Chapter 77
THEA
Blood splashes over my face, coating my skin and infiltrating my nostrils, choking me.
“Are you okay?” Massio asks, his gaze searching mine. “Baby, look at me!” He turns my face toward his. “Are you okay?”
I nod.
But how can I ever be okay?
My mother’s brains are splattered over the crisp white bedsheets, and my father is howling as blood pours from a wound in his stomach.
“Is she dead?” The words come out emotionless.
In truth, I’m not sure what to feel.
Massio’s lip quirks. “Yeah, baby, she’s dead.”
“You slept with her,” I whisper, hating how vulnerable I sound.
Massio drops his head, then moves to sit on the bed beside me. “I was married to her as a teenager, Thea.” He shakes his head.
My breath hitches. “Was I always just revenge for you?”
Hurt sparks in his eyes as he reaches over the bed to take my hands in his.
“I was a dumb kid, but I can with all honesty tell you I’ve never felt about anybody the way I feel about you.
You’re everything to me, baby, and I promise I’m going to show you.
I just need you to give me that chance.” The sincerity pours from him in unadulterated waves.
My heart swells, and my throat becomes drier than ever before. Am I an idiot for wanting to believe him?
“Please?” he mumbles as his thumb brushes over my skin.
“No more secrets?” I whisper.
“None,” he says with confidence.
“No more lies.”
“Absolutely no more,” he confirms.
He cups my face in the palms of his thick hands. “You, my little brat, are my everything. Now it’s time I show you.”