By Fate I Conquer (Sins of the Fathers, #4)

by Cora Reilly

“You need to stop reading all this shit about emotions. Sometimes it’s better not to have and understand them.”

“You’re looking for a Capo’s wife, for someone to present to your soldiers, someone who’ll represent your family as your mother and sister do. You’re looking for someone who seeks the public. Greta isn’t like that. Greta can’t. Greta prefers to stay in the background, away from attention. You’re looking for someone who blooms in the light but Greta seeks the shadows. Even if my brother would ever let her go, which he won’t, are you certain the Famiglia would accept a Capo’s wife that wouldn’t represent the Famiglia?”

Amo took a step closer, peering down at me with such intensity, I wondered how deep into my soul he could look. Nobody knew the darkness of my soul, but with him I wondered if maybe he saw and didn’t care.

“I’m who I am, and that won’t change, and I can tell it’s not what you need. I’m not the person you need by your side.” “But you’re the one I want.” “Sometimes we can’t have what we want,”

What was between Amo and me was fateful in so many ways, it was a one in a lifetime love, a miracle. I would never love anyone as I loved him. I’d known it from the moment I’d looked into his eyes even when I hadn’t dared admitting it to myself, and it had been confirmed in every second that I’d spent with him after that. But our love would be our ruin.

“Would it have changed things for you if Amo hadn’t been promised?”

“About him wanting you? Not in a million years, mia cara. Maybe he can have whatever he wants in New York, but this is Las Vegas, and he can’t have you. Not now, not ever.”

Amo had changed everything, my every desire, my perception of what made my life full. But I was a Falcone. I’d go on despite the pain.

Love wasn’t written in my stars. Our world hardly left room for this kind of weakness. And that’s what it was. I would never again show weakness.

I’d grown up among cruel men. But fate was so much crueler than any of them. Amo Vitiello was my soulmate… …and now married to another woman.

“Greta doesn’t need to marry to be a queen. Only by existing, she’s shining brighter than most ever will,” Remo said in a harsh voice.

“Surprise, motherfuckers,” Nevio shouted with a wide grin, dragging the woman along as he walked toward Dad, Nino, Fabiano and Adamo.

“I think Alessio took a shining to your daughter,” Nevio kept provoking.

“I knew you’d jump in after me and save me.” She said it without a flicker of a doubt. Love is a fucking weakness. “I’m married now.” “I know,” she said simply.

I wanted to be consumed by Nevio’s frenzy until it blasted away everything that ached inside of me.

“These are mine.” I didn’t understand. “Forget what happened. They are on me.” “No,” I said, still patting the dog’s neck. “Don’t argue. My darkness spilled over. It wasn’t you.” Was it Nevio’s darkness? Or was it mine?

“I regret every moment I’m not with you.”

“Right now, right here, it’s only us. This is our moment. Pretend the world ends tomorrow.”

“Pretend,” I murmured, licking along the waistband of her skirt. Greta’s fingers against my neck flexed.

“If tonight was my last night, I’d want to spend it with you,” Greta said.

“I won’t ever forget this moment,” I growled. “Me neither.” “I’ll make it unforgettable for you.”

“I would want to share a bed with you if you were mine. I would miss you, I do miss you, even though you’re not mine.”

Tomorrow I’d be flying back home even if it felt like my heart was slowly making itself at home somewhere else. New York was my home, had always been. But Greta…Greta, she kept my heart with her in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t think giving you pleasure would have such a strong effect on me, but your body is an immense turn on. Seeing it already makes me feel very hot but touching and tasting you, is so much more intense.” I cupped her cheeks, kissed her harshly. Her direct innocence would be my death one day. With every unorthodox word out of her mouth she made me fall harder for her and I wasn’t sure how to stop it.

There was Cressida and me, which existed in the light, though its base was rotten and dark, and then there was Greta and me, bound to the shadows, though our bond was pure in a way I hadn’t thought possible.

“Oh Amo,” Greta said in a desperate tone. “What kind of deal are we agreeing on here?”

“I don’t care. I just don’t care. I want you. I fucking need you in my life. This trip, it made me realize it. There wasn’t a single night in the last twelve months that I didn’t dream about you.”

“I like being a Falcone.”

“I’d prefer you as a Vitiello.”

“Why does it feel as if we’ve known each other forever?”

This kind of deep connection, it was something I had never considered possible to anyone but my closest family, and what Amo and I had, it went beyond that in many regards.

“We’ll see each other again, I swear, and we’ll enjoy each other every time, but I swore myself one thing, I won’t sleep with you.”

“Why?” I knew he wanted it. I knew he was holding back.

“Because you deserve to have your virginity taken on your wedding nig...

“That’s an old-fashioned, arc...

“And I’m an archaic man when it c...

“You deserve so much better. You deserve to be worshipped like a queen.”

“Don’t you worship me?”

“You are a queen in my eyes. My s...

“I’m gladly your shadow queen. I don’t ne...

“You are mine, only mine.”

“And are you mine?”

“Every part of me that matters, my soul, my heart, my love, is yours. I...

“Greta, you aren’t a dark secret. You are fucking everything and I want everyone to know. I want everyone to know you’re mine. I don’t ever want there to be someone other than me.”

“There’s always only you.”

“I should have told you before, but it never felt right, and maybe now isn’t the right time either because we’re on the phone but I simply need to tell you.” I took a deep breath because I’d never uttered those three words before. “I love you.”

“I won’t, and nothing you do will convince me. I’m going to divorce her and then marry Greta.”

The way he said ‘Greta’—gentle, loving, protective—told me all I needed to know. Vitiello men had high walls around their hearts but once they fell for a woman, they fell hard, and Amo was utterly in love with Greta.

Valerio wrapped his arms around my neck from behind, his chin on top of my head. “Blood spill, in time for Christmas. What a jolly message. Born in Blood, Sworn in Blood indeed.”

I knew it was unavoidable to give Amo the happiness he deserved, which was all I wanted for him. If blood was the price that we all had to pay, then so be it.