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PROLOGUE: GIOVANNI
I prefer a real villain to a false hero.
I’m not quite sure where I once saw the quote, but today it resonates for me.
I’m not a good guy, never have been, never will be. I’m a true villain. And yet, I have to be Winter Chastine’s greatest hope right now.
Because while I’ve done a lot of things, I never lied to her.
And now that the truth is in the air, the bloodline and lineage exposed…
The only thing that would be more sound than my words are a paternity test, and I already had those cooked up.
Now I have my little pawn exactly where I want her, and I’m going to use her to take down the man who ruined everything for the family.
Maddox Hawthorne.
Winter’s biological father.
The man so sick that he fucked his own sister and conceived a child.
The man so sick that he killed said sister.
Only months after he killed my father.
False alliances, fake smiles, pretty lies.
We’ve been building up to this climax.
While Maddox may think himself the hero of his own story, I take pride in being the villain in mine.
Everyone remembers the villain after all.
CHAPTER ONE: WINTER
When the truth comes for us, she never lies.
“You’re my brother.”
Diamond Hawthorne’s face twists at my words and I know he thinks I’m lying, but the evidence…
“I think you’ve lost it, Winter,” Diamond eyes me warily. In the background, music thumps for the strippers to dance to, butnothingis thumping wilder than my heart.
“No,” I tell him, pulling my hands onto my arms and rubbing them. But I can’t get rid of the chill that has covered my body since Giovanni revealed the truth to me.
“You’re my cousin,” Diamond states, his words firm, confident. He leans forward on the couch that he’s sitting on, spreading his legs wide. That toothpick that always sits to the side of his mouth is bouncing now as he bites down on it. His jaw works and the hand resting on his thigh is clenching.
“I’m that too.”
Sick.
I see it the second what I’m saying clicks in for him and if he’s feeling anything like I did, then I know that it feels as if his whole word is turning. Like he’s going to throw up the whole contents of his stomach.
That’s exactly what I did on Giovanni’s office floor when I realized he wasn’t lying.
Diamond shakes his head, the denial slipping easily from his lips. “There’s no fucking way,” he spits out. “That would mean…” his sentence trails off and he shakes his head even harder, “my father would never…”
“Apparently, he did.”
