Page 185 of Dark Romeo

It took everything to stand up and walk away without demanding any more information or that he take me to her, my glass left on the table by the chair.

I had to get her out alive before my father had a chance to execute his plan. I couldn’t take any chances. Not with her life.

An idea stirred in my head…

Could I turn against my own father? Leaving him was one thing, but could I betray him? Could I turn my back on my family? Could I destroy my father’s legacy, as dark as it was?

I paused at the door to his library, my hand on the cold knob. I turned to face my father again.

“What?” he growled.

“Do you miss Mama?” I asked.

He stiffened. “Why are you asking me such questions?”

“Do you?” I pushed. “Miss her?”

Even from here, I saw the flash of pain in his eyes. He slumped back into his chair, his gaze becoming unfocused. I knew he was thinking of her. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about your mother.”

My gut knotted. In some deep, hidden part of him, my father still loved her. His love for her was like a single pure seed covered by layers of dirt, twisted roots and the thick matted branches of an overgrown forest. “If you could have her back, but you had to give up this…” I waved my arm. “Everything. Your empire. Would you do it?”

Please, Dad, just one small sign of goodness. Show me one. Just one.

He could barely meet my gaze. For the first time in my life, my father dropped his God-like guard and looked like any one of us mere mortals. For a second he looked like a lost boy, grabbing at ghosts.

His face froze over like the fast approach of a winter’s frost. “I built this empire with my bare hands. Twenty years it took me to amass this kind of power. This is my legacy. Your mother was determined to ruin that before…” he trailed off. He straightened in his chair, his eyes blazing. “I would not give up our legacy for anything.”

That single seed died. Choked to death under that black, hateful forest. There were no more chances left for redemption.

It turned out there was part of my father in me, because when his heart froze over, so did mine. I knew what I had to do. And I would carry no guilt over doing it. I would betray my father, turn my back on my family and burn his cursed legacy to the ground.

* * *

I slipped past my father’s guards and defied his order not to leave the compound. I stood in front of the white painted house in a leafy suburb of Verona. The windows were trimmed in a deep red, matching the door, a weather vane straddling the terracotta-tiled roof. The dawn was just brushing the edges of the horizon, painting the quaint street in a pastel light. The whole scene was so…quaint. So wholesome.

I felt a flicker of envy inside me at the sight of Julianna’s childhood. She told me about falling out of the tree on her lawn, a large towering oak, when she was eight, breaking her arm. Here on this footpath was where she used to draw hopscotch boxes with chalk. I imagined her taking her first ride down this driveway without training wheels on her bike. I smiled despite my situation.

I hadn’t been followed here. I made sure of that. Still, I glanced around me again before I walked up the driveway. Standing on the porch, I stared for a moment at the door. I knew the chief was up because I could hear footsteps inside and the slight rabble of the early morning news on a radio.

I had to make him listen to me. Surely he would put his prejudice aside if it meant he could save his daughter. Right? My stomach churned. This would either go right or it would go horribly wrong.

I forced down my apprehension and knocked on the door.

I heard footsteps then the door opened. Chief Montgomery Capulet appeared in the doorway. He frowned at me. “Yes?”

I pushed back my hood. The chief’s eyes, so much like Julianna’s, flared with recognition. He snatched his gun from his hip and pointed it in my face.

I lifted my palms but I stood my ground. “You could shoot me right now, but then you’ll never get Julianna back.”

“You son of a bitch?—”

“I don’t have her. But I know who does. And I know how to get her back.”

The chief cursed. “I knew something was wrong when she stopped answering my calls.”

“Please, let me in. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

The chief shuffled his feet, suspicion rolling off him in waves. Still, I could sense his desperation. He wanted to believe me. His eyes narrowed. “Why would you help me?”

---