Page 50 of The Don's Secret Heir

Because if I can’t do it myself, I’ll have to hire someone, and they’ll need a reason. No one would off Dario Conte,donof the Conte family, without a damn good reason.

And killing my father might be enough.

My father is well-known and well-liked in the community. A lot of people mourn his death.

But his office is clean. Well, relatively clean. There are shipments for drugs and guns but that’s common for adon. There’s no records anywhere, but there’s a locked drawer at the top of his desk that I simply can’t get into.

I’ve tried a bobby pin, my pocket knife, a toothpick, everything.

I can’t pop that lock.

But I will.

I’ll find proof and I’ll have him killed. I’m determined.

Sonny wakes up and I get his teeth and hair brushed before I take him down to Marie’s room. She’s a lovely older woman who Sonny loves to pieces.

“I wanna go to the pool,” Sonny whines, in a mood. He’s been acting out a little since we moved here. He ca probably feel the stress I’m feeling.

“I promise we’ll go when Mama gets back from shopping with Aunt Beth, okay?”

He nods sullenly. Marie takes his hand when I knock on her door, leading him down to the kitchen for breakfast.

I head back into my room to put on a simple sundress and a pair of flats, and some natural makeup. I sling my purse over my shoulder and head outside to Beth’s waiting car.

She’s still a little peeved at me about staying here, and she’s going to be even more mad when I tell her that I slept with Dario again.

And I will tell her. She’s my best friend. She won’t actually judge me. She just wants what’s best for me, and God knows Dario isn’t it.

“Where to first?”

“Let’s go to that diner near the shopping complex. I’m starving.”

She nods curtly and I sigh as she heads for the freeway.

“Are you still mad at me?”

She frowns. ”I’m notmad, Liana. I’m just worried.”

“I know.”

“You don’t know,” she blurts out. “It’s like you’ve forgotten what a mess he left behind when he cheated on you. He broke your spirit, Liana. It was like you were never really there, for months, until Sonny was born.”

She’s right. Sonny brought me back from the brink, and I love him all the more for it. Maybe that’s why I can’t kill Dario.Maybe it’s because he gave me the most important thing in my life, even though he doesn’t know it.

“You’re right,” I say, taking her hand and squeezing it. “You’re right, and I’ve been more stupid than you know.”

Beth squeezes my hand back and then puts it on the steering wheel.

“So you slept with him,” she says calmly.

I freeze. “How did you...”

“I know you, Liana,” she drawls. “And I know the hold my cousin inexplicably has on you.”

“It’s just... we have chemistry,” I try to explain. “History.”

“History, yeah... a history of disaster.”