Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2)(59)

Alberto didn’t seem to mind. “Your … Russian has quite a way about him, doesn’t he?”

She did blink that time, unsure of what Alberto was implying. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Holding up a hand, her father ticked off fingers.

One, then two, three, four, five, and finally, the sixth on his other hand.

“Six,” he said quietly.

Violet forced back the lump in her throat. “I don’t under—”

“I don’t expect you to,” Alberto interrupted, sharper than before. “If there was anything I tried to do as your father—being who I was in the position that I was—it was making sure your head was thoroughly buried in the sand when it came to business. You didn’t need to understand or see, don’t you understand? It would do no man any good to have a wife who was a little too nosy—too curious.”

She swallowed hard, eyes darting behind her father to the man casually walking up the street, hands tossed in his pockets and his head down.

“And yet,” her father continued, gaining her attention once more, “here you are, Violet. My curious little thing—sunny like the brightest day, lighting up everyone’s lives, hmm?”

It took every f*cking ounce of control Violet had not to react to the way her father posed his statement so innocently, like it wouldn’t and didn’t mean a damn thing.

Except it did.

He meant his words to soften her, she knew. He meant to remind her of a relationship she’d once thought she had with this man, only to learn it was not as rosy pink as she’d once thought it was.

Alberto’s gaze dropped to Violet’s hand clenching around the straps of her bag. She knew exactly what he was staring at—her engagement ring.

Somehow, she managed to stand a little bit straighter.

“Six,” Alberto repeated, “six men dead because of what you have done with that Russian, and possibly a seventh soul, but we don’t know about Amelia.”

Violet froze on the spot, finally understanding what her father had been alluding. Strangely, the urge to stare her father in the eye to show she was unaffected by his words rose up hard and swift. “And what am I supposed to do about that?”

Alberto went in a different direction, sort of.

“I should have quelled that curious desire of yours back when you were younger,” Alberto said softly, never looking away from the ring. “But I thought it was sweet how your curiosity bled into everything around you, no matter what you did. I thought—stupidly—rules would be enough. That, if I repeated them often enough, you would hear them.”

“I did hear them,” she whispered.

“Heeding, however, is an entirely different matter.”

He was right.

She didn’t even bother to deny it.

Sighing, Alberto finally glanced away from the engagement ring she wore to stare her in the eyes again. He offered her a slight smile, though it felt cold and untrue.

“I hope this taught you something today,” he said.

Violet’s brow furrowed. “What could you have possibly taught me?”

“You’re never invisible to me, Violet. No matter how fast you run, or where you try to hide, I will always find you; I can’t help but see you, dolcezza, as you’re too sunny to hide in the shadows like that Russian of yours. You’re impossible to miss. Today, I might not be able to do much—too public—but that day will come.”

She sucked in a hard breath, refusing to bite the chain her father offered.

“I’m happy,” she told him.

Maybe she thought appealing to the side of Alberto Gallucci that was softer than the side he showed to run his family would get her further. Maybe she hoped he would see her words were the truth.

Violet wasn’t stupid, though.

The very moment she said her truth, she was well aware it fell on deaf ears.

She was no longer just Alberto’s daughter. She had lost what sympathy and affection he afforded her when she disobeyed him, when she betrayed him.

And she wasn’t even sorry.

Alberto’s expression didn’t waver in the slightest. “Yet I’m not.”

Violet didn’t even know what to say to that statement.

Apparently, her father wasn’t looking for a response.

Alberto turned on his heel, glancing once over his shoulder, his stare dropping to the ring on her finger again. “Nothing, darling, and I do mean nothing, is unfixable. You only have to ask.”

Before she could respond, Alberto stepped out onto the street, holding a hand high to wave at the car that slowed to let him cross the road. Violet watched her father go until he disappeared around a building and was out of sight.

It didn’t matter.

All of the sudden, it seemed she couldn’t breathe.





One week blended into the next as the wedding quickly approached. Despite the short time period, things had come together rather well, thanks in part to the overzealous females in his family. And now that the Chicago family had flown in, he had spent very little time with Violet as they kept her so busy.

But that was for the best, he thought, since Vasily had yet to show his face.

The last thing he needed was for Vasily to make a grand appearance at the wedding.

He didn’t want anything to ruin that day for Violet.