Chapter 8

Soraya

Before I could ask what she was talking about, her palm cracked across my face. Then again. Then again. My body still hadn't recovered from the ice room. I couldn't fight back. All I could do was curl up and cover my head.

Then Tiziano was there, pulling her off me. "Enough. Use your words."

"Words?" Rosalinda shrieked. "She stole my lion ring! She sealed the family's private contracts with it, and overnight we lost a fortune! Nunzio, Carmine, and Luca are downstairs right now demanding answers from me! She's going to get me killed!"

I understood. Rosalinda had made a catastrophic mistake, and she needed someone to bleed for it. The setup was so clumsy it was almost insulting.

I lifted my head and looked her in the eye. "What proof do you have that I took it?"

"Someone saw you sneak into my bedroom." She tipped her chin toward the door. "Come in, sweetheart."

A small figure stepped inside. Dario.

My heart dropped.

"Tell everyone, Dario." Rosalinda bent and wrapped her arms around him. "Did she sneak into my room?"

"Dario," I said softly, "it's okay to tell the truth. I'm right here."

He bit down hard on his lip. I could see the war on his face.

Rosalinda's voice turned to ice. "Don't you want to be my good boy anymore? Are you going to betray me? Then go. Go live with her."

Panic flashed in his eyes. "Yes! I saw her! She wanted to hurt Mamma!"

Rosalinda straightened, satisfied. "Children don't lie, Tiziano. Don't you dare protect your wife."

Tiziano said nothing.

I looked away from my son, and something in my chest split open. My children hadn't been mine for a long time.

"You say I stole the ring," I said hoarsely. "When?"

Something flickered in her eyes. "Three days ago! It was three days ago!"

I laughed and turned to Tiziano. "Three days ago, I was with you all night. You never left my side."

Our eyes met. His were impossible to read. He knew she was lying.

"Bruno," he said. "Take my wife to the dungeon."

For a second I couldn't breathe. Then it all made sense.

It wasn't that Tiziano couldn't see through her. He saw everything. He just needed me to take the fall. Exactly like Dario. He knew the truth, too, and lied anyway to protect the woman who raised him.

It was so absurd I started laughing and couldn't stop.

"Your loyalty is truly something, Tiziano. Shame you wasted it all on your brother's wife instead of your own."

He stepped close and lowered his voice. "Rosalinda's fragile. She'd never survive the family's punishment. Do this for me. I've already told them to go easy."

"You told them that at Villa Serena, too," I said. "And I almost died there."

He stared at me. "What are you talking about?"

I didn't answer. I just smiled and let Bruno drag me out.

Down in the dungeon, the manor's butler, Aurelio Benedetti, delivered the sentence with chilling, practiced detachment

"For stealing the lion ring and causing grave harm to the family, by Scaffidi law: one hundred strokes of the cane."

The cane whistled down across my back. Pain exploded through me, and I felt the skin split open.

I hit the stone floor and bit my lip until it bled.

They weren't holding back. This wasn't punishment. They were trying to kill me.

I was so close to freedom. I could not die here.

Every breath felt like swallowing glass. I hooked what was left of my fingers into the cracks between the flagstones and dragged myself forward. A guard's boot slammed into my ribs and sent me rolling back.

I don't know how long it went on. When it was over, I lay in a pool of my own blood, my breath guttering like a candle about to go out.

Aurelio crouched to feel for the pulse in my neck. Then he stumbled back. "Christ. Get the Don!"

But it was Concetta who came, hurrying down the steps as fast as her old legs would carry her.

"Nobody says a word to my grandson," she snapped. Then she was on her knees beside me. "Soraya! Hold on, the doctor's coming!"