AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now, it’s just our end.
My fingers brush the matted strands of hair away from her face. I know it’s Shelli even if her face is unrecognisable. The name—my name—tattooed on her wrist tells me I’m not wrong. I thought if I just sat here, holding her, I’d eventually wake up and realise this isn’t real. I’m still waiting to wake up, though. She said she had something to tell me, something about the baby. My hand hovers over her stomach. Our child was probably the size of a bean, but it wasours. Hers and mine.
Now, it’s gone.
She’s gone. The baby is gone. My reason for living it’s all gone.
The door to the cabin bursts open, and I look up to see three of my brothers walking through the door before they all stop in their tracks. The shock evident on their faces as they take in the scene in front of them. I don’t say anything.
What can I say?
“What…?” Gio starts to ask, then hesitates. He walks up and squats down in front of me. He eyes Shelli’s body, taking in her beaten face, the dried blood all over her torso, arms, legs, everywhere. “Fuck. Santo, what happened?”
I blink at him. “She said she wanted to talk, told me to meet her here instead of at the hotel.” My voice is hoarse, probably thanks to the fact I spent the entire night screaming at my fiancée to wake up.
“Santo… I…” Gio puts a hand on my shoulder and leaves the rest of his words hanging in the air.
“I found her like this. On the bed. She was… she had no clothes on,” I say.
I wrapped the blanket around her, scooped her body up, and sat on the floor with her head in my lap. That’s where I’ve been the whole night. In this spot.
“Gio?” Gabe bends down and picks something up off the floor. I don’t see what it is. I don’t care. Nothing matters anymore.
“He didn’t,” Gio curses under his breath. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
This has me looking up again. “Who?” I ask.
“Our father,” Gio says, pinching a cufflink between his fingertips. One with the lettersDBembossed on the front. The same one that my father has worn every day for as long as I can remember. I blink. Then I let the coldness take over again.
If I’m frozen, I can’t feel. Not the betrayal, not the loss, nothing but the numbness.
ChapterFive
Iwatch my father pace up and down the entryway of our childhood home. He doesn’t know I’m observing him. I’ve always been good at staying out of sight. It was the key to my survival growing up in this house.
Right now, something is really fucking off with the old man. I’ve seen him nervous, and I’ve seen him angry, but this? Whatever it is, it’s nothing I’ve ever witnessed before. It’s like he knows something or someone is coming for him. And he’s waiting for it.
My phone vibrates in my hand. I look down and see Gio’s name flash across the screen. “Yeah?” I breathe out.
“You still with Dad?” he asks me.
“Yeah. Something is really off, Gio,” I tell him.
“Who else is at the house?”
“There’re a few soldiers outside. Maybe five.”
“Get rid of 'em. Tell them to head to the church or something.”
“Why? What’s going on?” I question him.
“Just get rid of them, and make sure the old man doesn’t leave. I’ll be there in thirty,” he says.
I walk out the side door and find two of my father’s soldiers standing guard. “Hey, man, I need you all to head over to the church.”
“Now?” one of them asks.
I raise an eyebrow. I might be the youngest De Bellis brother, but a De Bellis I am. Gio has tried his best to keep me out of my father’s world. Little does he know I’ve stepped farther into the darkness than any of my brothers realise.
