Chapter 30
Kane
Brielle was raped by my flesh and blood.
And then she was forced to have an abortion.
She had her boyfriend and baby ripped from her.
She fled to Russia and then was forced to come home.
Where she tried to get her life on track.
And then what did I do? I forced her to marry me.
I knew she craved control, had scars that ran deep, but I didn’t know how deep they went.
As I watch her sleep, I know what I have to do to make it right …
“I can feel you watching me,” she croaks out, a beautiful smile spreading across her face.
Since we re-created the scene and she nearly beat the shit out of me and then told me everything, it’s like a weight has been lifted off her, and the darkness that surrounded her has been cracked open, letting the light shine in.
“I can’t help it. You look gorgeous when you sleep.”
“I bet I’d look even more gorgeous with your cock inside me,” she teases, draping a bare leg over mine.
“I have no doubt, but we have to catch our flight.”
She pouts, but doesn’t argue.
Since I couldn’t sleep, I packed up our stuff, so all we have to do is get dressed.
The drive to the private airstrip is quiet. Brielle is working on the Pilates studio renovations with Molly sleeping in her lap while I make plans that I wish I didn’t have to make.
When we get home, I tell her I have a work emergency, and even though she looks like she wants to argue, she lets me go.
Only I don’t go to my office. I go to Dominick’s, where I find him and Matteo.
“Good. You’re both here.”
I close the door behind me to give us some privacy, not wanting anything regarding Brielle to be overheard. “Want to tell me how you act like you’re so protective of your sister, yet you let her get raped and then forced into having an abortion?”
Dominick’s eyes go wide, and Matteo’s turn hard.
“Did my father know?” I ask without giving them a chance to answer my question since I didn’t actually expect an answer.
“We don’t know,” Dominick says. “The conversation between our fathers wasn’t recorded. From what Giuseppe said, your dad and Anthony met with Andrey to discuss the arranged marriage because they didn’t want to wait any longer.”
“After he fucking raped her?” I bark.
“Yeah,” Matteo says, standing and getting in my face. “After your brother raped her.”
“He’s not my fucking brother,” I correct. “He was a loose cannon, which is why our father never let him anywhere near the company.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Matteo barks. “He wasn’t good enough to run the company, but he was good enough to force my sister to marry him.” He chuckles darkly. “Guess it runs in the family.”
I want to tell him he’s wrong, but he’s only saying what I’ve been thinking for the past two days since I found out what Brielle had gone through.
“Regardless,” Dominick says, “my guess is that Andrey was pissed that Brielle was not only having sex with her boyfriend when she was supposed to save herself for marriage, but he also took Anthony raping her personally since Andrey viewed Brielle as nothing more than property. So, he forced her to have an abortion.”
“And you did nothing to stop this?” I accuse.
“We didn’t know,” Matteo says. “We were combing the fucking streets, trying to find her.”
“We think when Andrey met up with your dad and Anthony, Andrey probably threw the abortion in your dad’s and Anthony’s faces since the entire purpose of the arranged marriage was to tie the families together through blood, and had the baby been Anthony’s, it would’ve done just that.”
“So, my dad got pissed,” I say, the pieces all coming together, “and shot your father, and then Giuseppe used Andrey’s death as an excuse to go after my father since he never got past the betrayal with Maria.”
“Ding, ding, ding.” Matteo slow claps. “You win a prize.”
Actually, I think to myself, I just lost the prize.