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“So she took you in,” I prodded

“She did,” Vaughn said “Raised me as her own Loved ain “Luca ca a couple years later You’d think that would have changed things, but she treated us like real brothers I wasn’t suddenly disposable or sloppy seconds… at least not to her”

I wasn’t sure what “sloppy seconds”And the last part meant someone had treated him that way

“Your father?” I guessed

Vaughn nodded “He was not happy about his wife taking in the proof of his indiscretion He actually loved Theodora quite a bit and he’d told her about the indulgence with the showgirl from Atlantic City before they’d married They’d worked it out and wed as planned My father was a bastard with everyone but her,” Vaughn said quietly “He would have given her anything she wanted, and for some reason, she wanted me”

“She sounds like a very good woman,” I said

“She was”

Was

“You lost her?”

Vaughn nodded “When Luca and I were still little I elve, he was ten Everything changed”

“How so?”

He shook his head a little “My et rid of me if he had the chance He toldhappened to her, that he’d keep me He kept his word”

“But he wasn’t a father to you,” I guessed

Vaughn sighed and looked at me “She made up for it,” he said

“And you had your brother,” I offered

He chuckled “God, he was such a little shit,” he said affectionately

I felt h and that s I needed to know Whatever had happened between thehn’s nephew had been taken, or worse, after Vaughn had chosen to save me rather than use me to find the man who knehere Gio was

All the anxiety I’d been feeling cao?” I asked

“Luca?”

I nodded

“He doesn’t have a say in it,” Vaughn practically growled