Chapter 30 #2
Tears spill freely down her cheeks now. "You really want that?"
"With you? Yes. With anyone else? Never."
Her breath stutters, and she smiles.
I kiss her slowly, sealing a new understanding between us. Then I retreat, adding, "You're not getting rid of me, Minx. Not now. Not ever. And definitely not before we make a whole brood of little terrors that drive everyone else insane."
She laughs harder, and for the first time in weeks, the world around us stops feeling lost. It starts feeling like a beginning.
I give her another kiss, then step back. "I need to go."
"Go?" she asks.
"I'll be back soon." I step toward the door.
"Brax, where are you going?" she questions.
"Toss your birth control out. When I get home, we're going to start making babies," I proclaim, and exit the front door.
I get through the building, into my Mustang, and floor it.
The drive to Zara and Sean's is quick, but by the time I pull up to their building, my pulse is a drum.
I nod at security, get in the elevator, and press my hand on the screen. It shoots to the penthouse, and the doors open, showcasing the magnificent red cherry blossom tree.
The moment I open the main door, Luca's voice booms, "Look at how big you've gotten!" He holds River in the air.
"Brax. What are you doing here?" Zara asks, with worry on her expression. She looks past me.
"Don't worry. She's not here," I state.
Guilt floods Zara's face. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
"I need to talk to you, Luca," I demand.
His eyes narrow. "I'm with my grandbabies."
"Now," I order, and brush past him, telling Sean, "Need to use your office."
He nods, eyes wide.
I storm down the hall, trying to manage my anger. I step into the office and wait, leaning against the window, my arms folded.
Luca finally steps inside, closes the door, and points at me. "You'd better get rid of your disrespectful tone."
I point at the chair. "Sit down."
He stays put. "You don't give me orders."
"Sit," I seethe.
He doesn't flinch. Neither of us moves for what feels like forever until he finally sits, clasps his hands in a triangle, and keeps his scowl on me. "Well? Why are you interrupting my time with my grandchildren?"
"You owe my wife an apology."
His head jerks backward. A flinch of guilt crosses his face, lined with age and choices he won't say out loud. He recovers. "You're treading on thin ice, Brax."
I grab the chair and sit, realizing I can't fight fire with fire. Not with Luca. And this is too important not to get the result Valentina deserves. I take a deep breath and calm my voice. "Zara and Sean told you about the Underworld?"
His face fills with disapproval. He affirms, "Yes."
"Then you know Valentina doesn't deserve for you to abandon her anymore."
His jaw twitches. He doesn't blink, but his eyes darken.
I add, "Salvatore killed her parents in a ritual. Then he took her to live with him and forced her to abide by his rules. If she didn't, she would have been sold."
The twitch expands to his cheek. He seethes, "Salvatore was the devil."
"Yes. And your sister's daughter—the niece you once loved and cared for—was left with the monster. You cast her aside like trash," I accuse.
"Watch your mouth!" he warns.
"What do you call it?" I ask.
His eyes turn to slits.
"She was a child. She had no one to turn to, and all she did was fight to survive. And they tortured her. One ritual after another, they brutalized her and persecuted her. You're her blood, and you did nothing!" I say louder than I anticipated.
He slams his hand on the desk. "I didn't know! Her father took my sister and her to Italy and disappeared. I didn't even know she was still alive until she was older. I assumed she died with them. Then I learned Salvatore raised her, and she was doing all the things that Abruzzos do!"
"Because she had to in order to survive!" I roar.
Silence fills the room, hot with growing tension.
I lean closer, my voice dropping to a deadly calm. "They branded her. And not just with the skull."
The words stop him cold. His lips part, but no sound comes out.
"They took a heated iron as big as her torso and burned a V into her chest. Then they turned it scarlet to shame her for the world to see," I announce.
His face drains of color.
I don't give him time to recover. "She blamed herself for not understanding why you never came for her. She'd never speak of it, but I know. I see it in her. And you're partly to blame."
His hand grips the armrest so tightly his knuckles turn white. His voice finally cracks. "I had no idea—"
"No, you didn't want to know."
He flinches.
"You left and never checked the debris left behind. You didn't look for the niece you once loved."
He swallows hard, throat bobbing unevenly, eyes turning wet.
"She's finally free. The council is gone.
The monsters are ash because she took down the demons who killed her family.
..the same ones who wanted to kill your daughter and grandbabies.
She survived the impossible. No. She did the impossible.
Yet one phone call from Zara and she folds in like she's the bad person. "
Luca presses a hand to his forehead. He admits, "I never wanted to hurt her."
"But you did. You still are."
He looks at me, glassy-eyed, voice unsteady. "What do you want from me?"
I take a deep breath. "Responsibility. Not excuses. Not the noble self-sacrifice you've fed yourself for decades. I want you to understand the destruction you didn't bother to try and stop."
"I can't fix the past."
My chest curls. I control my voice, insisting, "She spent her entire life suffering consequences from decisions you had a hand in. Directly or not."
His jaw tics. "I don't know what she told you—"
"She didn't tell me anything. She never gives herself that much permission. I learned by digging," I snap.
His eyes widen a fraction.
I pound my finger into the wood. "She's my wife. And your blood."
He turns his face and grinds his molars.
"You're going to make this right, Luca," I firmly assert.
He slowly turns back toward me, but the hardness is gone. Regret, guilt, and sadness fill his expression.
I continue, "From this point forward, she's done hiding. She's as much of a part of this family as anyone. So if you're here, she's allowed here. No one is keeping my wife hidden, including you."
He looks at his hands, his face scrunched.
I wait for him to speak.
He finally looks at me, a shell of the man he entered the room as, and asks, "Why would she even want to be in a room with me?"
"You're her blood, Luca. She remembers you, the uncle who used to love and care for her," I softly tell him.
He closes his eyes, taking deep breaths.
"You get one chance to do this right," I tell him.
He opens his red-rimmed eyes.
I warn, "Make it right, Luca. My wife is mine. She's like a sister to Zara. And she's not going anywhere." I get up and walk out, ignoring the others, and returning to the woman that somehow, in the middle of total chaos, I learned to love.