An Inheritance of Shame

‘You work for them? Those sciacalli?’ - that's insulting to jackals...

Guilt needled him again as he thought of that night, how he’d slipped from her bed before dawn without a single word of farewell. He should have said goodbye, at least. Considering their history, their shared childhood, she’d deserved that much. Even if it didn’t seem like it mattered to her any more. It mattered, annoyingly, to him.
‘Why should I?’ Angelo’s jaw dropped, which would have made her laugh save for the leaden weight of her heart. ‘What?’ - yup, Angelo is a REAL TOOL!

She hadn’t really had the resources to care for a child, a baby who would be labelled another Corretti bastard from the moment she’d taken her first breath.
A breath she’d never been able to take. - this was so sad :( 💔💔💔

Thirty-two years old and she’d had no idea sex could be like this, slow and exploratory and wonderful. - nice to have older women featured instead of the barely there mid-20s youth...

An absolute idiot to think she could walk away from Angelo. To think that she could want it. She’d loved him since she was seven years old. - beautiful notion 💖💖💖

Why the hell had he agreed to meet Lucia here? He could have had a reservation at one of the city’s best restaurants, champagne chilling in a bucket, caviar and pâté and whatever else they desired immediately on hand. - caviar, pate = animal cruelty. Do we deserve happiness when we consider other sentient beings as "less than"???

He blinked back the sudden sting of tears. God help him, he was practically crying. - nice to see he has a heart!

He shrugged one powerful shoulder. ‘I didn’t appreciate you. I didn’t realise what I’d had with you until I’d left.’ She swallowed past the ache in her throat. ‘You’re still rewriting history, Angelo. You can’t expect me to believe you even thought of me once while you were buying and selling your businesses.’ - because he was selfish. He saw nothing but his own pain and suffering.

‘The Corretti Cup?’ she repeated blankly. ‘You mean, the horse race?’ He nodded. Gio Corretti, his cousin, ran the island’s premier racing track. The Corretti Cup was an important annual event, attended by the rich, the famous, the beautiful, as well as the entire Corretti clan. - horse racing had killed and injured so many horses. It's both barbaric and unnecessary!

All you were meant to be was a stain on the sheets. His father’s sneering voice. You were a mistake, Angelo. It would have been better if you’d never lived. - his father was an utter bastard!!