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The pain in my chest eased slightly. The Royals were all complicit in my sister’s death for standing by and doing nothing in face of her torture.
“But Owen Thasher, Levi Thompkins, Wesley Hill, and Giovanni Natale went far and beyond.” I narrowed on the handsome Giovanni, his long black hair piled in a bun on his head. It should look stupid, but instead the guy appeared as if he rolled off the pages of Italian Vogue. “You were kind not to ask, but I want you to know, Rafael. Understand why I have to do this, and won’t stop until it’s done.”
Nails clutching, then piercing my shirt, I lifted the words directly off Winter’s letter. “Giovanni Natale seduced her. Spinning pretty, sweet lines. Telling her she was smart and beautiful while everyone was calling her a filthy slut. Saying he wanted to love and protect her while Royals made her life hell.
“Winter didn’t buy it at first. She said she wasn’t interested and rejected him over and over. Giovanni could’ve gold-medaled in persistence. For two months, he pursued her. He cursed out the Royals and defended her. He wore her down with the nice-guy routine, playing it to perfection,” I said roughly. “His final performance—the grand gesture. He dressed up as one of her favorite characters, Cyrano, and serenaded her in the café while the school’s band played.”
Rafael nodded along. He knew this part.
“He was so sweet and... Winter was so lonely, she relented and started dating him.” I opened and closed my mouth, fighting to get the rest out. “I could go into the whole thing, but all that matters is how it ended. With Giovanni dumping her in the middle of a party, his true girlfriend under his arm. He told her, and everyone there, that he never loved Winter and only got involved with her on a dare to see if she was really as dirty in bed as everyone said.
“The rotted, maggot-infested carcass of a human being spilled the details of their sex life to everyone in the room. He was still yukking it up for his friends when she ran out crying.”
Rafael let out a low, furious hiss.
“I wish it ended there,” I said, tone as dead as my soul. “What Levi did to you, and what you did to him in return, didn’t teach that guy a damn thing. He set your place on fire to force you guys out into a brutal beating. For Winter, he paid the security guards to ignore calls for help like he did the other night with me.
“Winter was walking back to the dorm late one night when a girl ran up to her, bawling that her friend crashed her bike and messed up her leg. She begged Winter to help carry her friend to the infirmary. And the good person that Winter still was, she rushed to help without a thought, and ran straight at the eight girls Levi paid to beat her black and blue while he watched.”
“Fucking hell,” Rafael breathed, dropping his head on the bark. “Dammit, Winter. Why didn’t you say?”
“I’ve asked myself that so many times. She had me, Mom, Jack, and now I know she had you guys too. But Winter didn’t feel that way. I was in France. Mom and Jack were off traveling, island-hopping, and enjoying married life with the kids out of the house. Maybe she thought we were happy, and she couldn’t make us all come rushing home to fight her battles. Whatever she thought, she was fucking wrong!”
I gasped, tossing my head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“Don’t,” Rafael sliced in, squeezing my hand. “Be angry at her, Luna. Scream and curse and cry. She told you everything... when it was far too late. Of course it makes you mad.”
“I can’t be mad at her. She was hurting. In pain. She—”
“You can list all the reasons you shouldn’t be angry, but emotions don’t listen to reason. You’re feeling it anyway, so let it in, so you can get it out.”
I didn’t say anything for a long time. “I do want to let it out,” I whispered, “but not toward her. My rage is solely reserved for those three, and their two friends waiting for me in the hospital. I will get it out—leech the poison, so they can choke on it.”
“That’s always been my way.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“Because it’s day one, darling.” Rafael straightened, laying his arm around my shoulder. It didn’t cross my mind to move it. “The fun begins.”
“With who?”
“Wesley Hill.”
I nodded, grim satisfaction taking hold of me as the sandy-haired guy across from Giovanni typed on his phone. “The beast who arranged for Winter to get into accidents. Sabotaging her bike brakes, messing with her food, fucking with her car. Her car skidded into a ditch and she broke her arm because of him.”
