2. Kaz
My wife hates me.
No. Caelia hates her husband, and I am the man who looks like him. Like her soon-to-be-dead husband—a fact I’m not willing to share with her. Possibly. It depends on how Mattia plays his cards.
I’ve told him the truth; what he does with it is up to him. This was not how I was going to play this. I’ve worked out all the scenarios in my head except for one. I didn’t anticipate that my brother’s wife would be a gorgeous creature filled with rage that would leave me breathless the second I saw her.
I was always intrigued by her. It didn’t take long for that to turn into an obsession. I’ve always been drawn to how she carries herself gracefully, even in photographs. She’s the kind of woman who makes heads turn, hearts flutter, and dicks hard, and she’s unaware of it. I felt a connection to her even before I met her. I envied Mattia for being her husband, thinking that he was someone she could always rely on to protect and worship her. That he was a partner to her. A friend. A confidante who was going to be there for her through thick and thin. This part of the plan was simple. Take her. Own her. I’ve tried to convince myself that it’s a bad idea and that she’s way too young to be touched by my hands, but her father didn’t care about this when he married her, so why should I?
She loathes it when I touch her. She flinches. She couldn’t stand to even look at me and stared through the window the entire ride instead of speaking to me. It took me a split second to understand that her marriage to my brother hasn”t been a happy one so far.
She jumps out of the car as soon as it stops. I follow, but she’s already several steps ahead of me. I can’t afford to waste time contemplating the mansion or the surroundings. I know the blueprints by heart, but everything is still so fucking new to me. I hurry after her. Some things are just about to change in this house.
“Caelia.”
She stops in the middle of the stairs, throwing me a glance over her shoulder, looking as surprised as me by the sound of her name coming from my lips. Her red hair stops on her lower back, and images with my hand wrapped around it, her head falling back on my shoulder while I fuck her from behind, are invading my mind, making me lose focus.
“What do you want?”
“Am I going to see you later tonight? Do you want to have dinner or?—”
She analyzes me from head to toe, shuddering.
“Are you asking me if I’m in the mood for dinner, followed by rape shortly after?” She laughs—a cold, bitter laugh. “I don’t know what game this is, Mattia, but playing nice doesn’t suit you. I don’t know what’s gotten into you tonight, but we both know it won’t last.”
I’m rarely left speechless. I struggle to find a response, suppressing the anger simmering inside me. What the hell is she talking about? If Mattia weren’t my brother, I’d fucking torture him just for this alone. But he can still decide to be on my side. I have to tread carefully if I don’t want her to figure out something is amiss, but I’m not sure if this is a role I know how to play or want to play. This may be a similar world, but it’s not mine. Nothing is familiar. I can’t trust anyone. I don’t need her on my side. I want her. And I’ve waited for this long enough. I’ll have to make her change her mind about me, although I’m not sure how I will do that after what Mattia did. She’s too young to have her heart broken like this. Too young to bear this much pain.
“Good night, Caelia.”
She raises an eyebrow, turning away when I say nothing else. It’s been a long day. I take a minute to find my way through the house toward where Mattia’s office should be. I have to call my uncle and tell him everything is in motion. I have to tie up some loose ends. And then I’ll come up with a plan to deal with his wife. But that can wait a second longer.
I dial my cousin’s number.
“Did you fucking know?” I demand as soon as he answers.
“Hello to you, too, Kaz. You’ll have to be more specific.”
Fortunately, he isn’t standing before me at this moment. I’d be tempted to pull the trigger, family ties or not.
“Did you know that Mattia was abusing her?”
“Yeah, about that. Listen, Kaz?—”
“You fucking listen to me,” I interrupt him. “You lied to me. And you know how I feel about liars, Vanya.”
“I took a calculated risk.”
I let out a dry laugh. A calculated risk. He obviously didn’t think too much about the consequences. I close my eyes briefly, feeling a pounding migraine take hold, causing my temples to throb.
“I didn’t lie to you,” he goes on. “I simply withheld some information, knowing how you would react. Father decided it was best for you not to know. You’d have rushed the plan, and you’d have made stupid mistakes, and you know it. Kaz, listen?—”
“What the fuck were you thinking, Vanya? Are you trying to sabotage me?”
“Fuck, no! You should know better than to ask me this.”
“I thought I did. How am I supposed to do this if I wasn’t even made aware of how he treated his wife?”
“You’ll figure out a way. It wasn’t essential to the plan.”
“Since when are you the one deciding what’s essential and what isn’t?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. You’re right. But I didn’t want you to rush into this just after you got out. And you would have.”
I end the call, hurling the phone against the framed painting on the wall before me. There were so many pieces of the plan to put together. I took the information Vanya gave me for granted, passed on to him by Sevastyan. I didn’t bother to verify it, shifting my focus toward studying Mattia and training to look, talk, and walk like him. This is long overdue.
I started training to take his place when I was twenty-two. I was ready by the time I was twenty-five, but then the prison sentence came. I didn’t want to linger after I got out, so I sped up everything in one year, and now I’m here. Caelia distracted me too much, so when my uncle offered to gather information about the marriage, I thought it was best to let him do it.
But now I can’t help but wonder what other pieces of information they’ve withheld from me. It takes an entire lifetime to build trust, and then it’s gone, just like that.