Chapter Eight #2
Breathe with us. Three simple words that his brothers delivered time and again when they were growing up––sympathetic toward the anxiety that had been Tele’s constant companion until he’d discovered meditation in high school.
“Just breathe with us,” Raph encouraged, he and Neo taking slow, deep breaths, keeping a steady rhythm as Tele followed suit.
They stayed like that, all three working as one to support their most fragile link, until Tele’s vision came back into focus, and the tightness in his chest relaxed.
“Tele, you can talk to us about anything.” Neo was standing next to him, massaging his shoulders now, gently shaking him back to life.
Raph squeezed his thigh. “Come on, whatever this is, we can help.”
Tele sniffled and looked into Raph’s expectant eyes––his loving, protective brother whose trust he’d betrayed. He knew then that no matter what happened, their relationship would never be the same again.
Tele swallowed the lump in his throat, biting back the nausea threatening to cripple him. This wasn’t how he’d imagined telling Raph, and certainly not in front of Neo. But, if he didn’t come clean now, he would be a coward and a liar.
He wrung his hands in his lap. “Rapheus…” he began. “Raph… Helena came to see me in Denver last month.”
Tele could feel Raph’s body go utterly still, and he watched the compassion he’d portrayed a few minutes ago drain from his face.
“Jesus Christ,” Neo whispered, dropping his hands from Tele’s shoulders and returning to his chair.
Raph pulled his hand from Tele’s knee. “What?” His voice was carefully controlled, but Tele could see confusion beginning to build behind his eyes.
Tele wiped his sweating palms down his thighs. “No, well, not me exactly. Well, I mean–– She didn’t come to see me. She was there for work, and we just––”
“You just what?” The temperature in Raph’s voice dropped to freezing, and the tone sharp enough to pierce armor.
Tele’s lips began to quiver. He looked to Neo, the peacemaker, for reassurance, but found only disappointment. He rubbed at the impulsive itch at the side of his mouth.
“You just what, Tele?”
Tele’s silence infuriated Raph as the worst went through his mind. He surged to his feet as betrayal, hot and unrelenting, rushed through his veins. “Is it you?” he snarled, glaring down at Tele. “Have you been fucking her?”
Tele flinched and stared up into his brother’s face. The pain he saw behind Raph’s rage cut through him like splinters. “No! God, no Raph, I swear we haven’t.”
“Then what?”
“What?”
“What do you mean what? What the fuck happened in Denver, that’s what!” Raph barked, memories of Helena’s conversation on his roof creating fresh breaks in his heart.
I’m in love with someone else.
The words rang like sirens in his ears. Filled with a profound sense of betrayal deeper than he’d ever felt before, he paced in front of the fire. He wanted to rip a hole through something.
“I swear to god, Tele, if you don’t tell me what hap––”
“We just talked!” Tele spread his hands. “And––”
“And what!”
“Rapheus, let him speak,” Neo said, just as anxious to hear what possible explanation Tele could have for seeing Raph’s ex-girlfriend behind his back.
“And we just talked, and––”
“Yeah.” Raph snapped. “You said that part already. What exactly did you talk about?”
“Raph, just let him––”
“Jesus, man, I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” Tele’s voice was more defensive than he wished it to be, but god, the fury pouring out of Raph was threatening to cause another panic attack.
“How about the truth!” Raph felt he deserved at least that from someone he’d shared a womb with––shared everything with.
He had lied for Tele, fought his battles, stood by his side, covered for him, time and again with their mom.
His brother’s mischievous nature had always endeared people to him.
But it seemed now that trickery, and not charm, was his motive.
“Tell me the goddamn truth, Telepheus, or a swear to you we are DONE!”
“The truth is I’m in love with her!” It wasn’t supposed to come out like that. Those words were too precious to be used like a weapon against Raph. But his threat had triggered something bone-deep in Tele, and fear that he might follow through on his promise had pulled the confession from him.
Raph halted in front of Tele. “What did you just say?”
“Dear god…” Neo shook his head with disbelief. “Tele, you cannot be serious.”
“But I am.” Tele stared at Neo, his eyes begging, pleading, desperate for someone to understand him, to see the turmoil in his heart, too.
“We are…” He turned his gaze to Raph. “Raph, I’m so sorry.
Please believe me… I never meant for anything to happen.
She was in Denver for a deal and we got lunch, I took her out to a planned site, and––”
The rest never came.
Raph’s fist connected with his brother’s mouth before he even realized he’d pulled his punch, the satisfying crack echoing across the patio.
Tele’s head snapped back, blood blooming on his lips. “What the fuck, Raph…”
For a moment, as he watched his sweet-natured brother dap his swollen lip with the back of his hand, shock and fear in his eyes, Raph regretted the blow. But then those words, I’m in love with someone else, blinded him with bitter rage.
Neo jumped to his feet and positioned himself between his brothers, but before he could get a hold on Raph, he threw himself at Tele, knocking him out of the chair and onto the lawn.
The Adirondack chair fell on top of them, the heavy wood striking the back of Raph’s head, but the pain was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
“Raph!” Neo shouted, his voice a high frantic plea.
Raph heard nothing above Helena’s words echoing in his head. He rose to his knees––the bull inside unleashed––and drove his fist into Tele’s face again. “It’s been you all along!” he roared, striking again, and again. “You, my own damn brother!”
Tele didn’t fight back—didn’t shy away from what he knew he deserved. He simply tried to shield his face from the worst of Raph’s blows, as well as he could.
But Raph wasn’t having it. Tele’s passive acceptance only enraged him more. He collared his brother, picked him up off the ground, and slammed him back into the grass.
“Stop it, Raph! You’re going to kill him! Stop!” Neo grabbed Raph’s shoulders and tried to pull him off Tele.
But Raph shoved him so hard, Neo stumbled back and fell, nearly hitting his head against the granite firepit.
“Fight me!” Raph screamed between punches. “You fucking coward! FIGHT!” he bellowed, his voice thundering until Tele began fighting back, which only seemed to further infuriate Raph.
With his heart thumping against his ribs like a trapped bird, Neo watched the savage brawl unfolding in front of him, his brothers going at each other as gladiators fighting to the death.
“MOM!” he screamed, the sound tearing raggedly from his throat as he scrambled to his feet.
“Mom, help me! Mom!” He didn’t stop until Jordan came running from the house, her face ashen white at the sight of her sons on the grass, tearing each other apart.
Georgia, who’d raced out behind Jordan, made the sign of the cross, and ran back inside.
“Oh my God!” Jordan’s shriek pierced the air as she ran across the lawn. “Raph! Tele! Stop it! Stop it this instant!”
Locked in a battle over a woman they both loved, Raph and Tele were beyond hearing anything outside of their pain, their turmoil––Raph, consumed by the crushing weight of betrayal, and Tele fighting for a future with the woman who had chosen him.
“Raph! Tele! Stop!” Jordan made a dash for her sons, but Neo––now operating entirely on instinct and concern for her safety––grabbed her, and pulled her back.
Just then, Georgia marched back out of the house. Her eyes were wide with fright, but her jaw firm with resolve as she walked up to the Raph and Tele and threw a pot of water over their heads.
Raph froze as he felt the shock of cold water hit him.
The night became deathly quiet as he looked up, as though awaken from a dream, to find Neo, his mother, and Georgia staring at him with horror in their eyes.
He turned, took one look at the damage he’d done to his brother’s face, released him, and stood to his feet.
Jordan rushed to kneel beside Tele, who still lay on the ground, red, swollen, and bloody. “Raph, what in God’s name would cause you to go at your brother like that?” she demanded, her voice shaking with anger and disbelief.
“Ask him!” Raph stormed away blindly, nearly bowling over Georgia, who stood clutching her empty pot.
As he took the lantern-lit path leading away from the house, Raph raked his bloody hands through his hair, pulling until the pain in his scalp matched the agony in his chest.
His ego was crushed. His heart felt like it had been trampled by elephants. He had let himself hope. Let himself believe in love. In vulnerability. And look what it got him. A traitor for a brother. And a woman who had never really been his.
He’d worked so hard to open his heart, to become the man Helena deserved. Months of therapy, of facing his demons, of learning to let his guard down. And for what? So he could be betrayed by the two people he’d trusted most?
At the edge of the property, Raph dropped to the ground, his bloody fists on his thighs, his lips tight, his nostrils flaring, his entire body stiff as a board.
Beyond the sloping hill, Napa Valley stretched into darkness, peaceful and unchanging through the years. But within the Giannopoulos family, everything had fundamentally changed, especially him.
No woman would ever get close enough to destroy him like this again. Never again would he risk this kind of agony. The walls he’d worked so hard to tear down sprang back into place, sturdier, and more fortified than ever before.
Wondering what to read next? Dive right into Seduced by Passion, Book 1 in the steamy Billionaire Island Brides series.
A heart-wrenching, epic saga to make you believe that even in the darkest moments, love is possible...
Billionaire real estate developer Rapheus Giannopoulos has a reputation for being emotionally void and unavailable.
When it comes to women and dating, he has always kept it casual.
But Raph is forced to navigate through a sea of mixed emotions when his grandfather’s deathbed confession about family secrets sends him into a world and to a family he knew nothing about, and to a woman who brings him to his knees.
In business, Hotelier Xiomara Davenport exudes confidence.
Not so in relationships. She has been used, betrayed, and humiliated by men who promised to love her.
Behind the walls that surround her heart, Xio has all but given up on love.
But both her confidence and defenses are shaken to the core when a rival threatens to destroy the life she has built, and a handsome stranger makes her question what she thinks she knows about herself.
Will Raph and Xio surrender to the irresistible pull between them, or will the truths they uncover forever keep them apart?
“…a heartfelt, sensual, and mature romance that explores love, legacy, and healing. With compelling leads, a breathtaking setting, and just the right balance of heat and heart, Ana E. Ross delivers a strong series starter that leaves you eager for more stories from the island of Akilina. If you enjoy slow-burn billionaire romances with real emotional depth and cultural richness, this one is worth your time.”
-The Bourbon-Sipping Bibliophile
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