Page 73 of Forced Bratva Bride

The page is crammed full of writing. I begin to read out loud, and the deeper I get into the letter she left for us, the more Stefano paces in agitation.

She has written everything that her father confessed to her.

It is a dark, twisted, horrific story of murder and revenge. It paints a picture of a very dark and evil man.

At one point, I read out loud about how Angelo killed Stefano’s mother when he overheard her telling Stefano that she would always be in love with my uncle. Stefano picks up the corner of the bed and throws the entire piece of furniture onto its side. He screams as agony and understanding rips through him.

I continue reading in silence, as Stefano storms around the room, tearing curtains and swearing, furious at the years of betrayal and loss he has suffered.

“Stefano. For fuck's sake, get a hold of yourself,” I snap. “Listen.”

Stefano stands in the middle of the room, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. All I see in his eyes is hatred.

“Chiara says she has a plan. She is okay, and she has a plan.”

I read the last bit again so that Stefano can hear it.

Chiara details how she has managed to convince her father that she feels sorry for him, for everything that has happened to him, and that she wants to help him.

“He is going to kill her,” Stefano snaps.

“Chiara is a smart girl, Stefano. Don’t underestimate her. She would not have written this if she wasn't confident that her plan would work.”

Stefano closes his eyes for a moment. “All this time—"

I can only imagine what he feeling right now, knowing that he has lived and worked with the man who took his mother’s life for so long.

“We need to trust her. We can’t take on Angelo alone. We need someone inside, and she is right there, with him.”

He nods.

I can see him doing his best to pull himself together.

I hold back on sharing my own relief, of having found out that Chiara is alive and safe, because I know that Stefano has just learned some devastating news about his mother’s death and that he's been living under the manipulation of a psychopath.

Is she safe, though?

Her father is a master manipulator, obviously, and maybe he can see through her plot.

“We had better get going,” I say, eager to get to my brothers and tell them what's going on.

I bite at the inside of my cheek as we walk out to the car.

Inside the car, as we drive toward my brother’s place, I ask something that has been bothering me for a while.

“Why are you always so aggressive and nasty towards Chiara?”

Stefano looks out of the window. For a long moment, he is quiet.

“After I lost my father and then my mother, a lot changed. I changed. In my grief, I became this person that sometimes I don’t even like. Often. I often don’t like myself.

"But, with Chiara, her father led me to believe that she really didn’t care about what happened to my mother, and there was no point in talking to her about it. He made me believe that she was shallow, only worried about herself and her own life.”

“I see,” I mumble, when he falls quiet again.

“I was wrong,” he sighs, rubbing his eyes with his hands. “I was wrong. I let him manipulate me. All those years, he guided everything I thought and believed about everyone around me. He made me think Chiara was a selfish person, but he did it to keep us apart, as siblings. I guess he wanted to protect her and keep me isolated. It was all a game to him. Our lives are a game to him.”

“I’m sorry, man, I can’t imagine that any of this is easy to find out.”

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