Chapter 30 #2
“Oh, come on, Capuleti.” He laughs maniacally. “You’re family. I think you already know where I’m going with this.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. “Your father had my mother killed because she married the enemy?”
“Exactly.” He nods, unwilling to remove the gun from Selene’s temple.
A chill seeps into my bones.
“But they’d already been married for years before she was murdered,” I argue. “Doesn’t make sense.”
“That father of yours was about to become mayor of the largest fuckin’ city in the world. Your mother was going to be in the spotlight, paraded around as the First Lady of New York City. He stole her from us, and he needed to be punished for it. They both did.”
“But…” Intense pressure builds behind my eyes. “She was family.”
“She was dead to the Horan and O’Connell line the second she left Ireland without uttering a single word to her family.” He narrows his fiery gaze. “My father took matters into his own hands and made sure what needed to be done was done.”
I curl my hands into tight fists at my sides. I don’t understand the logic. Not completely.
The anger that overtakes me is debilitating.
“Your father killed my mother” It’s a statement. A final nail in the coffin of what I’ve been trying to dig up for years.
The truth.
“Yes.” He tightens his grip on Selene. “He needed to make a statement to those in the family who might ever consider leaving. The price you’ll pay for betraying one of your own.”
I take a step forward, noticing how Rhys hasn’t let up his hold on Selene. He’s still keeping the gun pressed to her head. The fear in her expression has only deepened over my conversation with Rhys. She’s silent, aside from her quiet sobs, but I see the panic in her eyes.
“I know the truth now.” I hold my hand out. “You can let her go.”
“Not so fast,” Rhys spits out.
The two men flanking me grow closer.
“I need assurance that you’ll let this go. You won’t publish what I’ve told you in that stupid fucking magazine of yours. You’ll call off your staff, coming down to the docks, asking questions.”
“I…” I promised I would follow through on Rhys’s request to let this all go, but that was before I found out his father was behind my mother’s death. She was murdered in cold blood before my eyes because she fell in love with the enemy.
“You listen to me!” Rhys shouts, his anger suddenly consuming him. He shakes Selene and presses the gun harder against her temple. She winces, attempting to tilt her head away from it.
I’m going to be fucking sick.
“My father died years ago, along with the men who carried out his wishes that night at the subway station.” His voice booms through the cold night air.
“There’s no one alive left to pursue ,but I guarantee you that if you expose the truth, I will be the one to pay the price.
While I understand my father’s convictions, that he did what needed to be done, I don’t hold with killing family as he did.
” He glares at me, then turns his head to stare at Selene.
He leans forward and breathes her in before slowly turning his head back to me.
“But seeing how she isn’t married to you yet, and she isn’t family, I have no problem making a statement of my own. Fuck up my life, I’ll fuck up yours.”
I try to take another step forward. I imagine lunging at Rhys, taking him down.
But then I imagine what could happen if I do.
He’ll pull the trigger. I’ll witness the love of my life and my child being torn from me within a matter of seconds.
I’ll see the only future I’ve ever wanted gone.
I’ll see the life drain from Selene’s mossy-green eyes, just like I did my mother’s.
Or perhaps he’ll toss her overboard into the frigid water of the Hudson below us.
Her death would destroy me. It would be the end of me.
Panic overrides all logic. The two men at either side of me grip my arms, holding me back.
I open my mouth to shout at Rhys, but my gaze briefly moves to Selene. She’s breathing heavily, with mascara staining her cheeks. Her hand moves over her stomach, caressing the life growing inside her. She’s silently pleading with me again.
“I love you,” she mouths.
My mind flashes to the memory of her that night on stage. Then again to the night she opened up to me, revealing her darkest secret.
To the promise I made to her.
“Selene is family,” I choke out as a tear slips from the corner of my eye. I inhale a deep breath. “She’s carrying my child.”
Rhys’s eyes spread wide, and his eyebrows shoot high on his forehead before they pull together when he snaps his head in Selene’s direction. His eyes drop to her hands on her stomach.
“You’re lying,” he says quietly, but there’s still a darkness in his voice.
He takes a step back on the bench, putting distance between himself and Selene.
His arm stiffens as he pulls the gun away from her head, but he keeps it pointed at her.
He cocks the gun again, staring at her down the length of his arm and the gun.
My mother’s eyes flash in front of me. The heartbreak, knowing it was the last time she’d see Julianna and me.
“You’re lying, Capuleti,” Rhys repeats in a sinister tone that makes me feel as if my soul is leaving my body. I have no other way to convince him other than my words.
“I’m not.” My voice breaks. I’m hollow and empty. Desperate. “We just found out the other day. She’s pregnant… and she’s the love of my life. So, please…” Another tear spills as Rhys looks up at me. “Please, Rhys. I’ll do whatever you want, just, please… don’t hurt her. She’s my whole world.”
It doesn’t matter the promise I made to myself for all those years to pursue my mother’s true killer. Rhys’s father is dead, and I can’t change the past.
Selene is my future, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her. To keep her safe.
“Say I believe what you’re telling me,” he challenges, sticking out his chin, still skeptical. “You’ll let this go?”
“Yes.” I tear my arm out from one of the henchman’s grip and slap my hand against my chest. “You have my word, as family, that I’ll keep the truth to myself. I’ll let go of the past.”
Selene’s shoulders wrack with heavy sobs. She wraps both arms around her stomach and hunches over. Rhys watches her in silence, then slowly looks up at me.
I hold my breath the entire time, not certain I’m going to survive.
That is until Rhys lowers his arm. He shoves his gun into the back of his black slacks, under his suit jacket. He darts his eyes to his left, sending Selene a silent acknowledgement that she’s free.
Selene takes a breath and steps down from the bench before falling to her knees on the wooden deck. She presses one hand to the wooden planks, keeping the other wrapped around her stomach. Her blonde hair curtains her face as she sobs uncontrollably.
“I’ll hold you to your word, Capuleti.” Rhys glowers at me from under his thick, dark brow. “But don’t think for a moment I don’t have eyes and ears around this city. They won’t hesitate to tell me if they have the slightest inclination of you lying about this or breaking your promise to me.”
Rhys’s men drop their hold on me. I curl my hands at my sides, itching to get to Selene. But I wait, just in case. Just in case Rhys decides to change his mind.
“You have my word.” I steel my chest, holding my breath until I’m almost certain I’m going to faint.
Rhys shoves his black hair off his forehead, then casually buttons his jacket as if he wasn’t just holding a gun to my pregnant girlfriend’s head.
I stay frozen in place, aching to get to Selene. Rhys moves past me, stopping only long enough to grip my shoulder and lean in. “Congratulations, Capuleti. Enjoy fatherhood.”
Then he disappears, with his two henchmen following quickly behind him.
Once Rhys’s hand falls from my shoulder, I’m racing to Selene.
I sink to my knees in front of her. With shaking hands, I reach up and brush her hair away before lifting her face up.
When I see her eyes, I fall apart. My heart is both shattered and pieced together.
I feel relieved knowing her and the baby are safe and unharmed, but I’m left broken over the pain and trauma this has caused.
It’s obvious the memories are playing out in her mind. The terror and fear of what she experienced the day she witnessed her parents’ deaths.
“Holt. I… I t-thought…”
“I know,” I soothe her, running my hands along the side of her face. “I know, Wallflower. You’re okay. We’re okay.”
Tears flow from my eyes.
I can’t hold it in any longer. “I’m so sorry, Selene.”
My voice cracks. My entire world is sitting in front of me, and I nearly lost it.
Selene’s wide, red-lined, green eyes stare up at me. She wraps her hands around my wrists. “Sorry for what?”
I frown, choking back my own tears. “Sorry for putting you in danger.”
“You couldn’t have known,” she strains.
“The thought of losing you…” I start. “Fuck, I was terrified. I thought I was witnessing it all over again…”
“I know.” She hiccups on a sob. “I felt the same way.”
I close my eyes, but Selene implores me to open them.
“You saved us, Holt.” She slides her shaking hand from my wrist to wrap it around my hand. She takes it in hers and guides it to her stomach. “Your promise saved us. You kept your word.”
I tilt my head to the side, and my shoulders drop with relief. I feel drained and alive all at once. I cradle her head in my hand while keeping the other pressed to her stomach. “I told you I would, Wallflower.”
Her lips press together as she inhales a shaky breath. She frantically nods as though the reality of the situation is catching up to her before wrapping her hand around the back of my head and pressing her forehead to mine. “You did, Holt. You did.”
When she presses her lips to mine, I taste her, surrendering my entire body and soul into this one kiss. I wrap my arm around her and pull her close, promising over and over again that this is forever.
I leave the past behind, vowing to never let her go.
And I don’t.