" I’m sorry if I was ever harsh with you. I wanted to protect you. I should have told you about Cristian. But I thought you might be safer if you remained ignorant. And I also felt--” He stopped abruptly.
“What?” she prompted him. Was that who R was--the final Fallen Ones portrait? Cass was reeling from the thought of Cristian killing his own mother, but she remembered the hateful way he had called her a whore. Maybe Cristian had seen his mother with a man when he was younger, and something inside of him had snapped.
Luca rubbed his forehead. “Cristian is only my half brother,” he said. “He will never have any piece of my estate. That’s partly why he hates me. Even so…I was worried that if you knew about him, you’d be afraid to marry me.”
“Luca.” Cass squeezed his hand softly. “I have no right to judge you.”
“Well, it isn’t like you’ve seemed too keen on our betrothal anyway,” Luca said, staring off into the distance.
Cass stopped. She looked out over the lagoon. The sun was just beginning to set, painting the sky a mix of reds and oranges. Cass remembered wishing she could escape San Domenico. Now the warm colors weaved around her like a blanket. For once, she didn’t want to swim away into the sea. “It isn’t that,” she said slowly. “It just took me by surprise. I wasn’t ready.”
Luca turned toward her. “What about now, Cassandra?” he asked, touching his hand to her left cheek, his other hand coming to rest on her slender waist. “Are you ready now? I must return to France to study. Come back with me. I can protect you. I will protect you. And I will try--I will do everything I can to make you happy. "

― Fiona Paul , Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose, #1)