“Elena…”
I turn and stand in the doorway. Then freeze. She’s mounted on someone. Not dressed. This alone is traumatizing enough, but then her body is tossed to the side and Vincenzo sits up, looking at me with his hand covering his crotch.
Elena has a blanket wrapped around her already as she sits near the bed. If it were any other man she was with, I would have been gone by now, and apologized later.
But she’s with… Vincenzo?
The Vincenzo that was in a coma that I’ve nearly written off as dead?
The Vincenzo that I’ve hated since the first day we met?
The Vincenzo that’s ourstep-brother!?
I swallow back some vomit as I backpedal away from the bedroom. I barely even register the acidic taste in my mouth as my mind reels.
The bedroom door slams and their music shuts off as I lean against the wall in the hallway, my chest heaving in and out. Hushed voices hiss at each other back and forth.
I can’t make out most of the words, but one of Vincenzo’s sentences breaches the thick bedroom walls.
“You have no idea what plans are already in place.”
Plans? That could only mean killing me and taking over the throne.
Everything about Elena makes sense now. Is this why she’s gotten out of all of her marriage arrangements? Now that I think of it, she probably tasked me with killing the future husbands if Vincenzo was too busy. I was second string.
A disgusting thought creeps into my head. Howlonghas their affair been going on for?
“No… no!” Elena shouts, and I hear footsteps coming towards me.
I pull my gun out and hurl my body over an antique chest that lies in the hallway, propping my wrists on it. It breaks my heart that this will hurt Elena and probably ruin our relationship permanently. But I have Sofia and the baby to think about.
The door opens.
My stepbrother’s gun is out, but he doesn’t spot me quickly enough.
I exhale and make my shot, desperate to only need to do this once so he doesn’t end up in a coma again. I hit him in the heart,and he drops to his knees. I curl up and hide behind the chest for a few moments in case he’s alive enough to fire back at me.
As I wait, the door from another room opens, and a man runs out of it and down the stairs. He’s dressed all in black, and it’s too quick to see if I recognize him. I question whether this man in black is even real or a hallucination.
My sister screams in agony like an animal, bringing me back to the Vincenzo situation.
My legs are unsteady as I stand up. A pool of blood forms underneath his body as my sister sobs over him.
“Elena…”
“Fuck you,” she growls. Her head snaps to look at me. I almost don’t recognize her with how much malice is in her eyes. It makes me recoil and take a few steps back. She grabs Vincenzo’s gun and points it at me.
“You wouldn’t,” I say.
She cocks the gun.
Chapter 32
Sofia
Idon’tgiveAlessandroa hard time about needing a cigarette as he leaves me alone in the living room. The fact that he wants to quit for me and the baby alone is so sweet, and I know that’s a difficult habit to break.
I flip through the various streaming services, wondering if there’s a movie that both of us will like. That’s one of the least compatible aspects of our relationship. I’m the wimp that can’t handle any blood or violence in movies, and he’s a guy who would rather throw himself out the window than watch a rom-com or children’s movie. I can feel a devilish smile forming as my hand finds my belly. Soon enough, when this little one is old enough to be influenced and traumatized by the screen, I will always win this battle.
