Chapter 1

Six Months Later

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

I'd be more than happy to relieve my father of some of that weight, by removing his fucking head from his body.

My eyes stare straight through my father as he sits and patiently listens to what Christine is telling him.

Every two weeks it's the same shit, another family to overthrow, another fight to win.

"I thought you said the Coluccio's were good with the terms?" Vitto asks. He shifts in his chair. It's clear that he still doesn't like being at the table but for him to keep his woman from being killed he didn't have a choice.

Vittore never wanted power but my father had other plans. Now in order for Vitto's woman to be safe he had to take a seat at the family table.

We all sacrifice for the Bianucci bloodline, but it feels like I've sacrificed more than most.

"What do you have to add Giancarlo?" My father darts his eyes in my direction and it takes me a minute to realize that he's talking to me.

"I don't have anything to add. Whichever member of the Coluccio family was dumb enough to cause a fuss will be dealt with. Vittore will make sure of it. I don't really have anything to do with it. Kill them, don't kill them, I don't give a damn." I shrug and look away from him.

A sharp kick to my shin makes me hiss and pull up straight. Vitto is sitting next to me with his eyes looking down at the table.

It'd be different if I were talking to one of my brothers or sisters but that wasn't the case. I was talking to my father and even though I hated the pungent breath that left his body I knew better than to disrespect him. At least I usually did. After being forced into a marriage over the last four months it was hard for me to muster up the sense to give a damn about what anyone thought.

What was the worse he could do to me? Kill me?

Anything would be better than being married to Marie Caprini.

"Give us the room." Babbo leaned back in his chair and a deafening silence fell over the room.

"Babbo, I think we need to-" Christine started but my father silenced her with just one look.

With that everyone got up from their seats and left the room minus myself and my father.

"You"ve been through a trauma. One that clearly caused you to forget who the fuck you are." His words are brutal but no one would suspect the threat behind his tone. It"s as if he"s speaking to a child instead of a grown man.

"I know who I am. I"ve proven many times over that I know who I am in this family."

"And you"ll prove it a million times more if I see fit! Now I"m going to let this misjudgment on your part slide mostly because I"m feeling extra generous and I"m sure you want to get back home to your wife in one piece." He leans forward and smiles as if he were truly doing me a favor.

The last place I want to be is at home with my wife. In fact, I"d rather race through hell in gasoline drawers and barbed wire trailing out my ass than go home.

Still arguing with my father about that isn"t going to change the fact that I do have to go home.

Babbo leans back and pulls out his phone, effectively dismissing me without actually telling me to get out of his face. That"s fine for me. I don"t want to be here either.

Standing up, I grab my sports coat and slip it over my tired shoulders. I take one final glance around the room before I make my way out of the door. There was a point in my life where this room, the meeting room, was the pinnacle of my ambition. All I"d ever wanted was to be seen as worthy enough to sit at this table. I thought I was ready to do anything in order to lead.

I was wrong.

My brothers, Diego, Vitto, Xander and my sister Christine are all waiting for me when I get out into the main hall.

"You just want to stay on father"s shit list don"t you?" Diego admonishes me.

"Diego, is there ever truly a way off his fucking shit list. It doesn"t matter what I say or do, it"s never going to be enough for him." I shake my head and try my hardest to walk around him.

He grabs hold of my arm to keep me in place.

"Gian, I know shit is-"

"You don't know anything. Tell me, baby brother, when was the last time you had to give up something you truly loved? When was the last time you had to sacrifice for the greater good for this family the way that I have?"

"I've sacrificed," Diego answered, his face hard and his eyes glinting with something like anger. I knew from experience that every one of my siblings had done something that either they weren't proud of or they wished they didn't have to, and more times than not, had to keep it a secret. I didn't know what Diego's test was, but I'm sure it was brutal for him. He owned a sex club. He liked to make it seem like it was just a lounge for adults to experiment with each other, but I've been inside. It was nothing more than a high-class brothel. Even if he didn"t want to be associated with that occupation, in my mind, it didn't hold a candle to what I did.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Well, it seems you're no worse for the wear. Don't you have some slut to fuck or something?" I squint my eyes at him.

"Don't you?" Christine chimes in from where she's standing, looking utterly uninterested in what we've got going on here.

"Excuse me?" I turn my attention to her.

"Your wife, you remember Marie? You're supposed to be fucking her, getting her knocked up, you know, the shit that married couples do? Things didn't go your way, but I'm about sick and tired of hearing you bitch about it. Follow through with your duties, Giancarlo, or so help me God, I'll make sure you never even have a chance to think about Rosie again." She cuts her eyes in my direction before pushing off where she's standing and walking back into the meeting room with our father. The rest of my brothers shake their heads and follow behind her like puppy dogs.

My father may be the head of the family, but no one follows through on a threat the way my sister can. She's as conniving as our worst enemy, but she's smart too. In fact I"d say that most if not all of our recent family fortune is because of her.

Feeling defeated isn't allowed in our family. But there's one thing that I do know for sure, there's nothing that anyone in my family would ever be able to do to me that would stop me from thinking about Rosie.

She's mine in every sense of the word.

Even if everyone thinks I'm finally through with her, I'm going to find a way to get my girl back.