Carpathian 10 - Dark Symphony

score?"
    "I thought if I could give Demonesini something worth a lot of money, he would give me the pictures."
    "Did you take anything else from the palazzo to give him, Marita?" Antonietta's tone was very gentle, but Byron could hear the compulsion already buried deep within her voice.
    Marita shook her head. "No, I don't know why I thought of the Handel score. I heard you working on it with Justine, and the idea suddenly came to me. I just waited until I had the opportunity to visit Don Giovanni and I asked him to put my necklace in his safe. He opened the safe with me standing right there. Trusting me." She pressed her hand to her temple. "I'm glad you caught me. I'm glad you found out the truth. When I leave, you can tell Franco about the pictures. Don't tell him about Margurite. It would break both their hearts, and if Don Demonesini insisted on his rights, poor little Margurite would be in his hands."
    She is telling the truth. She is not pan of a theft ring, she knows nothing about it.
    "Demonesini will never get near Margurite. You have to tell Franco about the photographs. You're a strong woman, Marita. You're a Scarletti, and we don't back away from trouble or even scandal. If he wants to incriminate himself by selling those pictures to a tabloid, let him try. Franco will see him not only ruined but jailed. You don't know Franco if you think he will let Demonesini get away with this. Trust him. Tell what happened. Tell him everything. Let him decide if he wants or needs a paternity test. Once you tell Franco, Demonesini has lost his hold on you."
    "I'm so afraid," Marita said.
    "If you tell him, there's a chance he will accept everything and work with you to find a way out of this mess. If you sneak away and leave him and the children, all of you will be miserable, and you'll never know what his reaction really would have been."
    Marita squeezed Antonietta's hand in gratitude. "Grazie, Antonietta, for making me feel like I'm truly family."
    Antonietta hugged her hard. "You are family, Marita. Go make peace with Franco so you can dance at my wedding."
    Marita cried out. "You are really getting married? Nonno has given his blessing?"
    "Yes, he's happy for us. We're going to tell Tasha and Paul."
    "Paul's not well, Antonietta, but he still refuses a doctor. He's been sleeping most of the day, so much so Justine was alarmed, but he woke around sunset."
    Antonietta stood up. "Go to Franco, Marita. Go somewhere quiet and pull the teeth from Demonesini. If Franco becomes enraged, and he will, it will be at that horrible monster, not at you."
    "The pictures are graphic."
    "Have courage."
    Marita nodded and slipped away. Antonietta sat for a long moment in silence. The flickering candles set bizarre shapes dancing in front of her eyes. "How sad that she didn't tell her husband immediately." She leaned her head against Byron's shoulder. "Why is it I keep getting glimpses of Don Demonesini lying dead on the floor and you standing over him with sharp teeth and demonic eyes? Surely you aren't thinking of harming him in any way."
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    9/13/2007

    Dark Symphony
    Page 166 of 188
    "You are not?"
    "Not quite in the same way. You seem a bit violent and earthy. I prefer sophistication.
    Taking apart his empire and exposing him for the monster he is."
    "That still leaves him to prey on other women. He drugged her. You know that. He drugged her, raped her, and blackmailed her."
    She heard the bite to his voice. This time she knew the demon roaring for release was in him. She felt the slow unfurling of claws, the lengthening of fangs, the snarl of rage at a monster of a man who could torment a woman in an attempt to ruin her family life. Byron.
    You can be a very scary man.
    Never to you, cara. He leaned down and kissed her on her mouth before taking her inside the palazzo.
    Celt greeted Antonietta in his dignified but obviously affectionate manner, falling in at her side to guide her up the stairs to Paul's room.
    Tasha turned quickly from her vigil by the bed and threw herself into her cousin's arms with a glad little cry. "I was so worried about you, Toni. No one was with you. You were gone so long."
    "I was with her, Tasha," Byron said quietly. "I can make you a sincere promise that nothing will ever harm her when she is with me."
    "He took