"Promise me, Matteo," she says, and fuck, there’s that fire in her voice.It’s sharp.Wild.Untouched by everything the world tried to rip out of her."Promise me that if I tell you, you won’t twist it into some sick play to crawl back to your father.I want the truth.My truth.And I want a real promise this time.Not another lie you use to spin, just one more of those lines you fed me back when you still knew how to pretend you gave a shit.”
I turn her in my arms, dragging her flush against me, my breath hot against her face.
"You think after I put a bullet through Rocco’s skull, I get to waltz back into my father’s world as if nothing fucking happened?"I growl, voice rough, cracking at the edges."You think this is some kind of fucking game?"I lean closer, my voice dropping, lower, darker, deadly."We’re both on his hit list, Emery.You and me.It doesn’t matter what we do, doesn’t matter how far we fucking run.He won’t stop until we’re both rotting six feet under."My grip tightens, breath shaking with the weight of it."The only way we survive this shit...is together."
"Then prove it," she snaps."Because if I give you this… if I give you him…I need to know you’re not gonna use it to save your own ass and damn me in the process."She moves closer, her voice low, furious. "I’m not your leverage.I’m not your pawn.I’m not another fucking casualty in your war."
Her words cut, straight to the bone."You really think I’d sell you out to save my own fucking skin?"I snarl."If I wanted to fuck you over, Emery, you’d be lying dead next to Rocco right now."I lean in closer, breath hot against her lips, every word a warning."Don’t fucking push me."
Her eyes flare, fierce, wild, a spark of fury lighting up the room.
"Push you?"she retorts."Fuck you, Matteo.How many promises did you break?How many times did you swear you’d protect me, only to feed me lie after fucking lie and shove me deeper into this hell?"Her chest heaves, her rage crackling like a live wire between us."You don’t get to stand there and act like you’re some goddamn savior.Not after every bullshit promise you fed me just to keep me chained.So yeah...I need proof.Because I’m done choking on your lies."
"I never fucking lied to you," I rasp, the words dragged raw from somewhere too deep to fix."Not when it was shit that mattered.Not when it was about you."
Her laugh is sharp, bitter.No humor, just jagged hurt.
"Oh yeah?"she snaps, her chest brushes mine."Tying me to a fucking chair was your version of trust, Matteo?" Her voice cracks, but she doesn’t back down.Doesn’t even blink."That was you showing me how much I meant to you?"
She shoves the words between us like knives.
"So don’t stand there and tell me you didn’t lie.Every promise you made to protect me, every word you whispered in the dark..."Her breath shakes, but her stare never wavers."It all meant nothing the second you chose to hurt me instead."
"I did it to protect you," I snarl, the words ripping out sharp, louder than I mean them to be. "You think pushing you away was easy?You think tying you to that fucking chair was some goddamn power trip?For fuck sake… it was me or them, Emery.You think I wanted to do it?You think I enjoyed seeing you like that?"My eyes burn into hers, every muscle in my body strung so tight I could snap."I tied you to that chair because if I didn’t… if I didn’t make it look real, my father’s men would’ve stepped in.And trust me they wouldn’t have stopped.They would’ve torn you apart just to watch you fucking bleed."My voice drops, softer, the weight of it punching out of me."I did it to protect you, Emery.To buy you time.To keep them from turning you into something you’d never come back from."
I pause, jaw clenched, breath ragged.
"I chose the lesser evil," I say."I chose me because at least with me, you had a fucking chance."My chest heaves, every muscle locked so tight it aches."I kept you at arm’s length when we were kids because I had to… Because dragging you deeper into my world would’ve eaten you alive."I suck in a breath that feels more like a wound."And fuck, Emery...I couldn’t watch that happen.Not to you.Not to the only good thing I ever had."
She opens her mouth to fire back, but I cut her off before she can speak, the truth tearing from me before I can shove it back down.
"Because I fucking love you," I growl, the words breaking out of me, cracked and raw."I did all of it because I love you.And I didn’t know how to love you without ruining you in the process."
She goes still.
Completely fucking still.
Her breath catches, like I just knocked the air out of her with nothing but words.
For a second, she just stands there, blinking at me, unsure if she actually heard me or if her mind’s fucking with her again.Her eyes flicker.Shock, disbelief, pain… all crashing together in one brutal, beautiful moment.The fire in her dims, just for a heartbeat.The ground’s split beneath her feet, and now she’s got nowhere to stand.
"You..."she whispers, barely audible more to herself than to me.Her brows knit.Her lips part, then press together again, caught between the urge to scream or collapse.But then her voice pushes through, low and shaking."You don’t get to say that," she says, head shaking, eyes shining with everything she’s trying so damn hard to hold back.
"Not after everything.You don’t get to say you love me...when everything you did screamed you didn’t."
I stare at her, at the way her chest heaves.At the way her jaw’s clenched so tight it looks like it might snap.
But it’s all out there now.No taking it back.The words I swore I’d never say.The truth I buried so deep I thought it’d rot before it ever saw the light.But fuck it.If this ends tomorrow… if I step outside and get a fucking bullet like I’m goddamn waiting for, then at least I’ll go down bleeding honest to her.
"I've loved you every fucking day, Emery," I growl, voice shaking, cracked wide open.
Her breath stutters, but I don’t let up.I can’t.Not when it’s the only thing left in me that’s real.
"Even when I wanted to hate you," I rasp, the words ripping out ragged."Even when I told myself you were better off without me.Even when I shoved you so fucking deep into the dark, thinking it was the only way to save you from the worst parts of me."My voice breaks, just long enough to bleed."I loved you through all of it.Through the fucking silence.Through the violence.Through the goddamn wreckage of what I became."
I pause, breathing hard, my eyes locked on hers, the only thing anchoring me to this fucked-up world.
"I didn’t say it to you back then because I thought loving you would destroy you.And maybe it still will.But don’t you fucking stand there and tell me it wasn’t real.That every time I pushed you away, it was me trying like hell to save you...even when it fucking killed me."
