Page 173 of His Cursed Heart

"I thought you were gonna leave me again with the maids while you left." Vincent lowers his head and plays with his fingers.

I haven't been his dad for a whole month and I'm already failing at it.

I look at Althea and see her torment eyes. I wish I could take it away from her, but I feel the same amount of shame and failure like her. After the fiasco with Althea's abusers, things changed drastically. I was focused on killing and making my wife free from all the demons that I neglect the most important boy in my life.

Althea raises her left hand where a gill makes sure she stays hydrated. She pats Vincent's leg, her hand trembling.

"I'm sorry, bug. I never wanted to make you feel like you were forgotten when all we did was to make sure you are safe. Once I get out of here, I promise I'll make it up to you." Her whisper makes Vincent lift his head.

"It's okay. Dad will take care of us." This boy is trying to make me cry for the second time in not even forty-eight hours.

Althea doesn't say anything, but she nods with a little sad smile. I would do anything to know what's going on in that pretty little head of hers.

I put my hands under Vincent's armpits and put him down on the floor. "Why don't you go and challenge Venus to a duel?" I ask and his face lit up. I already know that I'm going to have a hard time with him when he becomes a Made Man.

He bolts out of the room, screaming in the hospital halls for Venus.

I look at Althea and like a damn pussy, I start talking like an ADHD person.

"I didn't force him to call me that. I mean, I admit that I wanted him to see me like a father, but he was the one who suggest-"

"Everette," Althea laughs and puts her hands on my knees, stopping my apology. "I'm not mad, my beast. I'm actually glad he can finally have a dad that will take care of him."

Swallowing the gulp from my throat that formed because of the nickname she gave me, I whisper. "I love him, baby. Like a father should love his son."

I lean over her when her hands are looking for my face. I let her touch calm my body and I see her face getting closer to mine.

"I love you." She whispers and my throat tightens.

My forehead falls on her forehead and I put my hands over her little ones that are holding my face.

"I love you, il mio amore in ogni universo." Her surprised face makes me smirk.

I had to practice my Italian now that Vincent talks in two languages.

Althea's lips are touching mine and when I want to slam her to me, the door opens.

Is it so hard to knock?

I groan and I look back, seeing Gianna eyeing me

with a raised brow and the man beside her watching Althea longingly.

Watching his daughter with regret.

Althea

If that stupid monitor would've still be attached to my chest, it would've exploded at how fast my heart beats at the sight of my mother, in the hospital room that I can't escape from.

Everette moves out of the way, letting me stare at the person whom I thought loved me the most. Mamma's eyes are red and her face looks haunted. She shivers while looking at my moving chest, taking little steps toward me, letting the man behind her.

My father looks at me with his usual tight face and broad body. He always looked at me with a relaxed face, but this time I see the emotions that could kill a man like him.

I may seem like I don't care about the world around me, like I ignore all the problems and hide from the ugliness of my life, but it's opposite. I know everything about the life who was forced in me when Mamma decided to claim me as Hanibal's heir, ignoring my biological one.

I started having doubts about Hanibal being my father when he started to beat me like it was his hobby. I never tried to demonstrate to myself that he isn't my blood because my life wouldn't have changed. I lived in 'what if' and 'maybe' until the day Hanibal admitted to my face that Mamma had an affair.

Then everything clicked.

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