Veiled Vows: An age gap, marriage of convenience, secret pregnancy, mafia romance (Mafia Lords of Sin)

“Get out!”

Roman’s gone before I even finish screaming at him and the moment the door closes, I collapse to the floor and sob. This doesn’t make any sense. Roman coming here was supposed to be a good thing. I need his strength. I need his comfort. I need him to hold me while I cry and promise me he’ll do everything to make sure Alto suffers.

Instead, he stands there and tells me it was him all along? That our entire relationship was part of one big sham to get close to me and dismantle my family from the inside?

And it’s worked.

My father is dead.

My mother doesn’t even fully realize what she’s done.noveldrama

And I am alone.

The tears suffocate me with how deeply the grief pours through me. I can barely breathe, and it feels like my chest is cracked and the splinters are trying to claw their way free.

I was going to tell him I was pregnant. Ask him to help protect our family.

Instead, he’s the one I need protecting from.

My Ren.

My rescuer.

I’m not sure how long I stay on the floor crying. Several guards knock on the door from time to time but none of them enter. They leave me to my grief not out of unkindness but because they don’t know what to do.

Neither do I.

When the tears stop, my legs are numb from sitting on the floor for so long and the pain in my chest is replaced by a yawning ache of hollowness that stretches on forever. Trying to logically organize my thoughts feels pointless because each time I think about Roman standing there telling me he’s the one who caused all of this, my heart breaks all over again.

I think I loved him.

All this time it was him. Or so he claims.

Wandering the manor in the dark gives me time to replay that entire conversation now that I’ve shed enough tears to think straight. It’s alarming how quickly Roman went from comforting to cold, how easily he took the blame. But then why tell me not to trust a single Gatti, not to trust a single person in my employ? Was he implying that there are other plots at work that could threaten my life?

Why tell me that at all if he wanted them to succeed?

Or am I just trying to find a way to excuse his actions because I don’t want to believe I fell for such a terrible, cruel man?

My wandering of the halls takes me to my father’s study where my mother’s phone rests on the desk. I ran the number through every database we have access to but there were no hits. Even the phone itself has no purchase history. If Roman did slip it to her then he made sure no one would be able to find him if the truth came out before he was ready.

Sitting, I flick through the messages once more, and each one makes my stomach curl. Message after message befriending my mother, complimenting her and warning her that if she values her daughter, she will stop the wedding. The information spilled about Roman to make him seem dangerous is all things I already know—his Yakuza ties, his assassination history, his mercenary work. The texts about his cruel behavior make me pause. Out of the two of us, I’m the one who’s demonstrated a crueler streak.

Seth’s death was my design after all, not Roman’s.

Did he just hide it? Or did he lie to put the fear in my mother?

I read deeper and deeper, trying to convince myself to believe the evidence, but something keeps popping up in the back of my mind.

These texts don’t read like Roman. They don’t sound like him at all. And why imply there were other threats to my life if that was his goal all along?

“Ma’am?” Fingers knock against the door, drawing me from my thoughts. “Miss Catherine is here to see you.”

“Come in.”

The moment Catherine walks in, the tears return, and I spend fifteen minutes crying on her shoulder. She hugs me, pets my hair, and reassures me the best I can until I tell her about Roman’s visit.

“No way,” Catherine breathes. “You’re not serious?”

“I am.” Dabbing at my eyes with a tissue, I sniffle. “And there’s more. The whole reason we were getting married was because we overheard something.”

She leans closer. “What did you hear?”

“The Mancinis and the other big dogs at that party? They want us dead. Us and the Gattis because that feud was drawing too much attention. Causing too much trouble. So we thought getting married would save our families and allow us to pursue our own goals.”

“And instead he used that to get close to you, destroy your family, and then … warn you before running away?”

I shrug. “I guess so.” Blowing my nose makes my ears hurt, so I close my eyes and I sigh. “I was going to tell him about the baby as well.”

“Luckily you didn’t,” Catherine says, taking my hand in hers. “God knows what he would have done. But I—” She cuts herself off.

“Say it.” I open my eyes. “It can’t be worse than anything else I’ve seen tonight.”

“You know me and Seth. I can’t say I’m the best judge of character or able to spot awful men hiding in plain sight, but Roman … the way you spoke about him, he really seemed like a good guy. Like he really cared about you beyond everything else. It’s hard to believe that he was planning this the entire time. Messaging your mother all that stuff while romancing you.”

“But why would he lie?”

Catherine’s sad gaze meets mine and she shakes her head. “I don’t know. But I think one thing is crystal clear.”

“Which is?”

“He warned you for a reason. It sounds like he told you not to trust anyone, almost gloating about how deeply infiltrated your family has become. So … what are you going to do?”

That’s the million-dollar question.

What do I do?

Right now we’re a crumbling family ripe for the picking. How do I keep us together? How do I stop us from getting crushed under whatever other plans Roman has?

“I don’t know,” I say softly. “But he’s the enemy now. They all are. So I need to … fuck. My dad would know what to do.”

“What about your mom?”

Shaking my head, I squeeze her hand. “Do you remember how she got that one summer when she ran out of medication and she kept talking to us like we were still in school?”

Catherine nods.

“She’s like that but so much worse.”

“Oh Jasmine, I’m so sorry.”

“And the worst part is?” I swallow hard. “I caused this. No matter what Roman did afterward, I agreed to his plan. I agreed to marry him to save my family, and instead I’ve destroyed it.”

“No, don’t you dare think like that.” Catherine lifts her hand and cups my damp cheek. “You were faced with a terrible decision and made a choice to save everyone.”

“But they argued about it constantly. If I’d owned up sooner maybe Dad would still be alive!”

“You can’t know that. Your parents fought all the time, even I know that. And there’s no way of knowing how things would have panned out. Your father was acting like it was his idea anyway, so your confession might have changed absolutely nothing.”

“Or everything.”

“Oh Jasmine.” She tucks my hair behind my ear and smiles sadly at me. “Don’t torture yourself for things you can’t control. Isn’t that what you told me about Seth?”

I gently roll my eyes. “Maybe.”

“Exactly. So control what you know. Everything else will have to come later.”

Catherine stays the night with me and spends a lot of time with my mother, although she barely registers that either of us are there. After helping her with dinner and taking her to bed, I set Catherine up in my room to sleep then retire to the en suite for the longest bath of my life.

Amidst the hot water and the bubbles, tears threaten once more, but I refuse to let them fall.

Enough tears.

It’s time for action.

Revenge is what I’m good at, and the Gattis are on the menu. I’m going to do what my father never could and wipe them out for good.

And if that includes Roman, then so be it.