Page 107 of When She Tempts (The Fallen)
He takes a slow, deep breath and then lifts his tortured eyes to meet mine. “She kept it. You’re looking at the result.”
My belly turns as the horror of what he just revealed sinks in.
“Sal is…” I force the words past the dryness in my throat.
Giorgio looks down at the ground, his skin turning sallow. “My biological father.”
I open my mouth, but there are no words. No words to express even a fraction of what I’m feeling.
I’m frozen, glued to the ground as Giorgio gives me a bitter smile. “Now you know the truth about who I am. For my mother, I was a curse. A walking, breathing reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her.”
The pieces fall into place. The words on the walls… He blames himself for what happened.
“The fact that she managed to hold on for fifteen years is a miracle,” Giorgio says, swiping a palm over the back of his head. “After what happened, Nino, the scumbag I call my father, did nothing to help my mother get justice. Instead, he accepted a bribe from Sal. He promised his silence in exchange for a promotion. We lived in the territory of the Secondigliano Alliance, but there was an intersection in the neighborhood controlled by the Casalesi. Nino is a vain man, Martina, and his vanity rendered him useless. He ran a tiny cigarette shop, barely scraping by, and he hated that lowly business with all his heart. When Sal offered to make him a submarine for the Casalesi, nothing could make Nino say no. Not even the knowledge that his wife was carrying another man’s baby. After I was born, he pretended I was his, but my mother told me the truth when I was ten. For years, I’d ask her why she looked at me like—” he breaks off and purses his lips.
I press my nails into my palms. “Like what?”
“Like she was staring at a stranger instead of her son. I’d catch her doing it every few days, and it scared me. I’d tell her she was doing it again, and she’d usually snap out of it. One day, I made her angry, and she told me she never wanted me. That my father wasn’t really my dad, and that the man who was, was an evil man. That I might turn out to be just like him.”
My vision blurs. “She shouldn’t have said those things, even when she was hurting. You were just a kid.”
He dismisses my words with a wave of his hand. “My mother wasn’t perfect, but I loved her. Finding out the truth didn’t change that. If anything, it made me respect her even more for the sacrifice that she made, keeping me. She didn’t live to see Sal get what he deserves, but when I found her cold, lifeless body, I made a promise to her that Iwouldavenge her.”
Everything makes sense now. “That’s why you’re backing Dem. You want to play a part in taking down Sal.”
He averts his gaze. “Yes.”
“Does Dem know Sal’s your father?”
“No. None of the Casalesi are aware.”
“But this is why Sal traded for you, isn’t it?”
Giorgio scoffs. “He certainly wasn’t driven by any kind of familial affection. Sal has many bastards scattered around Naples. I was a young hacker working for the Secondigliano Alliance and I helped the Alliance pull off a deal that Sal’s men were also involved with. My skills caught Sal’s attention and it didn’t take him long to figure out who I was. When Sal told my old capo I was his son, the capo deemed me compromised. He’d probably have killed me if Sal hadn’t made it clear he was happy to take me off his hands. Ten thousand euros and a medic—that’s what Sal gave him in exchange. I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I had to accept my new boss if I wanted to keep my life. And so I did. I put on a convincing face for a long time, but there hasn’t been a day where I haven’t cursed that man’s existence.”
He exhales and drags his palms over his face.
“Sal deserves to die. Maybe when it’s done, I’ll have it in me to burn that cottage down to the ground. I haven’t returned to it since the day I buried my mother. It repulses me.”
Of course it does. It’s a physical manifestation of the guilt he’s been carrying all his life.
“You wrote you’re sorry, but you have nothing to apologize for—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“I do, Martina.” His voice is firm. “I brought my mother terrible pain while she was still alive.”
“You didn’t choose to be born,” I argue. “Yes, the circumstances were awful, but you were an innocent child. Your mother made the choice to keep you, to nurture you, despite what happened.”
“And she regretted it for the rest of her life.”
I step closer and take his hands into mine. “Even if she did, it’s not your fault. You can’t blame yourself for how she felt about her decision.”
His eyes lock on mine, and a soft breath escapes past his lips. He lifts his fingertips to my cheek. “I didn’t tell you this for you to pity me or to try to heal old wounds. I’m telling you so that you know exactly the kind of man I am.”
It dawns on me then that he thinks there’s something wrong with him. Because of the circumstances around his conception? Does he think I’ll push him away now that I know the truth? True, his father is a terrible man. Sal’s the reason my parents are dead. The reason Imogen is dead. But if anything, I feel closer to Giorgio now more than ever.
“And what kind of man is that?”
“Rotten,” he says softly, dragging his knuckles over my cheekbone. “I’m broken, Martina. I don’t know what it feels like to be whole.”
