I was always alone.
But that would change…right?
ETHAN
Being in love was nice…when it didn’t hurt.
And it often hurt.
It hurt so badly I wanted to tear out my heart just so I could get some relief. It felt as if it—my heart—was turning into itself and cutting me. What had I done? Why was blood on my hands? How much more blood was going to have to be on my hands because of it?
“Who?” Dino hissed as he and Vinnie came to the private ER section of the hospital. “We are not going to ask again, boss. Who?”
Rising from my chair, I stood taller, looking to him. “Remember who you are talking to.”
“And you remember—”
“Dino.” Vinnie placed his hand on his shoulders, and Dino stood straighter and just looked to the ER doors. “What’s her condition?”
“Currently alive but struggling. Story of her life,” I sneered, my fist clenched as I tried to keep my anger in check. “I chose the doctors myself. I know them. No one else is allowed to see her or be near her. If you see a nurse, fucking janitor, anyone, who goes by her room but the doctors who are in that operating room…put a bullet in their skull. Am I understood?”
“You’re going?”
“I have a meeting,” I spat out, walking down the hall.
“Alone?” Vinnie asked.
“They don’t have the balls to hurt me,” I muttered, walking into the private room she’d be brought into after the surgery ended.
I had waited until they came. There was only one way into that ER. And so I had waited at the door until they got rid of Fiorello’s body and came.
Now that I had a moment, I couldn’t help giving in, gripping the sink. I hurled, wishing the images of her bleeding out on the stairs all come out, too. Hunched over the sink, I vomited. And then afterward, I washed my face and stared at my own idiotic reflection.
I had made a mistake.
Thank God for the wind. I was sure my mother was aiming for her skull. But the wind, the heavy pressure cycle coupled with how far away she was pushed the bullet downward. It struck right at the base of where her neck met her shoulder.
The bullet shattered on impact, though.
It was meant to tear Calliope’s organs apart, even if Melody missed.
“Fucking fuckers fuck!” I screamed, punching the glass over and over again until I could barely feel it. Looking down, I pulled the shards from my trembling, blood-covered hands before inhaling and taking a step back.
I exited the room and moved to the elevators.
Smashing my bloody hands on the elevator doors, I went down to one place I knew they would be waiting…most likely for her body. Oh, they were going to get a body for sure.
Walking toward the only room with a light on, I entered to find them all there—my brother, my mother, and my father, around the dead body of Fiorello Orsini.
“Ethan—”
I didn’t wait. I ran up directly toward my father, stabbing him.
“Ethan!”
“Ethan! What the fuck?” Wyatt pulled me back as he fell to the ground.
“Ethan! What have you done?” my mother screamed.