AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You son of a bitch,” I hiss, choking and feeling pain explode through my torso as I try but fail to lurch to my feet.
Massimo chuckles quietly as one of his men leaves the room, the other remaining, standing right behind his boss.
Massimo shakes his head as he grins, his gaze dragging from Gabriel to me and back again.
“I almost didn’t take him,” he sighs. “But, where would the fun be in that? Besides,” Massimo shrugs. “He walked into Roberto Chinellato’s hospital room to check in on that piece of trash just as one of my men was putting an air bubble into his IV drip.” He grins widely. “Roberto’s dead, by the way. I suppose there goes your case.”
I don’t honestly give a shit. Especially when I’m writhing in pain, staring at Gabriel lying almost motionless on the ground.
“It’s touching to see you care so much about a man who is not even your blood,” Massimo murmurs.
Rage bubbles up in my chest.
“Fuck you.”
He shrugs. “But he isn’t, Alistair. As much as you’ve trained yourself to think differently, this man, and his biological parents, and his dear sisters, are not your flesh and blood. They never were, and no amount of good thoughts will change?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think about family, Massimo,” I hurl at him. “Considering yours is pure toxicity.”
He smiles coldly. “Isn’t it, though…”
His eyes turn to Eloise, who’s gone white.
“I know you know, dear wife,” he snarls before his lips curl dangerously again. “But does he?” He nods his chin at me. “Does your little boyfriend here know the truth?”
Eloise is silent, looking stricken as I squeeze her hand.
“What truth,” I growl.
His gaze slides back to me, and his lips curl into a leer.
“It would seem we have a lot to catch you up on, brother.”
35
ALISTAIR
Perspective goes right the fuck out the window when life punches you in the throat.
Every cell in my body wants to deny the word he’s just hurled at me. To ignore it and strike it from the record, as if he never said it at all. I want to laugh in his face for trying to get into my head so blatantly, and so stupidly.
But it’s her expression that gives it away. It’s the pain shattered like broken glass across Eloise’s face and reflected in her wide eyes that brings me to my figurative knees.
Massimo could bellow it a hundred times and I’d never believe him.
Eloise says nothing, and I know in my heart it’s true.
Oh God.
I want to go to Gabriel to see how bad he is. I want to hold Eloise in my arms. I want to spring to my feet, charge Massimo, and rip him apart piece by fucking piece.
I can’t do any of that right now. I can’t do anything but stare at him.
Icy cold wraps around my heart. A sick feeling washes over me as I drag my gaze from Eloise to Massimo. And when his eyes lock with mine, a dam inside me breaks, sending a tidal wave of nausea and resentment and horror crashing over my entire life.
Every memory. Every moment. Every scraped knee, and every triumph.
I look back at Eloise again, but there’s no coming back from this. No erasing it. And when I turn back silently to Massimo again, I know. It’s real.
