Craving Oblivion (New York Billionaires Book 3)

46| Italy

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Italy

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Chapter 46: Italy (Logan's POV)

Later that same day, Zarah called her father to the penthouse, asking to meet him for something urgent but at that moment, as we sat in the living room, finally sitting down for this conversation, I could sense that Zarah got cold feet. She glanced at me with distinct desperation in her eyes. 

"What's wrong, Zarah?" Mr. Romano asked, clearly concerned for his daughter. 

I paused before asking the question bluntly. "Did you know it was Andrei coming after Zarah again?" 

"It's Andrei?" he asked, his brows shooting up as he feigned surprise. 

"Dad," Zarah sighed, "please don't pretend. You knew, didn't you?" 

"Mia cara, if I knew, I would tell you right away." 

"But you didn't," she replied knowingly. 

He paused for a minute before sighing in defeat. 

"You knew it was Andrei coming after her again," I said, "so why didn't you warn her? Or tell me?" 

"I couldn't," he said quietly, "I couldn't risk him coming after me again. There are other people at risk if he goes after me, honey, you understand that, don't you? Your mother, Alessia, and even Ronan. Everyone would be at risk if he found out I knew." 

"So you acted oblivious," she stated. 

"You could have warned us," I said, leaning back into the couch and letting out a breath, rolling my tongue along the inside of my cheek as I tried to bite down on my tongue. Apparently, it would be impolite to curse at your father-in-law. "If you had just told me from the very beginning, it would have saved us so much time and I could have taken care of this a long time ago. Zarah's life wouldn't be at risk for so long, I wouldn't have chased down every person I thought had something to do with this." 

"Dad, Logan put himself at risk just to find out who was coming after me, and now you're admitting that you knew it all from the start?" Zarah asked incredulously. "You could have helped us." 

"Honey, I tried to. I was about to tell Logan everything before your wedding but then Natalia and David showed up at the wedding and among the chaos, I wasn't able to. David has been after you for some time now but I never imagined he would show up in New York to do this himself. He always had someone doing his dirty work. I never expected him to take it this far." 

"That doesn't matter, Mr. Romano," I said sternly, ignoring Zarah's hold on my arm. "This isn't about how far Andrei could go or how far he's already gone. If I had known he was the person coming after Zarah, I would have made sure he never got the chance to see her. He wouldn't be alive to come to the fucking wedding if you had told me." 

He sighed, almost in annoyance before meeting my gaze. "Do you truly think you can just kill him like that, Logan? He has connections everywhere. Sure, you're powerful and you know your way around this world, and working yourself is your biggest strength. But are you truly prepared to take him down all on your own?" he questioned.