for Selene's benefit.
My mother's death. The collapse of my family's empire. The lie of my marriage. All of it was a show, orchestrated by my ex-fiancé and my husband to please Selene Blanc. My entire family had been nothing more than stepping stones.
I'd been too naive. Too stupid. I'd underestimated the depth of his obsession with her and foolishly mistaken this con for salvation.
A custom cufflink studded with tiny diamonds slipped from the lapel of his perfectly pressed suit and rolled onto the floor mat.
As I bent to pick it up, my gaze caught the tablet he'd tossed aside. The screen lit up on its own, and an encrypted message flashed across it. Every word burned:
"Godfather Rowe, thank you so much for pulling strings and securing the exclusive premier booth at the International Jewelry Expo for me! But the raw gemstone vein in Sicily that you've promised is far too precious. I feel terribly guilty accepting it and truly don't know how to repay you!"
The tablet jumped to a private feed. Selene's post glared back at me: "Only a true queen of jewelry deserves the world's most precious raw gemstone vein."