Page 35 of Secrets of the Brother
Why should I if I was once again in his arms? Why should anything else matter?
I inched up onto the balls of my feet, desperately, with every fiber of my being, wanting all of that to be true. I truly wanted nothing else to matter.
But it did.
I fell back to earth.
Everything about this was wrong.
If I gave in to him now, I would be forever lost.
Where would be my self-respect? My self-worth? My sense of self, if I sent him the message that this was even the slightest bit okay?
I stepped back, breaking his hold. “No. You don’t get to twist this into something romantic, Enzo. You made your choice. You don’t get to toss me aside, break my heart, and then stop me from finding love with someone else by using your money and power to fucking spy on me!”
He reached for me again, but I avoided his grasp.
He turned away in anger then pivoted back to face me.
He gestured wildly with his arm. “You don’t think I wanted to be a better man? To be the kind of man who could let you find happiness in someone else’s arms? I wanted that for you, Bianca. God, how I fucking wanted that for you. I couldn’t do it.”
He thumped his fist against his chest. “You’re mine. You were always meant to be mine and you always will be mine. Nothing that has happened will change that.”
Bile burned the back of my throat.
It was no secret my sister had trapped Enzo into marriage by tricking him into bed and then claiming to be pregnant. A pregnancy that had been a lie. My mother had confessed it to me in a drunken moment the night she called to tell me Renata was dead. She had let that secret andmuch worseslip.
I had assumed Enzo finding out about the fake pregnancy had caused the tragic fight which led to her death. It was an obvious conclusion.
Now a more sinister motive was becoming disgustingly clear.
I backed further away. Casting a glance over my shoulder, I eased toward the front door. “Did you kill Renata to be with me?” I asked, the words barely above a whisper, as if saying them too loudly would make them even more true.
“That was what I was trying to tell you yesterday.I didn’t kill Renata.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I swear to God, I didn’t kill your sister.”
“Don’t bring God into this. God has no place in this conversation, Enzo. Did you kill my sister so that we could be together?”
“No. I’m not going to stand here and say that it hadn't occurred to me.” He let out a frustrated sigh and looked away for a moment. “Your sister… she did something pretty fucked up right before she died, and it pissed off— You have to trust me, baby. There are things about your sister’s death that involve some very dangerous people, and to tell you anything else would put you at risk. All I can say is that it wasn’t me,” he finished in a rush.
I must be a fool because I believed him.
I couldn’t decide if I believed him because Itrulybelieved him, or because I desperatelywantedto believe him.
I knew Enzo was no saint.
I also wasn’t stupid.
I knew he had done violent things.
There were rumors about his family.
Yet, even with his betrayal of my privacy, I couldn’t make myself believe he was truly capable of beating Renata to death like that. And what he said did track with how suspicious my parents had been acting.
Either way, it didn’t matter. We were still done. Everything about us was tainted, toxic to the core. No relationship could survive after so many secrets and betrayals.
