Page 52 of Tainted Ties

The words echoed in my head, sounding absurd with each passing second. I spoke to him the other day and he was fine.

He said we’d have plenty of time to catch up on lost years as siblings. He said he wouldn’t leave me like this. He—he…

The sob that racked through my body was ear-piercing and painful as I dropped to the floor.

The contract was void, but none of it mattered when my brother was dead.

My heart cracked right down the middle, splitting in two, the pain seeping into my blood and numbing me whole.

The door of the bathroom opened. “What’s wrong?”

Roman went down on his haunches in front of me, staring at me with a hint of concern swirling in his eyes, the crease between his brows furrowed.

I wept harder because this was it, his eye for an eye, only I didn’t pay the price.

He never claimed to be a saint, yet disappointment set in, suffocating me along with the bile in my throat, threatening to rise.

I couldn’t breathe.

His touch burned like acid when his heavy hand settled on my shoulder.

“No!”I said, shoving his chest.

My rage and frustration were unleashed and I was relentless as I continued shoving him. My efforts to hurt him as he had hurt me weren’t enough. My hands balled into fists, punching at his chest before I slapped him across the face.

Confusion and anger flashed across his features. “What the hell is wrong with you, Aurora!”

A fresh set of tears streamed down my face, hot and thick. “Did you get a good laugh in tonight, knowing I was oblivious to what you had done?”

He inched back. “What are you talking about?”

A laugh mixed in with my sobs at his attempt to act naïve. “Enzo’s dead because ofyou,” I yelled. He opened his mouth to cut me off, but I continued,“Although, I should thank you for the breach of contract. I’dhateto be your wife for a second more.”

I scrambled off the floor and left him sitting there in the bathroom.

He didn’t come after me, not even when I slammed the door to the suite shut.

Chapter17

Aurora

The house was lifeless, even more so without Enzo.

After I left the suite, I grabbed a cab and came to my father’s house, slipping through the secret entrance.

I would’ve been mortified if I was caught wearing nothing but a man’s dress shirt, so I changed into what few clothes I had in my bedroom.

Making my way down the long corridor, I stopped at the black wooden door—my father’s office.

This would be my first time seeing him after a decade and I felt nothing.

There was a hollowness in my chest that was void of all emotion when it came to my father. He had hurt me too many times in the past for me to feel anything.

Whether my father knew I would be visiting or not wasn’t my concern. I needed answers and I needed themnow.

I knocked once before entering.

My father peered up from his desk, unflinching.

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