“Gio, please.” I didn’t understand any of this. He was my brother. He was supposed to love me like I loved him. Only he didn’t sound like my brother anymore. He sounded like a stranger.
“No, Sophia,” he barked at me, and my blood ran cold. “It’s time we end this once and for all.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Matteo
I had a child.
A daughter,
And her name was Lily.
She was five years old.
I HAD A DAUGHTER WHOSE NAME WAS LILY AND SHE WAS FIVE YEARS OLD.
The words went around and around in my head, over and over again, as I drove my nondescript rental car through the London streets to the hotel I had booked on the plane.
My hands curled around the steering wheel, and clenched so tightly that my knuckles popped and turned white. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath, and a chorus of horns and angry British voices rose around me.
My eyes snapped back open just in time to swerve and narrowly miss a motorcyclist.
I really had to get myself together, but I had a damn daughter.
All of this time, Sophia had kept her hidden from me. She hadfought to keep her safe, and I had known, deep down I had known, that she’d had a child.
The signs were all there. The stretch marks, the maturity, and the giving heart had always been part of Sophia’s character, but they had trebled. She was always trying to make people happy.
Her brother.
Me.
I hadn’t really thought about why she had agreed to the arrangement, and now I knew. Her brother knew she had a child, and he was using her against Sophia, getting her to do what he wanted like a pawn in a chess game.
Did she have a choice? Yes, of course she did, but it suddenly made so much more sense.
That’s why there had been poison hidden. She had taken it from her brother but she hadn’t used it.
Hell, she had so many chances to use it before I found it. She could have killed me a hundred different ways. She could have smothered me in my sleep or any number of things.
But she hadn’t. Because she had been torn between the love of her daughter and keeping me safe.
Our daughter, I reminded myself quickly, and God, the idea was alien to me, but it felt right.
Yeah, Sophia was torn between keeping her secret, but she had been happy and safe in her love for me.
Or maybe it wasn’t love. Maybe it was just because she was a sweet woman with a kind soul, and she didn’t want to be a murderer.
Really, it didn’t matter.
She didn’t have a choice but to do what her brother demanded, but she could have told me.
She should have told me. I would have been able to protect them.
My laughter bubbled up as I slipped into the cool darkness of the underground parking lot.
I could say she should have told me all I wanted. I could even tell myself that I would do the right thing, but hadn’t she just done that?And hadn’t I walked away from her? When she needed me most, I had walked away and not looked back.
