The Mafia Boss’s Innocent Prisoner Chapter 03
Two days later, Bastian ordered me to dinner.
Ordered. Not invited.
Malcolm brought me a black dress with a high neck
and long sleeves. It hid the bruises on my wrists.
Nothing could hide the white bandage across my cheek.
“Why am I going?” I asked.
“Bastian wants answers.”
“He could try asking the people who lied instead of displaying me at dinner.”
Malcolm almost smiled.
“Tell him that yourself.”
The Kane dining room held a table built for twenty
people. That night, twelve chairs were filled.
Men who ran crews in Brooklyn and Queens sat beside
lawyers who made bodies disappear on paper. No one introduced themselves.
They all knew who I was.
The stripper Bastian Kane had dragged out of one of his clubs.
Theo sat halfway down the table.
Vivienne sat beside him.
My half sister wore cream silk and my mother’s diamond earrings.
Our father had given them to Vivienne after my mother died, though they had never belonged to her.
That was Vivienne’s talent.
She could steal something and still look like the rightful owner.
Theo stared at me.
“What the fuck is she doing here?”
Bastian took the head of the table.
“Sit down, Tamsin.”
The only empty chair was on his right.
Theo’s face darkened when I took it.
Vivienne placed a gentle hand on his arm.
“Bastian, you should be careful,” she said. “Tamsin
has always known how to make herself look helpless.”
“Is that how she gained access to the Romanos?”
Bastian asked.
“I showed Theo the proof.”
“You showed him edited photographs.”
Every sound at the table stopped.
Theo looked at his brother. “What are you talking about?”
Malcolm placed copies of the file beside each plate.
“The images were altered,” Bastian said. “The bank
account was opened with stolen identification.”
Vivienne’s pale face did not change.
“Then she fooled whoever investigated her.”
“Three separate specialists confirmed it.”
Theo turned toward me.
There was no apology in his eyes.
Only anger.
“Did you go to Bastian? Is that what this is?”
“You couldn’t get me back, so you crawled into my
brother’s house?”
“Your brother kidnapped me.”
“Men don’t drag innocent women out of clubs.”
I touched the edge of my bandage.
“Apparently, they do.”
Someone at the other end of the table laughed.
Theo leaned forward.
“You were sleeping with a Romano soldier. Vivienne
saw you.”
“Vivienne also produced the fake pictures.”
“She wouldn’t lie to me.”
Four years together.
Four years of holding Theo through chest pain. Four
years of hiding his condition from people who might call him weak.
Four years of believing every promise he whispered in my bed.
None of it weighed as much as one lie from Vivienne.
“Why?” I asked. “Why didn’t you let me explain?”
Theo’s mouth twisted.
“Because Vivienne would never betray me.”
Whatever was left of my love for him died.
Theo reached for his chest.
His breath changed.
I noticed before anyone else.
“Your medicine,” I said.
Vivienne opened her purse and removed a brown glass bottle.
“I have it.”
She looked at me and held it across the table.
“You used to organize his pills. Make sure I brought
the right one.”
It was a challenge.
I checked the label. Theo’s name. The correct dose. The
pharmacy seal looked unbroken.
I handed it back.
Vivienne gave Theo one tablet and a glass of water.
His breathing eased.
Bastian watched all of it.
“Tamsin stays here until I know who framed her,” he said.
Theo shoved his chair back.
“She’s a whore and a liar. Put her back in the basement
where she belongs.”
“You put her in that club?”
“I made sure she learned what she was worth.”
Bastian’s fingers went still beside his plate.
“You used my family’s name to destroy a civilian because your feelings were hurt.”
“She betrayed me.”
“You never checked.”
Vivienne stood.
“Stop speaking about me as if I’m not here. Tamsin has always wanted what I have. My father. My home. Now
Theo.”
“Our father,” I said.
Her eyes flashed.
“You were a mistake he paid for. That doesn’t make you family.”
She picked up her wineglass and threw it at the wall beside me.
Glass broke across the floor.
Before I could move, Vivienne grabbed a long shard.
“Maybe men will stop choosing you when they can’t stand to look at you.”
She lunged across the table.
Bastian caught her wrist inches from my face.
Vivienne cried out.
He twisted until the glass fell.
“Touch her face again,” Bastian said, “and I’ll break
every bone in your hand.”