By Virtue I Fall (Sins of the Fathers #3)(93)

“Dad, I’m good at reading people, maybe that makes me an empath but trust me when I say that I’ve used it to my advantage in the past too. I’m not the good girl you think I am. If anyone has been played then it’s Santino. I gave him a tough time, really.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How long has this been going on between you and Santino?” I didn’t want to put a name to it, and if I was being honest, I wasn’t sure if I had any intention to let it become anything worth having a name. Anna’s feelings aside, the fact remained that Santino was my soldier, one I’d entrusted with my daughter’s safety, and he’d betrayed me in the most personal way I could imagine. I didn’t feel inclined to forgive him for this transgression.

“It started in Paris,” she said. “I’ve been having feelings for Santino long before but he’s always ignored my flirting.”

“So he knew your feelings toward him when he agreed to live with you in Paris unsupervised.”

Anna’s expression twisted with realization, then regret over having said too much. Anna was clever and could certainly evade an unpleasant truth without an actual lie, but I had decades of experience on her when it came to manipulation and coercion. One day she’d be as good as me, maybe even better, but right now she still needed to realize that she didn’t know everything there was.

“He did. But he’d never had any intention to give in to my advances that’s why he could say with full confidence that he could protect me in France. He was sure of it. He didn’t lie.”

I smiled bitterly. “I admire your attempt to protect Santino but I fail to see how his behavior doesn’t constitute betrayal. If he suspected you had feelings for him, he should have told me during our conversation before I allowed you to leave. I am his Capo and your father, it should have fallen upon me to decide if I was willing to entrust him with your safety despite your feelings for him, and I would have definitely said no. I’m left with no other conclusion but that Santino already harbored feelings for you and had every intention to pursue them and that was why he omitted to tell me about the risk a shared trip to Paris would pose.”

Anna pulled away. I could see that she was weighing her options. I’d suspected that there was more to the story that she didn’t want to share. Her hesitation told me I was right and that she tried to decide if divulging more of the truth would help Santino or not. I had to admit it made me furious to see Anna cherry-picking what truth she wanted to tell me. As a father, you didn’t want to be lied to.

“You too have lied to me for years, and I think it’s time for you to be honest with me. You aren’t protecting anyone by omitting part of the truth. It’ll only make me assume the worst option, and that’s definitely not a version that’s in favor of Santino. Don’t I deserve the truth?”

Anna closed her eyes briefly. “I’m not even sure I’m protecting Santino by not telling you what happened before Paris, because I acted like a real…” She searched for the right word, then shrugged. “Bitch. Sorry Dad, there’s really no other way to put it.”

Valentina had always taken more offense at curse words than me. Yet, hearing Anna call herself by a term that would have me punish anyone else severely if they used it for any of my daughters or my wife still made me cringe inwardly.

“Let me be the judge,” I said neutrally.

Anna nodded but I still caught her hesitation. “I blackmailed Santino, or he wouldn’t have come to Paris. He didn’t want to, trust me, but he had no choice.”

“I assume what you had on him must have been a major betrayal or he wouldn’t have chosen the risk of being alone with you in Paris.”

Anna flushed. “Well, it wasn’t really a betrayal of you, Dad. I caught Santino with Mrs. Alfera.”

I raised my brows. It wasn’t uncommon for men to cheat on their wives, and word about that often reached my ears. It was something that was tolerated in our world, naturally, as we were a male-oriented world. I wasn’t naive so I’d always known that many women weren’t faithful either, only more clever to keep it hidden. In a world of arranged marriages and unfaithful husbands, it was only natural that wives would look for attention elsewhere. But I expected my soldiers not to sleep with another Made Man’s wife. It added conflict to the Outfit that I found absolutely unnecessary. “Was that all?” I asked, my instinct telling me that Anna hadn’t yet divulged all there was to me.

Anna made a face. “Well, I also caught him with Mrs. Clark.”

I shook my head. “While this is troubling behavior when it comes to the good of the Outfit, I find it even more concerning when it comes to him being the man you obviously have feelings for.”

Anna deserved to be respected and cherished. A man that considered cheating a valid hobby wasn’t someone I considered capable of either.

“Santino has been faithful since we started… dating.” Anna’s cheeks turned red, and I decided that I preferred the term dating to whatever else she might have called it.

I nodded. “I understand. Still, I have to say that Santino’s behavior requires a punishment.”

“Santino’s protected me with his life. He’s in a coma because he protected me. No matter what you might think of him, or his behavior in the past, he’s the man who’d do everything for me. I don’t have a single doubt about that.”