Ruthless Monarch

It hurts when I cross my arms at my chest, but the move makes me feel safer, tougher as I fire back at him.

“You are an animal who tried to kill him. You deserve everything coming to you. But the innocent women you wish to hurt . . .” I take a deep breath in, trying to calm the emotions inside me. “They don’t deserve that. Are you really willing to give them that fate?”

“Like you care about the innocent.”

“Whatever my father told you . . .” My eyes fill with unshed tears at the memory, at all the lies I have told. “There is more to it. Let me explain.”

“I don’t want to hear anything from you.”

“Then you will hear from me.” Matteo steps up, and something is gleaming in his hand. A knife. Not just any knife at that, this one looks like a kitchen cleaver.

I’m about to say something to him, object to this form of torture. No matter what Jonathan did to me, he’s still my best friend’s brother. But Matteo shakes his head at me, knowing full well what I was about to do.

“Were you always working for my cousin?” Matteo asks.

Jonathan refuses to answer.

“Fine. You want to play it that way, that’s cool, but I’ll get you to talk . . . eventually. Tell me this, before the fun starts. What was the plan? Or did you even have a plan? Was it just to kill me?”

“I was going to kill both of you, actually.”

“Jonathan—” I start, but then I don’t know what to say. He just admitted to wanting to kill me. How do I even explain everything I have ever done was to protect him and his sister? I step closer to him, ready to say more. To tell him everything I’m sure my father didn’t when I hear a scuffle and footsteps.

Jonathan’s eyes go wide, looking over my shoulder to where the sound is coming from.

There, walking with tape over her mouth, is Julia. I bolt out of the cell and toward my friend. My hands lift as I push Roberto off her. The moment I make the movement, I realize my mistake, and pain radiates through me from the gunshot wound.

“What the hell are you doing, Roberto?” I turn to face Matteo. “Why is she here?” I scream at my husband. There better be a good reason, or he will be my soon-to-be ex-husband.

“What the fuck are you doing with her?” I say again, and this time, Matteo approaches me, hands raised, like he’s an animal trainer trying to wrangle in a wild beast.

“You thought she was innocent?” Matteo asks, clearly perplexed by me, and when he realizes I did, his eyes soften in sympathy. I really have no one but him who cares about me. He reaches his hand out and takes mine in his, then he squeezes it gently. “She’s been working with her brother the whole time.” His voice is lower than normal, treating me like a wounded bird that might fly away.

“Is that true?” I ask my friend, a woman who has basically been my sister.

Roberto rips the tape off. “It’s true.” Julia smirks. The betrayal stabbing me in the heart.

“But—” A lone tear betrays me by falling down my cheek. “Why are you doing this?”

“You took my life. You took my mom. You killed her. You are the reason she is dead. Your father told us everything. Every day for twelve years, you betrayed me. You looked in my eyes and betrayed me. You are despicable, and I only wish I knew sooner. Because then I would never have allowed myself to love you.”

Every emotion I thought I would feel at this revelation is completely wrong. The pain I feel of hurting her morphed by the anger and hatred I feel toward my father right now.

In the end, he used them.

He used my friend in a convoluted plot to kill my husband and get back at me for going against him.

“He lied to you.”

“Cut the shit, Viviana. Why else would you be at his beck and call? It’s because you killed my mother, and he was covering up your secret.”

“Because your mom isn’t dead.”

42

Viviana

* * *

“W-what do you mean?” Julia stutters, her voice weak, and her lips pale, teeth rattling.

“She is alive. He’s been lying for years.”

“But then, how do you know?” Jonathan spits out from behind me, and I turn to face him.

“My father told me. He threatened me and showed me the papers to prove it.”

“How long? How long did you know my mother was alive and not told me?”

“Not long. I found out by chance. I don’t think he planned to tell me. But when I told him I wouldn’t marry Salvatore, he did. That’s when things got bad. Really bad. My father—I had no choice but to agree to his terms. If I helped him in his plot, he wouldn’t hurt her. He has been blackmailing me for years. For different things. But this was the worst. He threatened to stop her treatment. Threatened to put her out of her misery. Threatened to stop supporting you. I didn’t know what to do. I had no one.”