Page 50 of The Casella King

“I wasted my fucking youth on a goddamn coward like you,” I grip the knife tighter in my hand. “And all it took for you to decide I wasn’t worth it was my drunk father?” The rage builds and climbs within my chest, until I’m back there, in my wedding dress, crying in the middle of a field.

That isn’t love. I may not know exactly what love is, but that’s not it. Someone who loves you should be someone who would never leave you, even if they had to take on the world to have you. It wouldn’t matter who you’re related to or what type of person they are.

“If you didn’t want to marry me, why did you object when I was about to marry Ezra?” I question.

“That’s complicated.”

I grip the knife in my hand and move it to rest the blade on his neck. “Does this make it less complicated?”

He swallows, the knife bobbing against his Adam’s apple.

“Okay, okay,” he pants, his eyes moving from my hand that grips the knife, up to my eyes. “I knew of Ezra long before you were about to be married to him.”

My brows pull in. “How long?”

“Years,” he sighs, looking away from me. “I may have worked with his enemies to attempt to get him locked up.”

I pause, standing up and removing the knife from his throat.

“I can’t believe I wasted so many years on you.”

“That’s on you.”

Tears sting the back of my eyes, but I don’t relent. Clenching my jaw, I take a deep breath. “You never knew me.” I wait for a response, but he stays silent.

There’s a long pause before either of us speaks.

“Your father owed money to them. He gambled away his fucking life savings down to a box of beer.” He snickers. “Pathetic.”

“I couldn’t taint my name by being associated with you anymore,” he admits. “That’s why I slept with Heather.”

My eyes snap shut at his confession, and although I had a feeling he had slept with my best friend, I always squashed it down and pretended like everything was okay because I thought I loved him so much that losing him would be the end of my happiness.

How wrong I was.

“Heather comes from a respectable family, Aries. You and I both know that’s who I should be married to.”

I shouldn’t feel this angry, this upset, but I do. My hand begins to shake as I open my eyes to find him smirking at me. After all he’s said to me, he thinks I’m just going to let him go, but like I said, he doesn’t know me.

“You don’t belong in this world, Aries, look at you.” He tries to get under my skin. “Just a pathetic little girl in search of the love her father never gave her.”

That was my last straw, my last inch of kindness being stripped away by a few words. My blood boils in my veins as my hand lashes out, bringing the knife to slash across his throat. I stand there, chest heaving, as I watch the blood squirt from the open wound, running like a fountain down his neck.

The reality of what I’ve just done hasn’t sunk in yet, as I stand here, staring at Ray’s lifeless body. I felt another piece of my soul crack and leave my body as soon as Ray took his last breath. Iwish I could say I felt guilt. I wish I could say I’m remorseful, but all I feel is an overwhelming sense of power.

Iwipe the vomit off my hand and throw Nico’s arm over my shoulder. It’s late, and I’d much rather be in bed with my wife than cleaning up after my brother. The breeze hits us both as I walk him to the car.

“Why do you do this to yourself?” I ask, not thinking I would get a reply with him being so heavily intoxicated.

“You know why.” He slurs his words, barely being able to move one foot in front of the other. “If the King hates picking up after his brother, why not get Henry to do it?”

“You’remybrother.” I squeeze his wrist tighter as we round the corner, the Porsche shining in the distance, parked on the side of the street. “You need to talk about it, Nico.”

“Talking is for pussies.” He burps. “I’d rather drown myself in alcohol and endless pussy.”

“Suit yourself.” There’s only so much I can say, so much I can do, at some point he’ll learn. Whether it’s the easy way or the hard way, he will learn.

“I’m not like you, brother. I’m not fuelled by darkness,” he admits.

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