Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 72799 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72799 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
When she focuses on Soo again, he leans forward to force her eye contact. “Tell me.”
She shakes her head. “You’re going to have to ask a question or be specific. My head is full of useless stuff, and I can’t just spew it all out to you.”
Soo nods. “Let’s start with the gossip, then. Most of that sort of thing is worthless, but it might give us something useful, and I can vet the info easy enough.”
“Well, they say the Gardello family is broke. That the sons have plowed through their trust funds and their family money trying to outfit their casinos and on hookers. It’s why I was supposed to marry into the family, they wanted to get their hands on my father’s money, and he was paying them a sort of dowry.”
I nod. “We knew that one already. But yes, stuff like that, what else do you have?”
She smiles and leans in conspiratorially. “There is talk that the Greco siblings, they are twins, are closer than they should be as twins. And they also say they are the reason the father is on home care and can no longer make his own decisions.”
Soo meets my eyes and shakes his head. Yeah, I hadn’t known this little tidbit either. “We knew the twins are running the family and that the father is an invalid, but we didn’t know that they might be the reason he’s dying. Or about the other side of things.”
“Weird, right? I don’t know if they are sleeping together, but the rumors say they might be.”
“What else?” Soo prompts.
She shrugs. “Well, my mom says the Marino family is one breath away from destruction. The father dotes on the daughter and ignores the sons. They resent him, even though they love their sister, and they might want to overthrow their father to take over the family. It was all threaded with ‘make sure you don’t sit the sons by the father,’ but yeah, it’s all very soap opera at their house, apparently.”
“That’s good,” Soo says, nodding.
She continues. “Bianci is the only one I haven’t met before. He’s reclusive, and he’s never been to any of the dinners. While they never all come to the house at once, I’ve at least met all the families individually, except him. When I was a kid, I met his father, but not the son, not after his father died. So, of course, everyone is curious about him and how he’s changed his territory since his father’s death.”
As she speaks, my heart squeezes tighter in my chest. I bounce my gaze between her and Soo, noticing how eager she is to help us. It’s a far cry from when I first brought her here, and she refused to give me any information about her father. But as we sit here, and she keeps talking to Soo, I realize she hasn’t given us any information about him yet. Just about the other members of the five families.
When she stops speaking, and Soo yawns, his eyes growing heavy, I wave at them. They both look my way, and I give Soo a nod. He stands and heads for the door without another word.
“Go get some sleep and come find me when you wake up,” I call after him.
He closes the door behind him, and I turn all my attention to Celia. She stares at me expectantly, as if waiting for my own questions, and I have them.
I reach out and grasp her by the waist to drag her into my lap. She resettles on top of my legs and leans her head against my chest. It’s a position we take often, as I know how much she likes to be held. And to be honest, I enjoy holding her like this; it comforts me. Cementing the fact that she belongs to me in every way.
After a moment, she lifts her face so she can look at me. “Are you angry with me?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m not upset with you. I’m just trying to figure out why you didn’t tell us any of this information sooner. Right now, I can’t say if it will be useful. But I also can’t say if it would have been useful sooner. Things have changed since you were originally taken. Things that were true then might no longer be true.”
“In my defense, I was held captive. Why would I help my kidnappers in any way?”
I run my hand down her back and resettle her against my chest. Something I also noticed, she shares more when she doesn’t have to meet my eyes when she does it. “I can understand that logic. I know you won’t do anything to deliberately hurt me. I also know you want your own revenge against your father. But you didn’t give Soo any information about him.”