I would have set the whole cursed inheritance on fire while we watched it burn together.
But foresight is a mercy men like us are rarely granted.
So I left.
And my father made sure the road home ended in a grave.
29
Archie
Metal screeched as I drove the truck straight through the gates, the impact shuddering up the frame of the vehicle, something snapping loose behind me as I tore into the Cavalho estate like a bullet with no intention of slowing down.
I didn’t stop to think.
There was no room for it.
Breathing became something distant, something my body forgot how to do the second I heard the words—Tone is missing.Air scraped into my lungs in shallow, useless pulls, never enough, never steady.Like my chest had locked around the truth of it and refused to let anything else in.
Since that moment, oxygen had become a luxury.
As unreachable as she was.
By the time the car skidded to a stop, I was already out, the door still swinging open behind me as I crossed the distance to the house in long, violent strides.
No one stopped me.No one would dare.
The front doors slammed open under my hands, the sound cracking through the house like a cannon.
Every head turned as I barged into Raze’s office.
Atlas.Marcello.Gianni.Raze.All of them gathered, all of them talking, maps and phones and weapons spread across the table like they were solving a problem on any other day.
But Antonella Cavalho wasn’tjust another problem.
Without speaking, I crossed the room in three strides and hit Raze hard enough to snap his head sideways.
The crack of bone against bone echoed.
Silence followed.
He staggered a half-step, then straightened slowly, blood already spilling from his mouth as he turned back to me.
I didn’t stop.
I grabbed his shirt, dragged him forward, slammed him into the nearest wall hard enough to rattle the frame.
“This is onyou!”
The words tore out of me, raw, feral, barely recognisable.
His eyes flashed.“You don’t get to?—”
“I get to do whatever the fuck I want,” I roared, shaking him once for emphasis.“Because you sent me away.”
The room tightened.Every man in it went still.
“You threw me out,” I continued, voice rising, breaking, rage clawing its way up my throat like it wanted out of my skin.“You told me to stay away from her.”
