He glanced around the room and lifted his hands in the air. “Well? I’m waiting. Where the fuck is my karma? Oh, right. It’s back inside your sister. Speaking of which, I think I’ll make her beg again.”
As those words fired out of his ugly and repulsive mouth, it triggered a rage I had thought I could control, but in that instant, I lost all control of my body. I rushed him. Without a single thought in my mind, just with blind rage, I ran at him with everything I had. The breath left my body as his hand pushed me away as though I was nothing more than an irritating fly. I flew back, feeling my feet lift from the ground. I landed with a hard thud, pain rushing up my back. I winced, unable to breathe. I flinched the moment his foot landed on my side. I keeled forward.
The world was spinning, and I knew I’d messed up. I should have known that he was expecting me to react violently. He was hoping for it. It was like he came just to taunt me so that I would give him a reason to hit me. Romeo was more than a monster. He was the devil. I would give anything to see him burn if only for the things he was doing to my sister.
“Have you learned your lesson now, bitch? Stay down.”
The floor was cold against my palm as I lifted myself, holding my arm across my stomach. The pain was searing into my side, causing me to feel lightheaded. It was as if I had fallen off from a moving vehicle. All of my insides hurt, and so did my outside. Aside from the tears that had welled up around my eyes, I felt like a different kind of tear came from the pain I was feeling. My eyes could barely see. If I wanted to throw any more words at him, I was sure my lips wouldn’t move, and neither would my throat from any sound.
There was satisfaction in his eyes that was terrifying. It was something I’d heard Chiara mention, and it was a look that she’d seen once before, but only when it came to our father. He’d been a cruel man, but nothing like that. He wouldn’t hurt a woman. Romeo, however, was reveling in it. He was truly enjoying the cruelty that he was inflicting on me. My heart broke for Lucia, who was trapped in an engagement with such a monster.
I wouldn’t wish someone like him on my worst enemy. Yet, here he was, the very man who had killed my father—shot him dead. Now he was emotionally and physically torturing me. I was sure that he was doing the same to my other siblings, and that thought hurt even more than my wounds. I wanted to fight him. I wasn’t like my sister. I wasn’t scared of everything. I was often the one to fight back. Yet, I was paralyzed. I had no idea how to fight him.
“Well,” he said, peering at me through his dark eyelashes, “as fun as this has been, I have better things to do. Like your dear sister.”
“Don’t you hurt her!”
He seemed impressed by my ability to say anything after the blow. I was breathless, sure, but I’d do my best to make him think about what he’d done to Lucia.
“Don’t worry, bitch. Myfarfallais going to love what I do to her. She has so far.”
I spit on the ground near his feet. I didn’t want to hear him say that word again. That nickname sickened me. He didn’t deserve her. I brought my eyes to him, hoping that he would see the fire that he’d lit. In trying to destroy me, he’d only given me the anger I needed. He was fueling me, and I hoped that he saw that.
He brought his eyes to the spit on the ground and lifted his black shoe toward my face. All I saw was the black sole nearing me at a quick speed before I fell back against the ground, groaning from the pain in my side.
“Let that be a lesson. Don’t disrespect the ground I walk on,” he said before grimacing. “Cagna.”
He turned his back to me, and I wished I had a knife. I wanted to destroy him, the same way that he’d destroyed my family. I winced from the pain as I tried to lift myself up, but I couldn’t. I fell back to the damp floor. I was cursing inside but not able to get the words out. He slammed the metal door closed behind him, causing the room to shake. I sat on the cold floor, staring at the cement ground, unable to peel my eyes from it. It was as though he’d put me in stasis. My eyes were still filled with tears, which were streaming down my face, causing the cracks in my lips to burn.
I was thoroughly disgusted. I didn’t want to believe him, but there was that intuitive nudge that told me that he was doing everything he said he was. There was truth to his words, and he was making a game out of hurting my oldest sister. I couldn’t help but feel for Lucia, who had always been such an anchor for Chiara and me. She’d always been the stoic one, always doing as my father said, becoming the heir he and my mother so desperately wanted.
The idea appeared in my mind, and I couldn’t help but consider it. Was there a way to get back at them? There was only one that I could think of. There was a Cavetti whose attention I had, and he might be my best option for destroying them.
If Romeo and the rest of the Cavettis wanted to make my life miserable, I would do it right back. I was a Bonifacio, and I would prove it. It wasn’t only them who could play the manipulation game. I would destroy them by using Savio to my advantage. I just had to get the plan ready and find out what his intentions were. Once I’d figured it out, I’d have to put my plan into action. The thought alone made my heart race, but it was necessary.
