Page 131 of Crimson Flames

There is a pause before some light music comes from the phone, no doubt showcasing the extravagant gala his parents are putting on.

“You know, Ronan. I never really did like you, but I truly began to hate you when you took Enya away from me.”

Ronan rolls his eyes as if Sullivan is just being a petulant child.

“She was never yours to own.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Ronan. She was neveranyone’sto own. She was a person, a free spirit with the talent of a true ballerina. She had skills, a presence that could move people. She was going to do great things, change people's lives.”

“How does being a ballerina change someone’s life?” Ronan asks arrogantly as I step up and take Nessa’s clammy hand.

“She had the ability to make you see art in a new way, to see beauty in things that force you to pause and question your existence.”

Sullivan clearly gets lost in thought when Ronan starts to laugh at him.

“Is that why you’re calling me right now? Because a stupid girl who has been dead for nearly four years made you question your existence?”

Sullivan clears his throat. “No, I’m calling to show you this.”

He holds up a piece of paper that I already have the original copy of. “My parent’s estate, everything they owned is to be signed over to me in their death. In the case ofmydeath, everything falls to Nessa.”

She gasps beside me, squeezing my hand tighter. “But that’s not all, Ronan.”

Ronan waves Sullivan off. “She will be my wife, and what’s hers is mine.”

“You’re wrong,” I say then. “Sullivan, why don’t you show him the other papers you have there.”

Nessa watches as Ronan goes from the picture of calm and poised to red in the face. A creak of the door behind me signals Boris walking in, the picture of the cool, confident ex-mafia don.

“She cannot be your wife if she is already ours. There is also a stipulation in our marriage certificate,” Boris says, handing him a copy. “Due to the size of the estates, Nessa would inherit from hertwolegal husbands and her dear friend, she has agreed to never marry again to keep the money in our family. Money which can only be allocated to our son. Kai Kelly-Mikhaus and his heirs.”

Nessa looks between the two of us, then to Kai before turning to face me. “We’re married?” The stunned look on her face would make me laugh in any other situation.Nah, I’m still laughing.

“If you will have us,” Boris says right as I say “It’s official.”

“How did you do that without my signature?” She gawks at him as if she hasn’t seen this man do the impossible for her on a weekly basis.

Boris shrugs, placing a hand on Nessa’s back. “I have connections. We were planning to surprise you with a wedding on the beach at our new house in Italy, but Cillian thought we needed to make sure Ronan knew he would never see a penny from Sullivan’s family or yours.”

A coughing sound comes through Ronan’s phone, bringing us back to the tense situation at hand. “I was going to blow the place up,” Sullivan says. “But that seemed too messy. So, I went with poisonous gas instead.”

Ronan sets the phone down on his desk, his face a mask of shock as Sullivan flips the camera to show that everyone on the first floor of the party has dropped dead. More coughing ensues as Sullivan falls over, the last words leaving his lips a muttered apology.

“I’m sorry Nessa. If I see her, I’ll take care of her.”

The silence is heavy around us, and I feel like we have had enough of these tense moments to last several feckin’ lifetimes.

“You said you wanted a distraction,” I say. “I texted him when we were in the car chasing Kai. Sorry I let him go without telling you, but he proved to be useful.”

Nessa hits me in the chest, making me laugh just as a booming sound goes off outside, followed by another. Then another. One final blast erupts, sending every inch of this property up in flames beside the one room we are in.

Chapter 53

I hold onto Enya as her breaths slowly wheeze out of her, then…nothing. Her body goes limp in my arms while I repeat the promise I made to her over and over again until it’s the only thing I know, the only thing I can hear.

“Don’t be sad, Little Doll,” Ronan says as he pulls me off of the ground, away from the person I loved the most in this world. The one I lived for, sacrificed for, some days she was the one I breathed for.

I stare at the floor as the tiles become consumed with red, chasing away every happy thought or memory I had of my sister and replacing it all with gore, death, and pain.

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