Chapter 34
RAPH
I stare at the two people who betrayed me, knowing this will be the last time I see either one of them.
My father stares at me through that one good eye, his lips jerking like he’s taunting me. I bet he’s afraid. I bet he knows this is it.
“Please, Raph,” Bianca begs from beside him, her arms tied to the back of the chair. “I’m so sorry for hurting you. I’m awful, okay?” She sniffles. “I will do better. I’ll be better. I’ll…uh…disappear for good. I’ll go back to where I was, and you’ll never see me again.”
I bend until my face is inches from hers. “That’s not good enough. She won’t feel safe until you’re dead.” I straighten. “Until both of you are dead.” My gaze jumps to my father. “You wanted to be together. Now, you can die together.”
“Please,” she pants. “I don’t want to die.”
I should feel something. I should feel some kind of regret at what I’m about to do, but I don’t feel a thing.
Patrick hands me a blade. “Take this, son.”
My heart raps against my ribs, ringing in my ears.
This is the first time he’s called me that.
I take the knife he offers, holding his stare.
“End this,” he says. “Take him out.”
And as I look into the eyes of the man who I thought was my father, I lift the blade in the air and slice straight across his artery.
Shock buries deep in his eyes while Bianca shrieks. And he starts to gurgle up blood.
I level a stare at my soon-to-be-dead wife.
“Please! Please just let me go! I beg you! I’ll never bother her again. I promise.” Her voice only irritates me.
“I can’t do that.” I shrug. “Everyone already thinks you’re dead. Now you will be.”
She whimpers, begging me for another chance. But that’s over now. This is the end. As I grab her hair in my fist, our eyes connect, and I bury the knife deep in her throat. She doesn’t stop looking at me as life slips out of her, until she’s finally gone.
Until they both are.
I’m free.
It’s like a weight has dropped from my shoulders.
Nothing is holding me back anymore.
“Are you alright?” Patrick takes the knife from me and places it on the plastic beneath our feet.
“I will be.” I nod once, needing to get out of here. “I have to get back to her now.”
I start for the door, wanting to touch her. To feel her in my arms and wake up beside her.
“I know you do, son,” he says.
I stop, looking over at him.
“But you and I…we should talk. There’s a lot I need to say.”
Me too.
ONE WEEK LATER
With family around me and the woman I love seated on my lap, I’m the happiest man that has ever walked this earth.
Patrick holds Mom’s hand in his lap, kissing her knuckles as he laughs with Michael, Elsie right beside him. Her head falls on his shoulder while she grins at Sophia, who twirls to a song Michael put on.
After Bianca’s death, I closed that chapter of my life, and so did Nicolette.
We still haven’t gone to see her parents.
She’s been afraid to see them again, especially now that we’re together, but I want her to have closure.
I want her to tell them how they’ve made her feel.
And mostly, I want them to apologize. Because no matter what she says to me, I know she’s carrying a lot of hurt that they put there.
Sophia hops over to me and plops down beside me.
“Hey, pretty girl,” I tell her, kissing her on the forehead. “Tired from all that dancing?”
“No way. I’m having the best time. Do you want to dance with me, Uncle Raph?” She flutters her lashes, her poofy pale pink dress hitting my knee.
“Sure.” I grin.
And that feeling of wanting my own child… It hits me whenever I’m around her. I drag in a quiet breath, glad that the music masks my inner turmoil.
“Thank goodness. You’re a better dancer than Daddy, but just don’t tell him that,” she whispers as she side-eyes him.
“I heard that,” Michael teases sternly and he winks at her.
He’s a great father. If he can be, maybe there’s hope for me too. Maybe Nicolette and I can adopt a child of our own one day. It’s something we can discuss when she’s ready.
“Sorry, Daddy.” Sophia shrugs all innocently, then glances back at me. “So will you dance with me?”
“You can’t keep a girl waiting.” Nicolette lovingly shoves me with an elbow.
I gaze at her, overwhelmed with the amount of affection I hold in my heart for this woman.
“Don’t go anywhere.” I drop my lips to hers and kiss her slowly. This feeling inside me each time I do never seems to get old. I hope it never does.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” She sighs.
“Uncle Raph?” Sophia jumps to her feet, propping a hand on her hip as her inquisitive stare bounces between Nicolette and me. “If you get married, can I be the flower girl?”
“Uh, I think if we get married, Uncle Gio wants to be the flower girl.”
“What!” She sharply pivots toward him. “You can’t be a flower girl.”
“And why not?” His brows gather and he raises his chin.
“’Cause you’re not even a girl. Duh!”
“Fine, you got me there, kid.”
Iseult covers up a smile with her fingers, and when she realizes I caught it, her face instantly hardens.
Gio looks up at her from the corner of his eyes, his jaw pulsing.
I haven’t seen those two say one word to each other.
She’s avoided him as though he’s the bubonic plague.
She tried to skip out early after the family dinner Mom arranged, saying she was tired and wanted to return back to the apartment she apparently owns in the city, but her father wouldn’t allow it.
“Speaking of weddings…” Patrick throws in.
“What is it, Dad?” Fionn chugs the rest of his bourbon.
“Well, boys, Fernanda and I are getting married next week.”
“What?” Michael pivots abruptly. “Are you serious?”
Iseult mutters a curse and looks anything but pleased.
“Aye, dead serious,” he tells Michael. “I love your mother. Always will.”
His eyes jump back to her affectionately, and she returns a smile I’ve never seen her wear for our father. Or my brothers’ father. Fuck. This will take some getting used to.
“I lost her once,” he tells the room. “And I’ll never do that again. So if you have a problem with that, Michael, then we will have another reason for war.”
“I don’t—” Michael attempts.
“Pat, no.” Mom shakes her head disapprovingly. “No one will be fighting. You got it, boys?” She pitches both Patrick and Michael a look. “I’m a grown woman, and this is my choice.”
“Can you two let me finish?” Michael shakes his head. “I have no problems with you two getting married. In fact, if you two do get married, then would it be necessary for Gio and Eriu to do the same?”
He gives my brother a knowing glance, and for once, Gio’s face fills with hope.
Patrick laughs. “Clever. But…our deal stands, Michael.” All humor disappears from his face as he continues.
“I don’t want to speak of such topics when I have just announced my upcoming nuptials.
But…” He drags in a sharp breath. “My nephew is still dead. And this is part of the price your family must pay to secure our future bloodline. It’s not negotiable. ”
The way Gio grits his jaw, I’m surprised he hasn’t broken some teeth.
“Excuse me,” Iseult whispers. “Ladies’ room.”
She hurries off, and Gio balls and unballs a fist.
“We will have to choose a date soon,” Patrick says, but Gio’s already marching out of the room.
Sophia watches everyone inquisitively, completely forgetting about the dance I promised her.
“Well, Grandma.” She comes to sit on her lap. “I guess I’m gonna be your flower girl instead.”
“Seems that way.” Mom taps her on the nose with a finger.
While Patrick continues to talk wedding and Mom is preoccupied with Sophia, I tell Nicolette I want to check on Gio. Quietly, I leave the room, walking out into the foyer where I hear his distinct voice, then Iseult’s.
Ah, fuck. What the hell are they doing where anyone can hear them? Marching closer, I make it around the corner, their tense conversation growing nearer.
“We can tell him tonight,” Gio urges. “We can tell your father we want to be together.”
“Are you insane?” She laughs bitterly. “First of all, I never said I wanted to be with you. This is just sex!”
He groans, and his voice deepens an octave. “You fucking liar. I don’t know why you’re denying this, but I won’t let you.”
“Oh, yeah? And what are you going to do about it?”
There’s a sudden thud, and I peek around the corner, finding him with a palm around her throat, his body slanted over hers, pinning her to the pool table.
They don’t see me. Both of them are focused on each other, wordlessly staring at one another with obvious lust. If anyone else had caught them right now, fuck knows what would happen.
“He will disown me.” Her voice breaks. “I can’t tell him.”
“We can try.” He pins his forehead to hers. “I want you. I’m not willing to let you go.”
In all my life, I’ve never seen Gio this crazy about a woman before.
“You don’t understand. My father doesn’t tolerate disrespect, and doing what we’ve been doing, it’s disrespect to the family.
” She keeps her emotions in check, but with every few words, that vulnerability seeps out whether she wants it to or not.
“He’ll throw me out of the academy and out of this family. I’ll have nothing, Gio.”
When he draws back a beat, she squeezes her eyes shut for a moment before she pushes at his chest hard.
“Go!” she whisper-shouts, but he won’t move. “Leave me alone. You don’t mean a goddamn thing to me, do you understand?”
He shakes his head.
“Be with her!” She tries to shove him again. “Be with my sister. It’s what you have to do.”
“I’d rather die.” His fingers cinch her throat tighter.
“Now you’re being dramatic,” she scoffs tearfully.
“Wanna see dramatic?” He slants himself further into her and brushes his lips with hers, then kisses her. Hard. Hands in her hair, hers all over his back.
Yeah…time to stop watching, but I also can’t get my brother killed. Patrick may now be family with me being his blood, but he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Gio for cheating on his daughter.
Before I go, I discreetly knock once on the wall, and Iseult gasps.
Good. Hopefully this gets them to stop. I round the corner and hide when I hear the door open and her high heels snapping against the bare marble floor.
When she’s far out of reach, I march back into the game room, finding my brother in an armchair, face in his palms.
When he hears me walk in, his eyes jump up, but sudden disappointment floods them.
“Not who you were expecting?” I ask as he conceals his face again.
“Not even close,” he mutters. “You’re a lot uglier.”
I chuckle. “Next time you’re practically humping your soon-to-be sister-in-law, make sure there are no witnesses.”
He huffs and lowers his hands. “Fuck, you saw?”
“Mm-hmm. Lucky one of the Quinns didn’t. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t.” He sighs. “I never do when it comes to her.”
“You’re really fucked, aren’t you?” I take a seat opposite him as he gapes straight at me.
“What the hell do I do?”
“You fight. If she means that much, then you fight like hell until you get her, because there’s no other way.”
He nods with an exhausted sigh. “Then that’s what I’ll do.”