“What the hell is wrong with you?” Max snickers.
The ridiculousness of this conversation made me realize how much I missed home, and I can’t help but laugh right alongside Max. He notices this and gently elbows me in the arm. “Glad you’re okay, Soph.”
“Yes, I’m fine.” I force myself to stop laughing, the seriousness of Alessandro’s situation coming back to me. “Now can we go back?”
“No. There were gunshots. Can you at least tell us how to get out of this place so we can talk things through outside?”
I sigh. “Do you guys promise not to drag me into a car and immediately drive away? You’re willing to talk things over outside?”
“Sure,” Max says.
“Pinky promise.” Nick shrugs.
“Fine.” I point in the other direction. “It’s quicker if we backtrack, then take a right, then we…” I start walking. “Just follow me.”
I’m tired of kicking Max, anyway. I trust that they’ll slow down and listen once we’re outside, and if not, I’ll start raising hell again.
Chapter 33
Alessandro
Thetwoofushave quieted down—more to catch our breath than anything else. My sister still has her gun aimed at me.
In situations like this, I think your life is supposed to flash before your eyes. The problem is, I don’t even know what the fuck my life is anymore. I held the belief that I could trust Elena with anything. That she’d always take my side when it came to Marco and Vincenzo. Was that all a joke? Was I simply an annoyance? I feel like a complete fool. I’ve observed Elena’s manipulative behavior since as long as she could talk, but I never thought she would use that against me. I suppose I was desperate to cling on to someone—that surely I could have a familial trust with one person. My mind flips to Sofia, and I realize that she’s taken over that position.
“Sofia!?” I call out, suddenly worried. She must have heard that gunshot.
There’s no response, so I can only hope she is hiding somewhere safe.
“You killed him,” she manages, still clearly in shock as she stares down at Vincenzo’s body. “He woke up yesterday and now he’s…”
“He was going to kill me first.” I grind my teeth together, livid that the doctor didn’t notify me of this news. I’m sure if I wandered down to the hospital wing I’d find him gone. “Or is that what you would have preferred seeing that the two of you were in love?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This was never supposed to happen. We were supposed to… I had no idea he wanted to…”
She’s barely even aiming the gun at me anymore because she’s so distressed about Vincenzo’s death. There’s a chance I could rush her and grab it from her, but that risks one of us getting hurt.
“How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you two been…?”
“Fifteen years.” She swallows back a sob as she stands in front of me in her robe. “We were in love for fifteen years.”
A million questions fly through my head. How did this happen? Did Marco have any idea? How did I not notice? Am I that clueless? She always laughed when I made fun of Vincenzo or was a sympathetic ear whenever I complained about him. That was all bullshit?
I don’t even know my own sister.
“You hid everything from me,” I say.
She sniffs, calming herself. “You despised him, and he despised you. What could I have done?”
“Well… what did he think about the two of us getting along? Didn’t that bother him?”
A faint smile forms on her face. “He never knew. I always talked badly about you to him. The same way I faked laughter every time you spoke ill of him.”
“Why!?” The one-word question breaks out of me. “How could you fall in love with him? And for fifteen years? You were still a child.”
