"You filmed us?" I ask in disbelief.
"Enzo…" Her lip trembles, knowing she's caught.
"Oh, so this is you celebrating Allegra's death, isn't it?" Wanting to see her mask slip, I imply that her number on Allegra had been successful. Just as I imagined, a look of pure triumph spreads across her face—one that's making me sick to my stomach.
Akin to a confession, I don't even need to hear the words of confirmation out of her mouth. I grab her wrist, containing my disgust at the contact, and take her with me.
"Where…"
"Shut up and follow me," my voice is low enough to put the fear in her, so when I push her into the passenger seat of the car, she doesn't struggle much.
I drive us quickly to one of our warehouses outside the city, and I drag her inside the desolate place.
The reckoning has arrived.
"Enzo, what is the meaning of this?" She frowns as she looks around the dilapidated warehouse.
While I was waiting for the test results, I'd had enough time to think of all the ways I'd make her pay—because in my mind, she'd been guilty from the get-go. But now I can get a little more inventive.
She dared touch Allegra.
And that means her death won't be swift.
36
ENZO
I lockthe door at the warehouse, and I take a seat on a chair, watching. She knows something is about to happen. I can see the restlessness just beneath her facade of calmness.
"You can drop the act," I start. "I know exactly what you've done."
She laughs, whirling around to look at me.
"Enzo, you shouldn't listen to that bitch. She doesn't know about our bond." She has the gall to smirk, slowly making her way toward me.
"Why?" I don't elaborate, and she knows exactly what I'm talking about.
"I couldn't let your seed take root in her body," she drapes her hands over my shoulders. I keep watching her, the desire to finish her here and now overwhelming me. But not yet…
"So you decided to poison her."
"Of course. Now if she died…" she says, a smile playing at her lips.
"She's alive and well, Mother," I inform her, and her features morph into cruel anger.
"The same can't be said about you, however," I stand up, myfingers circling her wrists and dragging her to the table in the center. Only when she sees the shackles on the table does she start to struggle in my hold.
But it's too late.
The back of my hand connects with her cheek and she reels back, stumbling onto the table. Momentarily confused by the slap, she doesn't even budge when I shackle her feet to the table, one in each corner.
I do the same to her hands, and for the first time, I see some real fear on her face.
"You see,Mother, I've been made aware of everything you've been doing to Allegra, and," I let that sink in before I continue, "I'm not pleased."
"The bitch deserved it! How could anyone like her be with someone like you? My beautiful baby boy needs someone far superior, notaveragelike her." She spits the words out, and I start to see the root of her hate for Allegra.
"Hmm, and who might that be? That superior person you speak of?" I feign curiosity as I take a step back from the table, assessing her. Her limbs are spread into an X, her dress hiked up her hips, which will certainly help with my plan.
