ANTONIO #2
She keeps talking, but I’m struggling to take all of it in, the rush of shock getting the better of me.
Because all of this—it sounds like he planned for her to be completely under his control.
I don’t want to think that he would be capable of something like that, but hell, what else could it be?
As much as I want to believe it’s just coincidence, that he aligned all these things so that she would have no way out unless he granted it to her, I don’t know if I can believe that.
“…and then when he asked me to marry him, I knew it would cause this huge thing if I said no,” she finishes up, picking at a loose thread on the covers beside her.
“So I just went along with it. Would have gone along with it all the way down the aisle, actually, if he hadn’t decided to dip right before the ceremony.
” She manages a small smile, though it doesn’t look entirely convincing.
“So I guess I’ve got to thank him for that, at least.”
I shake my head slowly, leaning against the door.
She stares up at me, brows furrowing slightly. “You don’t believe me?” she asks softly, sounding sad, but unsurprised.
And that, that’s the part that gets to me the most—hearing her so convinced that nobody would trust a word that comes out of her mouth.
That’s the shit that he has planted in her mind, I’m sure of it, though she might not even be aware of it.
The hell he put her through, the control he exerted on her, to the extent that she doesn’t even think I would trust what she’s telling me.
“No, I believe you,” I reply grimly.
She has no reason to lie to me about this.
And after what Andreo pulled, leaving me behind for Salamanca, it’s clear that he has no loyalty in him, no willingness to play by the rules.
It doesn’t surprise me that he would force her to obey his commands, demand that she did as she was told, force her into this corner where she had no choice but to listen to him or risk being out on the streets.
“You do?”
“And I’m sorry, Julia,” I tell her, voice dropping. “I’m sorry he did that to you.”
She stares at me for a second, clearly surprised. “No, it’s—I mean, I was the one who agreed to all of it, I could have—”
I shake my head. “No,” I reply. “No, he did it because he knew he could keep you under his control. Because he knew there was no way out for you. Because that—” I pause for a moment, catching my breath, my brain rushing as I try to process it.
“Because that’s what he wanted. Someone who couldn’t stand against him.
Someone who had to do as he said if they wanted to keep their home and their stability. ”
She furrows her brow, still confused. “I mean, he was a shitty boyfriend, but what makes you think he did all that intentionally?” she wonders aloud. “I thought he was just…insecure, you know. Trying to make sure he didn’t lose me.”
“Because that’s what I taught him,” I reply bluntly, and her eyes widen.
“You taught him to treat women like that?”
“No, no,” I reply, waving my hand at once.
“I taught him to work every angle he could when it came to the people he was aligned with. It’s part of this business, you have to have control—make sure nobody can turn on you without facing the consequences.
And it sounds like he took all of that and applied it to… ”
I can’t even finish what I’m saying. It makes me so damn sick to think that my son could be capable of it.
I don’t want to believe for a second that he intended it, but what other way could I take it?
He knew what he was doing, knew that he had picked a target who would be unable to push back against him without losing out on everything that he had given her.
And she’s right—if it hadn’t been for him turning his back on her during the ceremony, then she might never have gotten out. And that part makes me fucking sick to my stomach.
He could have spent his life with this woman pressed under his thumb, living in terror of what he might do to her if she didn’t play by his rules.
My lip curls upward slightly, pure disdain for the man that I’ve raised—and a hard, stark reminder that I might be part of the reason he got away with acting like that for so long.
That I’m part of the reason he knew how to control her with such cold, callous efficiency.
I lock eyes with Julia again, and this time, I speak with certainty.
“I’m going to make this right,” I tell her firmly, and she stares at me for a second.
“What do you mean?”
“What he did to you,” I reply. “I’m going to make it right, Julia.”
She shakes her head, tightening the loose thread around her fingertip until the skin starts to turn white. “I just…I don’t see how you can,” she confesses. “I’m already out of there. I’m married to—to you now, he can’t just sweep in and pick up where he left off.”
She’s right, of course. But there’s a burning need within me to put right all the shit he did to her, one way or another.
It’s more than just his betrayal of me that I’m furious about, but the harm he caused her, the callous cruelty he subjected her to because he knew that there would be nothing she could do to escape it.
He might be my son, but no child of mine is going to get away with that, not without paying a steep price.
“Just trust me,” I tell her, and I turn to the door. I’m not even sure where I’m going, what I’m planning when I get there. But I have to do something. Now that I know the truth, I have to make Andreo pay for what he has done.
Not just to me. But to Julia too.