Thirty-twoI hadn’t been to the Luna penthouse before. Most of the time, Cesare and his family came to my place with Laura or with me. I knew the Luna’s were wealthy because I’d seen the kind of money that their children had. But the money that Octavius Luna had was completely on another level. When Cesare took me into his parents’ penthouse, I couldn’t help but gasp. “Oh my fucking god!”Cesare laughed. “Impressed?”“You have a Monet on your wall.”“Ma likes art,” Cesare said, “she’s a collector.”Vera Luna came down the stairway and smiled at us. “Ah, the engaged couple!” she said. “You have no idea how happy I am about this. I’ve been watching you two dance around for months…and Cesare says that I have a granddaughter?”I blushed and glared at my fiancé. “You told her about that?”“She’s a grandmother. She’s been bugging me for grandchildren for years. I needed to get her off of my back. I think she was coming up with her own plan to get the two of us together if I didn’t take some

Thirty-four: You would think, considering how many shady people I was around, that I would have a good radar for danger. But when it came to Cesare and his family, I was finding it harder and harder to read people. Galileo was supposed to be my security guard and someone that I trusted. He was also Cesare’s brother. But somehow, I found myself getting tricked. Over an over again.When I was outside of the building the penthouse was in, I found a gun pointed to my head. “Don’t scream,” Galileo’s voice said, “I don’t want to hurt you. You’re completely useless if I hurt you.”I stiffened. “Galileo…what are you doing?”He pushed the gun harder against my skull and I found it hard not to cry out in pain but I forced myself not to. “Don’t ask questions, Emmilia. You’re going to get into the car and you are coming with me.”Galileo pushed me forward and forced me to get into the passenger’s side of his car. It was red, and once I was inside, he got in on his. “Your father is ver

Thirty-six: Cesare Luna I knew that Emmilia Vitore would be the death of me from the first moment that I saw her. I’d heard stories of her growing up. Donatello Vitore’s niece…his rumored daughter…. She wasn’t his daughter. She was the daughter of his brother, Titus, and Donatello had been obsessed with her mother. At first, I had believed Donatello. But then I had met Titus and seen the way Emmilia reacted to his death. I had known the moment that she tried to kill me that she wasn’t Donatello’s child. She was too much like Titus. She thirsted for revenge. Donatello liked manipulating people to do his work for him. That was the difference. He’d rather use fear or throw money at something. Titus Vitore handled his problems differently. He was the kind of man who would rather deal with them himself. That was who he had been meeting the night that Emmilia had been kidnapped. He had planned to help Emmilia reunite wi

Thirty-eight:Cesare LunaThere was a woman talking to me. She was pretty, and blond, with warm, brown eyes. “You know, you really are quite handsome. It’s too bad that no one has claimed you. I’m sure there’s someone that is missing you.” I struggled to open my eyes. My entire body hurt, as if I had been run over by a truck. My throat was dry from not having any water.I didn’t remember who I was.A name was lodged in my mind. Cesare.I was in a hospital room. There was an IV hooked up to me. “Ex-ex-excuse me.”The girl looked up. She was a nurse. I knew because she was wearing her scrubs. “Oh! You’re awake.”I tried to smile but everything hurt as if my face was bruised. “Can I get some water?”The girl’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah. Of course. We’ve had some waiting for you in case you woke up. Hang on.” I watched as she grabbed

Forty:Emmilia VitoreI had a wedding dress. I had tried it on, had it fitted, and it had been sent to Donatello’s home. The rehearsal was soon. Meanwhile, I had guards outside my door that would follow me whenever I went somewhere, even if it was to the kitchen. Everyone knew that I was getting married too so it wasn’t as if I could try and seduce them into letting me go either. I kept on having nightmares about trying it and Donatello killing them. He was so attached to this whole scenario where he was my father I didn’t want to think of the things he would do if I tried seducing someone that wasn’t my “fiancé”.I still hadn’t seen Galileo yet. Donatello claimed that he was off doing some kind of important mission for him. I didn’t understand that. I didn’t want to. I had a feeling that it had something to do with Cesare but I had no way of knowing. There was a knock on my door. “Hello?” I said.The person outside didn’t bother to wait for my approval. They came in. It was a little,