Page 81 of Maddest Temptation

“Was it him?” I practically shouted.

“Francesca.” He tried to shush me, looking both ways to see if someone was looking. He moved to put his cap on once more, but I took it from him.

“Marco,” I threw back. “I’m going to kill Donato.” I turned around ready to murder my father.

Marco’s hand encircled my wrist, causing me to look back. His face was paler now, he looked concerned, but I also saw fear in his eyes. That was what unmade me. My shoulders slumped, and I didn’t fight him as he pushed me back. I stepped in front of him, and he sat there, his head held low once more.

Gently, I lifted his face, he flinched but didn’t move away from me. I exhaled in relief. He looked at me now as I ran my finger slowly through his bruise, praying I wouldn’t hurt him.

“I’ve had worse.” He tried to laugh it off, but it was the wrong thing to say.

Thirteen. My brother was a teenager, and his face was all busted. He’d had it worse! How? I looked at him and all I could see was my baby brother, and I wondered what kind of a monster would do that to a kid. I scoffed inwardly; I knew exactly what kind of a monster would do that.

“It’s better now. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, Marco! It’s not…” I sighed.

“Can you please sit?” He practically begged. He watched the garden with eagle eyes, afraid someone would spot us.

“Fine,” I grumbled and sat beside him. “Did you at least get it checked?” He gave me something in between a nod and a shake of his head.

“Francesca, it’s fine, really.”

“Your face is busted, Marco, it’s not fine,” I shot back. How couldn’t he see it?

“I was worried about you,” he confessed. If we weren’t this close, I wouldn’t have heard it.

“Me?” I was taken aback by his comment. He looked at me with those dark blue eyes, twins to mine. In this moment, Marco seemed to be ten years older than I was. His beautiful face was marked with concern.

“I tried, Francesca.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I tried to stop him, I just…he shouldn’t have hit you like that.”

“Marco.” I took his hand. “It wasn’t your fault, do you understand? What happened back there wasn’t your fault and neither was it your responsibility.”

“I’m your brother,” he said with genuine determination, a kind of protectiveness I never heard from my older brother Savio. “I should have defended you.”

“You did. You tried, and that is more than anyone has done.” Holy God. “Is that why he hit you?”

Silence.

“Marco.”

“I confronted him. After you left, I tried to go after you, he sent me to my room and right after, when I finally got out, I confronted him.” Marco scoffed. “He didn’t even beat me himself, he had Enzo do it.”

“God,” I cursed.

“Is it true? What you said about Mamma?”

“I’m sorry you had to find out that way.” There was no point in lying to him. As much as I wanted to shield my brother from the horrors of our family and the world I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do when he was closer to becoming a Made Man with each day that passed.

Marco only nodded, he didn’t speak, and silence settled once more over us. I didn’t know what to do, we were still getting to know each other again.

“I need to tell you something.” He blurted after a while. “I don’t know who to trust right now and—” he paused and looked around searching the premises, but no one was here with us.

“You can trust me, you know that, right?”

Marco didn’t answer, instead, he removed his phone from his pocket and unlocked it, searched for something, and finally handed it to me. I took it and frowned at what I was seeing.

It was a picture of Donato in a meeting, the door was slightly ajar, and I couldn’t see the others who joined him. Marco swiped to the next photo and this one was much like the first, but the only difference was that I could only see their faces.

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