Page 203 of Vicious Intentions
And that’s when I realize my sister won’t stop until she’s killed him.
“No!”
Pure panic explodes through me as I slam my heel down onto Marcello’s foot and drive my elbow back into his stomach as hard as I can. His hold loosens just enough for me to wrench myself free.
“Shit!” Stella curses.
I throw myself toward Matteo just as another wave of daggers slices through the air.
The blades miss his heart by inches, but not by enough. One sinks into his shoulder. Another into his abdomen. Another tears into his thigh.
Matteo crashes onto his side on the marble floor with a guttural cry that rips something apart inside me, the daggers jutting grotesquely from both his chest and back.
“Stop!” I sob, dropping to my knees beside him. “Please! Don’t hurt him! Please!”
My hands shake as I press desperately against his wounds, blood pouring through my fingers faster than I can stop it. My heart feels like it’s dying right alongside him.
Matteo looks up at me with devastated eyes, like he already knows this is the last time he’ll ever see my face.
No! No! No! No! No!
“Don’t leave me,” I whisper brokenly as his blood coats my hands. “Please… don’t leave me.”
His trembling hand rises to cradle my cheek.
“Ti amo, vita mia,” he chokes out.
Then his eyes slide shut, like he used the last of his strength just to remind me that his heart will always be mine. In death as it was in life.
“No!” I cry, pulling him against my chest.
Someone is talking behind me. Stella maybe. Marcello too. But their voices sound far away, muffled beneath the roaring agony ringing in my ears.
I’m too numb to understand any of it.
Too cold.
Too empty.
It’s only when Marcello crouches in front of me and grabs my face that the world comes back into focus.
“We need to leave, Anna,” he says urgently. “Can you walk?”
My tears are answer enough. I can’t move. Can’t think. Not when my heart feels like it died with his.
“Okay,” Marcello murmurs, lifting me into his arms. “We got you. Shh. Don’t cry. We got you.”
But my grief is far too monstrous to be soothed by words.
Stella rushes toward the back exit while Marcello carries me after her, and over his shoulder, I catch one last glimpse of my husband lying motionless on the marble floor, blood pooling beneath him.
And with that final glance, I know I’ll be joining him soon enough.
Till death do us part.
That had been the vow I made him on our wedding day.
It will also be the only promise I’ll ever break.
