Page 125 of The Don's Secret Heir

“Don’t push yourself,” Dario says, as if he’s heard my thoughts. “Stay in bed if that’s what you want, Li. No one expects you to bounce back from this right away.”

Tears prick at the backs of my eyes and I nod, pulling the covers around my shoulders.

He disappears again, and I float in and out of consciousness with the tv on in the background, playing some sitcom I used to love as a teenager.

My sleep is dreamless, and it’s actually nice, lying there, having no responsibilities.

But something niggles at the back of my head.

My father is still dead. Dario still might have killed him. Have I given up on wanting revenge?

I set my jaw. No. I want my father’s killer in the ground but...

God help me, I’m crazy about him. I can’t imagine the man who said all those things to me yesterday is the same man who killed my father.

My phone starts to buzz on the nightstand and I ignore it. It’s probably just telemarketers, anyway, no one calls me. Not anymore. I’m always with Dario and Beth is dead.

It keeps buzzing, though, ringing over and over and finally I snatch it up.

“What?” I bark.

“You have to come home.” Felicia’s voice, shaky and frightened, comes through the line.

“Felicia? What?”

“Just come home, Liana, I’m serious.” Her voice pitches up almost into a screech. “You have to come home.”

I frown and sit up, but by then she’s hung up.

I stare at the phone for a long time, my brow still crinkled, before I get up. I dress in a simple shift dress that fits a bit tight across the ass. I must have gained weight from just laying around in Dario’s bed for a week.

I’m still frowning when I head downstairs and out the back door. Sonny is on Dario’s shoulders and they’re playing some half-ass game of chicken.

“I think you need more people for that game.”

Dario spins around and Sonny giggles, holding onto his shoulders for dear life.

“Hey Mama!” Sonny calls, and I smile at him.

“Dario, when you get a minute, I need to talk to you.”

Dario’s face instantly goes from smiling to dead serious.

“Let me see you swim a few laps, big boy,” he says to Sonny, clapping him on the thigh.

Sonny wiggles off him, splashing into the water, and takes off to swim laps.

Dario comes toward me, dripping wet, grabbing a beach towel and drying off his hair.

“What's up?”

I take in a deep breath. “Felicia called me.”

“What? What does that bitch want?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. But she sounded... scared.”

Dario stiffens. “Scared? You can’t go back there, Li. Not alone. Me and Sonny will come with you.”