This spurred grunts and chuckles of agreement from some of my family members. The others remained quiet, but they nodded to act like they were in agreement. They were just too afraid to act uninterested.
“All of them?” Luis finally spoke up. “There’s a good bit of them and we can’t say that they’re weak either.” When glares were directed his way, he cleared his throat and shrugged. “I’m just saying that we need to think about the logistics as well.”
My father waved the others off of Luis’ back. “I want to redirect more of our money to get extra manpower from our allies,” he said.
I stood there unable to do anything just yet, but watch him prowl around and spout nonsense. He acted like going to war with a powerful crime family wasn’t a big deal, like we did this every other week. He didn’t care that there could be casualties, that his own family would suffer.
“And when I say all of the Mancinis, I meanallof them. Young and old,” my father uttered with cruelness in his dark eyes.
It felt like ice water just got dumped down my back, chills racing through me. If my father had that same attitude when my twins were stolen away, maybe theyweredead. He didn’t seem to have any issues killing children right now. I knew for a fact that the Mancinis had quite a few new babies and kids in their family. I had just left the Mancini estate after seeing most of them this morning.
Those kids didn’t have anything to do with the rivalry between the Mancinis and the Castillos. They had just come into the world, unaware of the cruelty and darkness waiting for them. It pained me that anyone grew up in this sort of environment. It would change them forever. I should know.
Ididknow.
To my horror, some members of my family still seemed to agree with his plan. Were they that cruel too? I didn’t understand how people could be fine with children and babies being killed for their parents’ fight. Guilty by association shouldn’t exist for them. “The children are innocent,” I stated firmly as I took a step toward my father.
The room became eerily quiet as all eyes shifted to me. I stood my ground, refusing to be beat down for my opinion. I wasthe one in the right here. I actually had morals and a beating heart, while my father didn’t even have a soul.
Slowly, he turned to face me, seeming to actually acknowledge the fact I was here instead of ignoring me like before. He stepped toward me, only stopping within a foot of distance between us. He towered over me, not looking so frail any longer. “I don’t remember asking you,” he murmured in a low, threatening voice.
I met his dark eyes. I hated how we shared some features. I didn’t want to be aligned with him in the slightest, which was one of the reasons why I kept my last name as Gomez-Mora instead of Castillo. The Castillo family was cursed by darkness and pain. “You have to know that going after the children is wrong. Don’t you have a heart?” I asked him.
He laughed right in my face.
Part of me wanted to strike him, to take all of my anger and hatred out on him.
However, he was too well-guarded. Punching him in the face wouldn’t hurt him as badly as I wanted to for all of the pain he’d caused me. It wouldn’t be enough for me. If I really wanted to get back at him, I had to stick to my original plan and play the long game. Unlike him, I had patience.
“A heart? This is why you’re a childless widow,” my father hissed. “This is why you’re no longer my daughter.”
I swallowed hard as my eyes shifted over to Carlos. If he was awake right now, he would’ve acted as mediator between us, trying to calm us both, despite being a relentless, hotheaded troublemaker to others. He laid there still and quiet though, letting me and my father’s argument rage on.
“They didn’t drive his car into a tree,” I said. I was tired of the blame being put on the Mancinis. Their plantation house was set on fire and one of the daughters had been nearlykidnapped. The two cartel deaths and Carlos’ accident were consequences of actions that never should’ve been done in the first place.
My father suddenly lunged toward me, stopping himself right before touching me.
I automatically flinched, putting my hands up to defend myself. When I didn’t feel any pain, I opened my eyes and peered through my fingers, my heartbeat throbbing in my ears.
My father had his hand raised, but he didn’t bring it down on me. He merely shook his head at me with a cold laugh. “You’re not even worth it,” he said before retreating to his son’s bedside. He took a seat and chuckled to himself, a few of my cousins and uncles echoing his laughter.
A blunt pain struck me in the chest, catching me off guard. Something about him saying I wasn’t even worth his abuse hit me harder than anything else he had ever said to me. I meant nothing to him, while I watched him fawn over the child that meanteverythingto him.
One of my other cousins, Alvaro, a tall, muscular man a few years older than me, stepped right in front of me, making me tense as he stared down at me. He acted like his father, my Uncle Salvador. Cruel. Heartless. Obedient to my father. “Don’t you see you’re not wanted here, niña estúpida,” he scoffed in my face.
I glared at him.
He was a wanna-be version of my father, hungry for power. He even pushed my other cousins around if they got in his way or questioned him. There was no use arguing with him because he believed any word that came out of his mouth, his father’s mouth, or my father’s was right. “If Carlos wakes up, I hope he comes to his senses and tosses you aside,” Alvaro told me as he leaned close.
“He won’t ever do that,” I bit out as I stood my ground. My body wanted to tremble from the adrenaline coursing through me, but I clenched my fists and kept myself as steady as possible.
I knew my brother. No matter how much trouble he got into or how many enemies he made with that cocky mouth of his, he cared for me. He treated me how family was supposed to treat each other. I believed that he would never abandon me for power or money.
I looked over at Santiago Castillo, my so-called father. He was right about me having no loyalty to my family. After how terribly he treated me, I didn’t have his best interests in mind. I had been kicked around for too long and watched too many people get hurt and killed by my father’s hand. It was time to bring him down with revenge and justice.
He refused to look at me.
This failed to hurt me like it should. I did not care about his hatred for me anymore. I held my head up and exited the room. I needed to alert Alberto right away. The Castillos were planning to kill his grandchildren.
