31. Raphael
Raphael
31
Ihoped the Triad member had been lying about the kidnapping, but the silence in the penthouse when I return confirms he was telling the truth. Still, I rush into my home eagerly and shout out their names as if I expect them to be there.
“Lily! Mei!”
Turning the corner, I freeze when I come face-to-face with the last person I would ever expect to see standing in my kitchen as if she owns the place.
“Emilia?”
She looks at me with a huge smile. “Oh good, you’re home. I was just about to make a pot of coffee. Unless you prefer tea? I’m not sure which is your favorite, but I’ll learn.”
“Emilia?” Michael repeats when he joins us in the kitchen. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well, I was hoping for it to be a surprise, but I wanted to have dinner with Raphael.”
“What? Why?” I ask.
“So we could get to know one another better before we marry of course.”
I hear Michael softly curse behind me. I don’t blame him. Hearing her say the same thing repeatedly is becoming annoying, and I’m growing tired of it. No. I am tired of it.
“Listen to me closely, Emilia, because this is the last time I will say it.” My voice is low and even and clear so she doesn’t mistake a word I say. “We are not engaged, nor will we ever be engaged. Do you understand me?”
A look of disappointment washes over Emilia’s face, swiftly replaced by a flash of anger in her eyes. “Why not? There’s no one holding you back now.”
No one?
A foreboding sensation crawls up my spine, spreading a chilling feeling across my body. I left Lily and Mei here alone and safe. But now they’re gone, and Emilia is here. Something that shouldn’t have been possible. Because I made sure the penthouse was locked down before leaving.
“How did you get in here, Emilia?”
“The guard downstairs was nice enough to let me up.” Emilia shrugs a shoulder like it’s no big deal. Only it is a big deal. The guards are under strict orders not to let anyone upstairs. Not even the Pope himself in all his grand holiness is allowed.
My eyes snap to my brother. He nods and pulls his phone out to message Enzo to pick up the guard and find out what exactly happened.
“What are you really doing here?” I ask, my tone grave.
“Like I said, I’m making—”
“The truth, Emilia. Now,” Michael orders, and the girl shivers at the authority in my brother’s tone.
“I am telling the truth.”
Alright. I’m done with this.
Lunging forward, I wrap a hand around Emilia’s throat and shove her back into the fridge. She hits the stainless steel door hard enough that she cries out. I said I would never lay a hand on a girl, but I can’t bring myself to care. At this moment, she’s not a girl; she’s just someone who knows what happened to Lily and Mei.
“Where are Lily and Mei?” I shout. “What did you do? Tell me!”
Emilia scratches at my hand, desperately trying to get me to release her as her face grows more red from lack of oxygen.
Michael comes up beside me and rests his hand on my arm. “Brother, release her. We need her alive.”
An unfortunate necessity, but he’s right. If she dies, so does what she knows.
With a last squeeze, I release Emilia and take a step back, watching as she crumples to the floor in a fit of coughing. When it subsides, she struggles to stand, but neither of us attempts to help her.
“Start talking, or I’ll send you back to Italy in a box,” I threaten, my words hard as steel so she understands how serious I am. I don’t care if it starts a war with her father and half of Italy. She is somehow responsible for Lily's and Mei’s kidnapping. I know it.
Emilia visibly swallows hard. “She was in our way, Raphael.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What did you do?”
“When I found out who she was, who she belonged to, I—”
I lunge at her once again, and she shrieks, cowering away, trying to find safety behind the island. Finally, she’s afraid of me.
Michael stops me before I can make contact, and with a growl, I shake him off and step back. “It was you? You gave her up to Xiao?”
“I didn’t give her up. I gave her back to him,” Emilia answers. “You can’t keep his family hostage here.”
“Are you fucking delusional?” Frustration overwhelms me because I shouldn’t have to explain this to her. “I rescued them from Xiao. I rescued them from an abusive asshole, who you’ve now given them back to. You stupid girl!”
“I didn’t know,” Emilia says in a meek voice. “I just wanted her gone so we could be together.”
“Un-fucking-believable!” I shout at the ceiling.
Enzo returns, bursting into the space like a tattooed blond hurricane. “That fucking guard must have been bribed because the bastard dipped out the second he let Emilia up. I have our men searching for him. They’ll bring him in.”
“Talk, Emilia,” Michael orders. “What exactly happened?”
Tossing a wary look at me, Emilia sits on a barstool at the island and explains, “After they passed out, I called the number Xiao’s men gave me, and then I met a group of them downstairs in the elevator with Lily and Mei. They took them, and that was it. I swear. I promise that was it.”
I grab a vase of flowers from a nearby table and throw it across the room. It shatters into a million pieces, mirroring how my soul and heart feel at this moment.
Lily trusted me. She trusted me to keep them safe, and the first time I leave them really alone, she’s taken back to that abusive, sick bastard.
If I can’t keep them safe…do I even deserve them? Do I deserve to be happy?
Michael rests his hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my dark thoughts. “I know what you’re thinking, brother, and you can stop that right now.”
Enzo approaches on my other side. “I have Evie already searching through cameras, tracking the car they left in. We’ll find out where they went.”
“Uh, excuse me. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just be going now,” Emilia says as she starts toward the elevator.
Enzo intercepts and grabs her wrist. “I don’t think so. You have quite a lot to answer for.”
Emilia tries to pull her arm free but with no success. “Let me go, you brute! This is no way to treat a lady.”
Enzo barks out a laugh. “That’s funny. I don’t see a lady here.”
“Take her back to the house and update our dad. We’ll be there soon.” Michael directs our friend.
Enzo leaves with a screeching Emilia, and the silence that follows is deafening and too large for the space. Funny how the mere presence of Lily and Mei in my home has drastically changed it to where I can’t remember what it was even like before.
“We’ll find her, Raphael,” Michael says with a level of confidence I wish I felt right now.
“We have to, Michael. They’re my family, and I won’t lose them. I can’t.”