Chapter 30 Don't say a word to my father," I'd told Maya, making sure my voice left no room for argument. "Not a pictures, not a hint. I'll handle it." Handling it meant driving to the Vescovi compound in Hyde Park. The gates swung open before I'd even come to a full stop. They knew my car. Enzio Vescovi was in his study, a room that smelled like fear and cheap cigars. Alessia was perched on the arm of his chair, her face a perfect mask of wounded innocence. It shattered the second I walked in. Her eyes widened, then narrowed into venomous slits. Enzio didn't stand. A calculated insult. "Raziel," Enzio said, not looking up from the papers on his desk. "To what do we owe this... intrusion?" I didn't sit. I stood in the center of the room, my presence sucking the air out of it. "Your daughter," I said, my voice flat. "She keyed a car my father gifted to a friend of mine." Alessia shot to her feet. "She's a whore! A junkie whore you're parading around town, humiliating me! She attacked me!" I ignored her, my eyes locked on Enzio. "The car was brand new. A gesture of goodwill from Raffaele Mercier. Your daughter took a key to it because her feelings were hurt." That got his attention. I guess she hadn't told him that part. He finally looked up, his piggy eyes blinking slowly. A sheen of sweat appeared on his brow. Everyone knew what a gesture from my father meant. It wasn't a gift. It was a flag planted in the soil. "This is a private matter between you and my daughter," he blustered, trying to regain control of a situation that had slipped from his grasp the moment my father's name was mentioned. "Your... personal indiscretions are not my concern." I let a cold smile touch my lips. "They are when your daughter makes them your concern by disrespecting my family's name. You think this is about a scratched door? This is about her spitting in my father's face." I took a step closer to his desk. The color drained from his face. It was the truth, and truth was the one weapon men like him couldn't defend against. Alessia, seeing her father crumble, lunged forward, desperate. "She's fucking my cousin, Raziel! She's been seeing him behind your back! I have proof!" I didn't even look at her. My gaze stayed on Enzio. "You're lying." I knew she was lying because I had a hidden camera pointed directly at her front door and back door. I could see who came and went. "I'm not! He was at her house! They were together!" I finally turned my head, pinning her with a look that made her flinch. "I know exactly where she was, and who she was with. She didn't fuck him. He should consider himself lucky that she didn't, or I'd hang him by his fucking plugged-in hair." I turned back to Enzio. "You should teach your daughter to be more concerned with her own behavior and less with inventing stories about my woman." I took a step back, signaling the end of the conversation. "Consider this my final warning. Both of you. You will leave Maya alone. Don't speak her name. Don't look at her. The only reason she hasn't shown my father what your daughter did to his very expensive, very personal gift is because I asked her to. Consider that your thank you. Your payment for my restraint." I turned to leave. Alessia obviously heard nothing I said. "You promised your mother!" she screamed, breaking into hysterical tears. She lunged, grabbing my arm, her nails digging into my bicep. "You swore on her soul you would marry me! Are you really going to break that? For her? For that trash?" I stopped. I slowly looked down at her hand on my arm, then back at her tear-streaked face. There was no guilt. No regret. Just a cold, vast emptiness. I shook her off me like she was a stray insect. "The promise was made to a dying woman who was scared for her son. It was extracted under duress. It's void." I walked toward the door. "You won't get away with this, Raziel!" Enzio finally found his voice, a weak, trembling thing. "You think your father will protect you when you've made an enemy of me? You're disrespecting our arrangement! You're spitting on tradition!" I paused at the door, my hand on the knob. I didn't turn around. "The arrangement is dead," I said, my voice quiet and final. "And your tradition is a weakness. My father doesn't protect me from my enemies, Enzio. I do. Don't make yourself one, Enzio." I took a step, then paused. "Consider this my resignation. I had only worked for him because he was supposed to be my in-law. Family helped family. I didn't need him." I opened the door and walked out, leaving them in the ruins of their ambition. Five-year-old Annie, who can understand animals, saved Landon Hawthorne, a wealthy businessman, from suicide. Now she's his whole world and he's her legal cheat-code against every villain fate throws ...