Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“So you’d assault a drunk man.”
“You’re the one telling me to be careful.”
He sighs, running a hand through his hair. He looks so damn young and vulnerable. It makes me feel like a bully somehow.
“I never meant to betray you.” Dario blinks, his eyes glistening, then angrily rubs his cheeks. “Me and Angelica… I never meant to fall in love with her. I’ll admit, I had a crush on her.”
“You did?” I ask, almost smiling. We never talk about this.
A shadow of a grin touches his face. “At the wedding, there I was, some snot-nosed, grumpy kid. She seemed so glamorous. I couldn’t work out why you looked so pissed. She was an angel to me. Then I focused on life and the Family, but she was there when I was ready. She was as surprised as me, and she felt so guilty.”
“She had nothing to be guilty about. It was never real between us.”
“Still, you have a child together, and she took vows.”
Dario gnaws the inside of his cheek, staring at the table. “You should’ve seen what I did to the man who killed her. Gas explosion, that lie we tell. Killed in a war, my woman, my angel… I seriously made him regret pulling that trigger.”
I swallow. Dario’s darkness is even more intense than usual.
“I’m sure you did.”
Dario stands up, walks over to the window, and looks down at the city. His body is tense, looking like he’s ready for violence.
“I think I might’ve fucked up, bro,” he says, sounding so much younger than he is.
He turns and smiles boyishly at me, almost sheepishly.
“I shouldn’t have told her, should I?” He pauses as if he’s going to burp drunkenly. “Not like that, anyway.”
“No.”
“She’ll forgive you, forgive us. She has to.” He walks around the table and stops just short of me. “But you can’t tell her about you and the girl.”
The girl. My hand is shaking, and ugly thoughts flash through my mind.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snarl.
“I’m just staying…” He weaves on the spot, struggling to keep his balance. “You can’t tell her about you and Emma now or anytime soon, maybe for years. This shock is enough. Let her process it. Give her time to make sense of it, or could you?”
“Could I what?” I say coldly.
“End it with the girl?”
I hit the table so hard that the whiskey glass flies off. The bottle falls onto its side, rolls, and stops near the table’s edge.
“She’s not the girl. She’s my future wife.” I’m roaring. I can’t stop humiliating myself with my lack of control. Volcanoes erupt within. Rage burns. “She’s the future mother of my children. She wants it too, so talk about her with some fucking respect.”
Dario almost flinches away from me. I can tell from how he moves, but then anger of his own bulks him up. He steps closer, curling his lip.
“She said that, did she?”
“Right before Rosa came back from checking on you. Right before you ruined everything.”
“You know this girl only wants you for the money,” Dario says, his voice cracking like he might cry. “That’s why she said all that shit. That’s why she pretended to feel the same as you.”
“Out! Now!”
“That’s why—”
I grab him by the front of his shirt and haul him off his feet. He’s almost as tall and big as me, but he’s like a toddler as I shove him against the wall. He grabs my wrist, his eyes snapping open wildly, a flash of fear as he glares.
“Get your fucking hand off me.”
“What we have is real,” I growl. “As real as what you and Angelica had. Disrespect it again, and I’ll forget you’re my brother.”
“Take your goddamn hands off now.”
“Do it, Dario. Disrespect her. Disrespect our relationship. Do it. Do it.”
The fight drains out of him.
“Just let me go,” he says, “and I’ll leave. I don’t want to be here anymore, anyway.”
“You’re lucky nobody heard you talking to me like that.”
“Oh, why, brother?” Dario replies, walking around the table when I let him go. It’s like he wants to put some distance between us. “Would you hurt me?”
“I would’ve done what I had to.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t talk about your relationship anymore. I won’t talk about anything. Not with you.”
“You sound like a sulky child.”
“That’s me.” He strides for the door, snatching up the whiskey bottle. “Just one big overgrown kid. Have a good night.”
I lose control again. I spin and punch the wall, then drop into my seat, panting, gasping, animalistic, and thinking of Emma.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Emma
As soon as we enter the house, Rosa charges through the foyer straight to her mother’s shrine. I yell and try to stop her, knowing she’ll regret whatever she’s about to do, but then she throws herself into the destruction. With a scream, she kicks the leg of the supporting unit. It must hurt like heck, but she doesn’t show any sign of it. She does it again and then starts flinging the thankfully unlit candles everywhere. She smashes the glass in the picture frame, then throws it across the room.