She shook her head. “Don’t. If you can’t control it better than that, I would be terrified for our children. You were thinking of yourself. Only you. It didn’t occur to you I would be scared and humiliated and needing reassurance and someone to hold and comfort me. You knew what was happening to me and I didn’t. Still, you felt the need to use me for a punching bag.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, Siena,” her grandfather said softly. “Sleep on it. Think about it before you make a decision.”

She shook her head. “You need to think about it, Nonno. You had better reconsider if you truly believe that this man would be good to me. Protect me. Put me first. He’s going to have affairs, beat me and force me to do whatever he wishes. Is that what you want for me? A man who wants my money and estates, not one who loves and cherishes me?”

“That is not true,” Paolo hissed. “Tonio, you know it has always been Siena.”

She shook her head. “I will never accept you, a coward who beats on women. Never, Paolo. Never.”

She looked into his eyes and what she saw made her heart nearly stop beating. Rage was gathered there. A kind of killing wrath she’d never seen before. She turned and stalked out of the room as best she could when her ribs hurt with every step she took. As best she could when every single cell in her body urged her to run for her life. She walked, keeping her shoulders as straight as possible. She didn’t look back. Not at her grandfather and not at Paolo.

Once in her room, she closed and locked the door and then put the back of a chair beneath the doorknob. She collapsed on her bed, running her hand lovingly over the ruined quilt, wishing her grandmother were there to comfort her. To talk to. She had no one at all. Leopard? She had a leopard inside of her, and when she came out, she would desperately need a man? Who could she possibly tell anyway? Who would believe her? Because she was getting so hot again, her temperature soaring and her joints hurting, she got up and moved the dresser in front of the door before she sat on the edge of the bed and tried to determine what to do.

She had blood on her hands. If she went to the police, they’d probably arrest her. In any case, her grandfather entertained the district attorney, a councilman and even the senator. She knew he was very connected to the governor. She had no idea if any of those officials were dirty, but she couldn’t take a chance. Still, she had money and that would allow her escape. She could leave. Go to Europe. Disappear.