“Enough!” Salvatore barely raises his voice, but everyone hears it all the same.
The room falls silent.
“Start talking,” he grits out.
My brother's jaw tightens before he looks directly at me.
"I'm sorry, Liliana,” he murmurs, his gaze dropping. “I knew our father was capable of terrible things. I just didn't think he'd take it this far."
Pain flickers across his expression.
Rafaelle's voice is cold.
"Where is my daughter?"
The fact that he refers to her as just his hurts more than I’ll ever admit.
Santiago replies to him after a beat, "He has her at one of the old properties north of the city."
Nobody speaks. Nobody moves.
Then Salvatore asks the question everyone is thinking.
"Why are you providing us with this information?"
For the first time since arriving, Santiago smiles. It's bitter and ugly. The smile of a man carrying old wounds.
"Because I've spent years waiting for someone to kill Ignacio Navarro. And now that there’s a chance, I have no intention of letting him go scot-free."
Shock ripples through the room.
"He is your father," I whisper.
I hate him and want him dead as well but Santiago and I are not the same.
His gaze finds mine. Hard and Unforgiving.
"You think finding out you have a monster for a father is difficult?"
My stomach twists. Santiago continues before I can respond.
"I’ve lived with him my whole life, and I’ve had a front row seat to the levels of his cruelty. When Gavin was seventeen, Ignacio sent him on a job."
The room grows quieter.
"He knew it was compromised but he didn’t care,” he chuckles darkly and without humor. "Do you know what my little brother wanted more than anything?"
Nobody answers.
"He wanted our father to be proud of him."
My chest hurts. So bad. For a sibling, I’ll never get to meet.
"He spent years trying to earn Ignacio's approval."
Santiago swallows.
"And he died for it."
