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Still.
It fucking hurts.
Because you never expect the people who love you to turn their backs on you.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Real loyalty means staying true to the person even if they are not around.
Otherwise, is there a point to it at all?”
Florian
Florian, eleven years old
“This is so exciting,” Mom says to Dad as they sit opposite me inside the car flying through the iron gates, speedily moving toward my godparents’ house. “I can’t wait to meet their little girl.”
My hold on the bouquet of roses in my hands tightens while I look through the window at the rapidly changing scenery as worry washes over along with nervousness.
Aunt Esme has been a train wreck ever since Santiago got kidnapped, refusing to leave the house and barely eating, so I had to make sure she was okay.
I came to their house every single day and had lunch after school with her, talking to her and allowing her to temporarily forget about her grief.
It hurt my heart to see her devastated like this, but we all hoped for Santiago to come back.
Thinking otherwise…is not an option.
However, when she got pregnant…something changed.
She became happier—well, as happy as she could be under the current circumstances, and their grim home brightened up. She even brought flowers inside and started to paint again, spending more time in the garden.
She still refused to leave her home, and part of me knows she won’t ever do it unless Santiago magically shows up on their doorstep.
“Yes. We have a goddaughter now.” Dad places his splayed palm on Mom’s stomach and gently rubs it. “While they will have a new godson soon.”
“Maybe they’ll be friends like Santiago and Florian.”
“I don’t think Lucian would want my son to be his daughter’s best friend.” I smile because the thought of having a sibling fills me with happiness. The baby should be here in seven months.
“We might have a girl.”
“My love, that’s simply impossible. We don’t produce girls.”
At first, when they announced the upcoming addition to our family, I was nervous and dreaded it. Frederick never loved me, and I didn’t want another sibling who’d hate me.
But then I wondered if Frederick behaved this way because our mother acted horribly and Mom—Calliope—she loves me.
She would never allow us to have a bad bond.
My mood sours when I think about Elizabeth—the bitch from hell as I call her internally, and among my friends, but never around my parents. She’s been harassing us all this time, trying to get money and smearing our reputation left and right.
She’d show up in the most unexpected times and even faked loving me and lied about how Dad kept her from me. She almost kidnapped me once, but Mom got to me in time.
None of the men in my family care about her behavior, but I know Dad worries, and so do I. We don’t want Mom to leave us because of her.
She pays a huge price for loving us, and what if someday she has enough? She’s a rich heiress too, and Nonno always tells her he’ll accept her with open arms when she drops that unworthy husband of hers. I heard him once muttering that if one more journalist calls her an ugly gold digger who scored a lucky lottery, he’s going to order a hit on them.
I do not doubt his words, especially when one of them ended up in the emergency room shortly after.
