Page 129 of The Don's Secret Heir

“I know.” I pause and clear my throat, glancing over at Liana before I speak. “But the thing is, I’m in love with your daughter.”

Angelo’s eyes flick to Liana.

“And how do you feel,caro?”

She looks at him as if she hasn’t heard a word he said.

“Tell me about your fight with Dario.”

“Fight? What fight?”

I sigh, confused as to why she’s so preoccupied about this stupid fight.

“She’s talking about the pocket watch.”

“Oh.” Angelo barks out a laugh, throwing his head back. “I was young and drunk, what else can I say?”

Liana keeps staring at him. “So you don’t have beef with Dario? His father?”

“One of my biggest regrets is not making up with your father,” he says, looking right at me, and grief sweeps over me like their deaths were yesterday instead of years ago. “He was a good man, and I was sorry to hear he passed.”

I nod, looking down at my feet, my heart aching.

“The thing is,” I say softly. “Is that I’m in love with your daughter, but I know she doesn’t feel the same way.”

Liana makes a distressed sound in the back of her throat but I keep going.

“So I’ll let her go. I’ll dissolve the marriage and she can move back in but...” I gasp in a desperate breath, feeling like I can’t get enough air.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Liana pipes up, taking my hand.

I glance over at her, my heart doing a backflip in my chest. “Wh-what?”

She sniffles and tears stream down her face.

“You still want to be my husband?”

“More than anything,” I say honestly.

She squeezes my hand and draws in a shaking breath.

“You might not want to be after what I have to tell you.”

Sonny calls out for Angelo and he seems relieved, disappearing into the house while Liana and I stay out on the porch.

“What do you mean,belissima? There’s nothing you could tell me that?—”

“Sonny’s yours.”

My blood turns to ice. “What did you just say?”

She trembles, dropping my hand and taking a step back.

“Sonny’s yours. I kept him from you because I was soangrywith you. And I know it was wrong, I know I shouldn’t have deprived him of a father.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger. “He’s really mine? You’re sure?”

She huffs out a breath. “I haven’t been with anyone else,” she mumbles.