Page 191 of Snaring Emberly

“Hence, Sam sends his regards,” I spit.

Roman flinches.

“That was the last thing Dominic said he when tried to kill me. Why did you say Dominic was sent by Jim?”

“So you would stay with me,” he rasps.

“What happened to my half-brother, then?”

“We caught up with him. I delivered his head to the Di Marco Law Group,” Roman says.

“And that’s when you got control of my inheritance.”

He nods.

“Use your fucking words,” I snap.

“Yes,” he says through clenched teeth.

“You used my aspirations as an artist as the carrot and the threat of Jim as a stick. You made me think Jim was desperate to get his hands on me.”

“He was trying to get you,” Roman hisses. “He knew about your inheritance, too.”

Nodding, I straighten and glare down into his handsome features as they break out in a sweat. Martina explained that her firm tracked me down to Jim’s house and left me a letter. That’s the reason Jim’s father ranted about me striking it rich.

“You don’t believe me,” Roman says.

My jaw clenches, and my chest rises and falls with rapid breaths. He’s doing it again. Using the truth to obscure the lies. Making me waver, making me doubt.

“That footage of Callahan at the gates was real,” he adds. “That cop who disguised himself as a waiter to drag you off the premises? Real. The bastard even paid your little blonde friend to convince you to walk into a trap.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, not knowing or caring if he’s bullshitting about Annalisa. “But why did you make me think you loved me?”

“Emberly, I do love?—”

I silence him with a slap across the face.

Roman grimaces. “The more time I spent with you, the more I liked you.”

“That’s a lie.” I shake my head. “You loved money. You loved revenge. You loved the idea of fucking over the daughter of your enemy. What was your endgame, Roman? Were you going to take me into a room like this and tell me it was all a scam?”

“No.” His voice breaks.

“But you admit to locking me in that tower bedroom.”

“Yes.”

“That’s where I would have stayed until I outlived my usefulness.”

His nostrils flare.

“Answer me,” I snap when he doesn’t respond.

“That’s before I knew you. Before I fell in love?—”

“Shut up!” I flash my teeth. “You and Cesare would have had me on my knees and laughed at my tears while you explained that I was a pawn in your twisted game of vengeance. Then you’d put a bullet through my head and send me to my biological father in hell.”

“Never, Emberly.”