I straighten my shoulders, preparing to meet death with dignity.
At least I'll have known real love, even if only briefly.
"No!" Valentina springs from her chair, moving to block me from Alessandro.
I’d admire her fierceness if it didn’t put her at risk.
"You can't kill him, Alessandro.”
“He has to, Valentina,” I say, knowing it’s true. I betrayed him. Disrespected him. I put him and his family at risk.
“No. If you do this, you're no better than Maksim,” she says to Alessandro.
“I am no better than Maksim,” Alessandro retorts. “Do you think your beloved Luca wouldn’t do the same? He’s defiled you and put our family at risk. I have no choice. And as I’ve been told by you and Cristian, when I let things go, I look weak. I won’t be weak now.”
He’s not wrong.
"Please," she continues. "Cristian has protected our family for years. He saved my life in that ambush. He's been loyal when others would have run."
I’ve been hurt by her pushing me away, so it’s an odd pleasantness I feel that she’s fighting for my life.
“Nothing has changed. I’m marrying Maksim. He’ll never know. I’ll be the perfect Bratva wife. Just let Cristian live.”
“That’s right, little sister, you’re marrying Maksim, and you'd better hope he thinks you’re a virgin.”
Again, I want to kill Alessandro, but I stay still, knowing Valentina and our baby could end up in the crosshairs.
Valentina seems to grow taller, her shoulders pulled back, her chin lifted. “If you kill him, you'll have to drag me down the aisle, and I’ll tell Maksim that I’m not a virgin. That I happily gave myself to Cristian because I couldn’t stand the idea of Maksim’s touch.”
Holy shit.
“Valentina—” I start but stop when she sends me a fierce glare.
“He’d kill you,” Alessandro says.
“I’m already dead. I’ve known that since the beginning. How you don’t is beyond me.”
I’m in awe of this woman.
Alessandro’s jaw tightens.
I see a tug-of-war going on in his eyes.
I can’t imagine that the side in which I’m not killed wins, but I wait.
"You'll go through with the wedding? No more tricks, no more games?"
"Yes.” She nods curtly. "Just spare him."
Alessandro studies his sister, then me.
I can’t decipher what he’s going to choose.
But then he takes a breath and holsters his gun.
His dark eyes settle on me. "You will leave New York tonight. You will not contact my sister again. You will not return to this city. If you are seen within a hundred miles of here after midnight, I will consider it an act of war against the Dante family."
The sentence of exile crashes over me.