Page 68 of When She Unravels
She makes a choked sound, as if the air she just inhaled suddenly turned dense inside her lungs.
I meet her frightened gaze. “Valentina Conte. I have to say, I prefer Valentina Garzolo. It has a noble ring to it.”
The knot comes apart, and as soon as her arms are free, she wraps them around herself. Her chest heaves with a heavy breath. “How?” she whispers.
“Your passport was inside your bed. You didn’t try to hide it all that hard.”
“I didn’t think anyone would search my place,” she says weakly. I swear, it’s as if she’s shrinking in on herself. My threats don’t faze her, but me knowing her real name appears to. Why?
“Lazaro… Is he alive?”
“I’m the one asking questions,” I say.
“Please, Damiano.” Her voice cracks. “Is he alive?”
When I nudge her chin up, I see tears pooling inside her eyes. Something squeezes hard around my ribcage. “I don’t know.”
She searches my face for a long moment and then sniffs when she seems to determine I’m telling the truth. A tear runs down her cheek, and I catch it with my thumb. “Why did Lazaro take Mari? Don’t tell me you weren’t curious when your husband brought a girl you’ve never seen to your home. Start talking, Valentina,” I say.
I wait while she considers what to do.
She shakes her head.
I let out a loud sigh. “Fine. I’m confident I’ll be able to get it out of your father when I tell him I have his precious daughter.”
My words hit her way harder than I expect them to, and she starts to weep. Tears roll down her cheek and fall onto her shirt.
Seeing her so upset makes me want to die.
She’s breaking me down, and I know I can’t show it to her, but in the moment, I can’t resist. I tug her into my chest. She bucks against me for a short moment before giving in and crying into my shirt.
“I can’t go back. I can’t,” she says between sobs. “Please, please don’t do this.”
I’m fucking confused. She’s acting like me sending her back is a death sentence, but there’s no way that’s true. She’s the capo’s daughter. Runaway or not, she’s valuable to him. He’s not going to harm her.
I need to figure out what I’m missing.
When I run my hand down her spine, she nuzzles her face into my chest. That makes me feel something… Fuck. It’s not a sexual thing. Pity? Concern?
I pull away. “Tell me everything you know about what happened to Mari.”
Her teary face makes me hate myself. “Okay. I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. But you have to promise me you won’t send me back to New York.”
Can I promise her that? I don’t know. I have no idea what I’ll need to do after she tells me her secrets, so for now I have no choice but to lie. The lie doesn’t come quite as easy as I expect it to. I clear my throat. “If you give me what I need, I won’t send you back.”
She stares at me, but my face is an unreadable mask. If she’s looking for any hints that I’m lying, she won’t find them.
Finally, she sniffles and nods. “My husband had your sister in the basement when I got home that day. She was knocked out when I got there, but she came about pretty quickly. I asked him why my father ordered him to take her. He said it was just a job. A favor. He said she was born with the wrong last name.”
The light in the room dims as outside the sun sinks past the horizon. I step forward, close enough to peer into her eyes. She’s not lying. Goddamn it, she’s not lying.
“The wrong last name?” I whisper. There’s a buzzing tension in my body, an aggression sparked by her hint and where it leads. “That’s what he said?”
“Yes. He called her a little Casalese mouse and said she had the wrong last name.”
My eyes widen.
“I swear, I don’t know any more,” she says.
