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“It’s no secret that your sister has tried to kill herself on numerous occasions.”
She shakes her head. “Nina has struggled with handling her emotions and depression for a long time, but Cathal made her happier than I’ve seen in ages and then he ditched her out of the blue.” Once she gets to me, she prods me in the chest. “Turns out it wasn’t completely out of the blue. It’s because you prompted him to ditch her!”
I grab her wrist. “Don’t be so hysterical. I merely told my friend my honest opinion.”
“Friend?”
My heart skips a beat as I realize I misspoke. As far as Bella is aware, I’ve only met Cathal on a number of occasions.
“We’ve become friends during my time in Washington.”
Her eyes narrow. “I didn’t think you liked him.”
I arch a brow. “What gave you that impression?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is you’ve ruined Nina’s chance at happiness!”
I release her wrist and turn away from her, as I know part of my motivation in warning Cathal of Nina’s affliction was to hurt Nina. After all, I want to hurt all of them, including my wife. “You can’t blame me. You can’t have expected it to work out between them once he realized how she is.”
When I turn around, Bella’s face is beet red, and I know I’ve said the wrong thing. “You fucking bastard!” she shouts. “My sister is a beautiful, kind and loving woman that Cathal would have been lucky to marry!” Bella tries to storm out of the room, but I’m too fast. I get in front of her and block her path.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you. As if everything you’ve done hasn’t been bad enough, you have to ruin my sister’s love life! There’s no way I can stay in here with you. What has Nina ever done to you?”
She’s a Benedetto.
It’s the plain and simple truth of it. I know that’s not an answer I can give, but warning Cathal away from Nina wasn’t entirely selfish. Although I did want to get Cathal away from the family before he recognized me for certain but that ship had already sailed the day we met.
“Stop standing there saying nothing and get the fuck out of my way!”
The dominant part of me wants to force myself on her. Make her stay and do dirty, twisted things to her. And yet, the logical part of my brain knows that what I did to Nina could have burned any bridge that was starting to form between us. “Bella,” I say her name softly, reaching up to tuck a hair behind her ear.
She recoils from my touch. “Don’t touch me.”
“I didn’t do it to hurt you.”
Her entire body shakes with emotion. “You might as well have. Nina is my world, and you destroyed her chance with Cathal.” She launches toward me and slams her fists repeatedly into my chest. “I hate you!”
I catch her wrist and shake my head. “We both know that’s a lie.”
Her eyes narrow to slits. “It’s not a lie. How can you expect me to feel anything but hatred toward you after what you’ve done?”
“I won’t apologize for being truthful to Cathal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Cathal asked me about mine, and I gave an honest answer. If that’s a crime, sue me.”
“You don’t know Nina at all, so how can you be truthful?” She releases an exasperated sigh. “Get out of my way.”
Finally, I relent and step to the side, despite a part of me wanting to bend her over the bed and have my way with her. At least that way, I can use some of her passionate anger. I know doing so might burn any chance of getting things back to how they’ve been over the past few days.
I watch as she rushes down the bridge across the water, fighting the instinct to chase. Bella Benedetto is starting to get under my skin and I fear that she could derail everything I’ve worked so hard for. She’s smart and doesn’t trust me, which makes her lethal.
I need to get a grip and refocus on what is important, which is getting revenge for Aiden’s death; a feat I fear will be easier said than done.
32
BELLA
My feet plunge into the warm water as I leave the sandy shore and I allow the rolling surf to take me in its embrace. The glittering sea is a balm to my turbulent emotions that have been unleashed on learning the truth about Isiah. Fury thrums through my veins as he meddled with Nina’s love life and ripped her away from Cathal.
