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He’s looking for me, I chose to believe. Killian was going to come. He would find me.
“It wasn’t easy to get you this time, with your foolish husband protecting you like a fierce beast. If it wasn’t for Simon, I probably wouldn’t have succeeded.”
In his deranged state, Bishop Romano revealed his plan. Of how he knew of my sister’s affair. And how he fooled a heartbroken Simon to join his side. Turning him against me.
My father was poisonous.
“I was going to wait until you gave birth to that bastard’s child before killing you. I needed the heir to keep myself connected with the Spencer family, but Killian–” He shook his head. “The investigator he had following this case was getting too close to my truth and I couldn’t afford for that to happen. So, I had to choose. The heir I needed or the empire I built with my bare hands?”
He grinned an evil grin. “The decision was easy for me.”
Bishop then went ahead, ranting about how he couldn’t let Killian know the reality of the Romano’s business. The one thing he kept carefully hidden for the last two and a half decades.
The reality of how corrupt he was.
Loan sharking. Money laundering. Weapon and human trafficking. And drugs.
Everything illegal and wrong.
I knew that my father was corrupt and he probably did some shady things under the table, but I thought that was just how high society worked. Corruption bleeds through their veins.
I just never imagined that my father was that bad. Bishop Romano was more than just crooked and shady. He was immoral and his wealth came from filth.
He wasn’t worried about revealing the truth to me. Because it was simple…
I wasn’t getting out of here alive.
And his truth would be buried with me while he continued his illegal business deals.
“How do you want to die, Julianna?” Bishop said, his voice laced with cruelty. It was like staring into the eyes of a rabid animal, his hatred for me written all over his face and I was trapped. He shook with pure malevolence and my flesh crawled.
“Slow and painful? Or quick but still painful?”
“Killian will find out, one way or another.”
My father – no – Bishop cocked his head to the side, giving me an evil grin. “He won’t because I have been careful to cover all my tracks. Simon is your murderer, Julianna. He killed you and then… he committed suicide.” He paused; his brows furrowed – a fake mask falling over his face. His expression turned soft as he feigned innocence. “That’s the story. That’s the truth the world will see. The enraged lover of your dead sister, taking his vengeance on you and then ending his own life. A murder-suicide. And I will grieve, the father who lost both of his beloved daughters.”
Fire, hot and burning like lava, slithered through my veins. I was scared shitless, but I was beyond furious. “I’ve never met someone as cruel as you,” I hissed.
Bishop backhanded me and my head snapped to the side before he gripped my jaw, his fingers digging into my skin. I winced, my face throbbing. “That’s because you’ve never seen the real world, Julianna. You were living under the roof of a made man and called him father. Such naïve. So innocent. Such a foolish girl.”
“You’re sick,” I spat.
He dug his fingers deeper into my flesh and I finally cried out. Bishop released me before taking a step back. “Since you didn’t choose an option, I’ll make the choice for you. Slow but painful.”
“My father,” I told Killian. At his shocked expression, I nodded.
But I never got a chance to tell him all of it – Bishop’s truth – because the next thing I knew, a loud gunshot rang through the house. I flinched, my brain stuttering, and Killian jumped to his feet. My pulse beat with anxiety, frantic and terrified.
He swore under his breath, grasping my hand in his and holding his gun in the other one. “Stay behind me,” he ordered.
Killian dragged me out of the room, shielding my body with his own. There were two more gunshots, except this time… it came from outside of the house.
I swallowed the bile gathering in my mouth and I fought the nausea creeping into my throat. Bishop wasn’t going to let us out of here alive. He had the house surrounded by his men.
We came to a stop in the hallway as a bald man, looking absolutely deranged, rushed toward us, gun in one hand.
Killian released me, only to push me back. He then stepped in front of me, his gun pointed forward and my stomach dropped in fear. He fired a single shot and the man crumpled to the ground.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I choked out a gasp in relief. Killian spun around, reaching out for me again, but he stopped, eyes flaring.
