Page 35 of Secret Bratva Twins

I didn’t think he was bluffing. There was no way he was. Not with Gianna’s attitude, and most likely not when two tiny humans who looked like me were staring back at me from the picture.

“What do you want?”

“Now, this sounds like a question I can answer.” He stayed silent for a moment. “I want you in exchange for these children, Maxim.”

I’d expected it. He’d hold me hostage and use me to bring down my brothers. “You must think I’m stupid.”

“I think of you as a lot of things. Believe me when I say stupid isn’t one of them.”

“You would hurt your grandchildren.”

His maniac laugh almost made my ear bleed. “You have twenty-four hours until I get tired of them and kill them, Maxim. Twenty-four hours,” he added before he hung up.

I didn’t realize how hard I’d been squeezing my phone until the screen guard cracked. I clenched my fist and drove it into the wall beside me.

How could Gianna keep this from me? She didn’t trust me, even with the truth about my children.

I walked out of my room and headed down the hallway toward Gianna's room. My heart was pounding as I tried to process the news, and I knew I needed answers from her. I needed an explanation.

Chapter 13 - Gianna

The door slammed open, and Maxim stormed into my room; his hands were bleeding, and his eyes were red with rage.

My scalp prickled as I sprang up from my bed, watching him with concern. It was fifteen minutes past ten a.m., I could already guess he’d spoken to my father, and he said something to piss him off.

“Maxim,” I neared him cautiously, reaching to grab him. “What’s the matter?”

He moved away from me. “You lied to me.”

My mind fizzled. I knew he’d found out, but still, I didn’t want to believe he had. Maybe he was mad about something else. “What are you talking about.”

He raised his phone to my face. “Swear you have no idea what I’m talking about. Go on, deny it.”

My blood curdled, and I froze. It was a picture of Ryan and Daylan. My father had sent their pictures to him, and he’d told him about them. “Max, I can explain…”

He tugged at his tie until it was loose. “I’m listening.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I’d never seen him so angry. He’d never raised his voice at me, not even when I tried to kill him. The rage and hurt in his eyes broke my heart. I’d lied to him, kept his children from him. I’d hurt him. But he couldn’t blame me, he had no idea what I’d been through.

“You broke up with me, Maxim. There was no way I could tell you.” My eyes prickled with tears. “I couldn’t reach you, and even if I could, my mother was dead. You killed her.”

For a moment, there was silence—a heavy, suffocating silence that seemed to stretch on for eternity. And then, slowly, as the weight of my words sank in, I saw the realization dawn in Maxim's eyes—the shock, the disbelief, the raw, unfiltered emotion that played across his face like a storm.

He prowled towards me, his eyes dark and stormy. “I did not kill your mother,” he growled. “I’d never met your mother once in my entire life, Gianna.”

“Maybe you didn’t, I don’t know. But you still abandoned me.” My vision fogged, and I let the tears flow freely. “I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant with your child. I didn’t even know there were two of them. I’d been excited to share the news with you, but you broke up with me.”

“You could have told me.”

“What difference would it have made?” My voice cracked, my chest constricting so much I thought my heart would explode. “You’d made up your mind to leave, I couldn’t stop you. I didn’t want to tie down a man who clearly wanted to leave me.”

“They were my children. We made them together.” He paused and drew in a breath. “You had no right, no right at all, to make that assumption on your own. I left because my family needed me. Giselle had just given birth, and I wanted to be there for her.”

“What about me? Don’t you think I needed you?” I choked out through tears. “Did I matter that little to you? Giselle had her husband, she had Lilianna and your brothers.”

“They all needed me. We’d just taken down the Cosa Nostra but still had enemies.” He peered deep into my eyes, his sadness mirroring mine. “I couldn’t turn my back on them. I couldn’t drag you into the underworld with me.”

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