“Family is an outdated notion.” Widow dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “You should open your mind to a different structure, one of comrades. Soldiers in a battle against the chains that bind us.”
“Chains like love?”
Her mother’s lip curled. “If you want to talk about manipulation, look no further than my father and yours. Had I been born a man, I would have inherited my father’s estate and made it flourish.Yourfather stole my fortune to build his.”
“Did you care for him at all?”
It was not a question her mother had expected. Diana took some satisfaction in the time it took Widow to respond.
“Your father was the best of a set of terrible options. At least he wasn’t a drunkard or a philanderer. His obsession was building an empire.”
“You could have been a partner to him.”
“Not to Harry Rives. He never trusted me. When you were born, I wept that you were a girl and would never be able to rise to his heights.”
The idea of her mother being the first person in her life to put limitations on her because of her sex made Diana furious.
It also obliterated any regret she had about betraying her.
She mustered all her strength to keep her voice steady as she replied, “You miscalculated.”
“It’s true, I misjudged your father. But I was right about you.” The assessing glitter in Widow’s eyes would have been matronly pride on another woman, if it had an ounce of warmth to it. “I knew you would take to our cause, Diana. And I know that once removed from this scoundrel who’s turned your head, you’ll come to your senses.”
Diana gritted her teeth around the throbbing pain in her arm and, as regally as she could manage, rose from the bed. “That’s why you wanted me to steal theemeralds. Anyone could have taken them, but you deliberately wanted me to hurt Ian.”
“They traded his mother like chattel for that necklace. Did he tell you that? She always looked so superior when she donned them at a party, while everyone whispered that John Holt had won her in a card game. Pathetic.” Widow sniffed. “Ian is part of their sordid world and you’ll never extricate him from it. If I hadn’t acted, he would have tried to possess you too.”
“That’s not how it is between us.”
“Dear girl,” her mother drawled insipidly as she shook her head, “there is no man alive who could care about anything you offer beyond your fortune or your face. If Ian did, he would not have let you go so easily.”
Diana was tempted to volley back Ian promised to find her—and he never broke a vow—but she had a terrible fear her mother would laugh out loud and make her ashamed of her conviction.
As she recalled the last days in Florence leading up toIl Gioco, and the last moments with Ian before he’d fallen to the ground before her, Diana’s faith in him, as in herself, was unshaken.
Her loss of regard for her mother, however, was irrevocable.
“How can you claim to lead a mission to save lives and be so bloodthirsty?” Diana asked.
“Aren’t you being a tad hypocritical? You’ve left quite a body count over the years.”
“I only ever did it to defend others and myself,” she said thickly around the tears building in her throat. “It’s terrible that those men died at my hand. And it’s why I want to end this violence.”
“Calm yourself. You sound hysterical.”
And how her mama hated hysterics.
Diana heaved a sob and shouted, “You forfeited Ian’s life to Titus and the Manu Rosso in exchange for anecklace!”
“It wasn’t his life I was negotiating for; it was yours.” Widow’s mouth puckered. “Whoever found you and the jewels first would have killed Ian. Costa threatened to make you his mistress by force. His plan was to murder his current wife, marry you, and commandeer your fortune.”
Diana didn’t want to believe her, despite having met the man and knowing what he was capable of. “We could have found another way. Ian and I were working on an alternative.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” her mother said coldly. “We have the means to destroy the filth who steal women. And we will not be merciful.”
“No matter what they’ve done or threatened, I can never support the scale of violence you’re suggesting. Innocent people will be hurt, or worse.”
“It’s necessary, Diana,” her mother chided, as if she was reminding her to brush her teeth before bed. “In order for us to create the world we want, we must burn the old one to the ground.”