Chapter 57
CHAPTER 57
Max
So it is true. Cora isn’t hers.
Ivy’s eyes crack open, and I glance her way.
“So you see, this was all a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding, my ass,” Heath growls back. “There has to be a reason she stole your daughter.”
Ivy whimpers.
“Ivy,” I mutter, wishing I could take her pain away.
“You won’t get her back. She stole my daughter after all, so it is my job to punish her as I see fit,” Stefano says.
“Punish her?” I ask, shaking my head. “You don’t know how well she took care of Cora. It’s all a big mistake, I’m sure.”
“A mistake?” Stefano raises his brows and lifts a finger. “Oh no. She planned this for months.”
I glance at Ivy, who eyes me with despair, hoping it isn’t true.
But when she opens her mouth to try to speak, only gibberish comes out.
“What is she trying to say?” Silas mutters at Heath.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t bother. She’ll only try to lie some more to spin a web around you like a goddamn spider,” Stefano says.
“Daddy? I’m scared. Can I go to my room?” Cora asks.
Fuck, hearing her panicked little voice makes me want to grab her and take her with me right now. But Stefano’s hell-bent on keeping them both here at all costs.
“Soon, honey,” Stefano replies. “Daddy has to take care of some guests first.”
“You mean Silas, Heath, and Max?” Cora mutters.
His eyes narrow. “Yes. I believe they stormed into my house uninvited. How many men did you take down? Five?”
“Twenty. At least,” Silas retorts.
He snorts arrogantly. “You think that’s a lot?” Roaring laughter follows. “How many men do you think I have, kid? Just a couple hundred?” Suddenly, his laughter stops. “I am one of the lieutenants of the Bones Brotherhood, and you are in way over your head.”
Silas’s face darkens. “Send me a thousand, I don’t care. I will kill them all to get to her.”
A smile tugs at Stefano’s lips. “Brave. I like that. So what do you want, boy? Money?”
Silas lifts his knife higher. “You think I need money?” He laughs menacingly. “I have more money than I could ever fucking dream of.”
“Then what do you want? The girl?” Stefano snorts. “You can have her after I’m done with her.”
“Over my dead body,” Heath growls.
I’m glad he feels the same way.
Stefano chortles. “That can be arranged, no problem.”
“I don’t think you understand us,” Silas says. “We’re not leaving here without her.”
“What about Cora?” I ask.
“Cora stays here. With me,” Stefano growls.
“Daddy, I’m scared.”
“I know, honey,” he says.
“Don’t be scared, Cora. We’ll take care of everything,” I tell her.
“You think you’re the good guys?” Stefano growls. “When you harbored the thief who stole my child out of my own damn home?” He points at Ivy. “My wife is dead because of her.”
I gasp. “What?”
And it’s hard to believe for me as well.
“She destroyed our family. And you gave her a pass.”
My gaze fixates on Ivy, who desperately tries to speak, but her throat seems to have been clamped shut by all the pain she’s had to endure from whatever this fucker did to her.
I home in on her face to try to decipher what she wants, but then I realize her earpieces are missing.
Fuck.
Ivy
I’ve only just woken up after being flung headfirst into the oven, and I don’t know how much time has passed since the lights went out in my head.
But my God … It hurts. It hurts so much that I can’t even move without feeling pain all over my body.
He did this.
Stefano hurt me as retribution for taking Cora away from him. And this is only the beginning of all the cruel punishments he still plans to inflict on me.
This is what he does best. What makes him feel powerful. Superior. Like a walking god on this goddamn forsaken earth.
“Please …” I squeak, but my voice box is completely broken from the amount of pressure he put on my throat.
I can’t speak. I can’t hear.
All I see are body parts and lips moving, but with hazy sight, I can barely make out what they’re trying to say. Lip-reading is hard when you’ve just gotten your consciousness back.
My head throbs, and I try to make out what they’re trying to say, but I only catch a couple of words.
Cora. Thief. Killer.
Silas
“See? She is not who she’s made herself out to be,” Stefano says, ignoring Ivy. He takes in a breath, his finger still hovering over the button on his phone like a threat.
And I contemplate shooting him right there and then, but if I do … his fucking thumb might still hit that button, and then it’ll all have been for nothing.
“Come with me. I’ll show you the proof if you don’t believe me,” Stefano says, walking out the second door in the kitchen.
“Proof of what?” Heath asks.
The only reason we follow him at all is because of that phone in his hand.
“Wait, you guys,” Max says. “I think Ivy was trying to tell us s—”
He abruptly stops speaking. In the bedroom across the hallway, an extremely pale woman lies in a bed, along with the machines next to her body, which are deadly silent.
“Ivy unplugged my wife from this machine that kept her alive after she stole my child.”
Heath shakes his head like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.
“It’s true,” Stefano says. “This is the proof.”
“Why would I believe you?” I growl.
“Why would I kill my own wife?” he says, grabbing her hand to kiss it. “I loved her.”
I turn to look at Ivy again, who continues mouthing words without saying them out loud as if her voice box has stopped functioning.
I don’t know what she’s trying to say, and it pisses me off.
Pushing herself up from the floor, she brings her hands together, making some strange movements with her fingers that I can’t decipher or comprehend.
But Max’s eyes widen, and he sucks in a breath as his eyes skitter between us and her.
What did he see?
Suddenly, he bolts to her, distracting me for a moment.
Just one fucking second looking away.
OOMPF.
A knife is flung at me, and it hits me straight in the thigh.
“Stupid fucking boy, you think you can take my child and not pay a price?” Stefano yells as I go down to the floor in agony.
“Silas!” Heath pulls me back and aims for Stefano’s head.
BANG!
A smoke bomb goes off, swiftly filling the entire room and hallway with smoke.
“You cut the wrong guy, motherfucker!” I yell at Stefano as I rip the knife out of my bleeding leg, but he’s already bolted out of the room.
BOOM!
Panic seizes control of my heart, and I sit up straight.
Did the bomb just go off?
Ivy!