Page 76 of Unbroken Promises

Well hell, I really am confused. “What the hell did I ever do to you?”

He just laughs, more than a little unhinged as he turns to a table just behind him, grabbing a sharp blade which glints in the dim lighting, and steps closer. If it weren’t such a grim situation, I would almost laugh at the irony, how similar this feels to my last conversation with Bradley before he passed, and with all the men I have questioned in the years since in an attempt to find the blackmailer who stole my life from me.

“So, you’re the one I’ve been looking for this whole time, I take it? My blackmailer haunting me from the shadows?”

He shakes his head, laughing to himself some more. “Not at first. You can have Diane to thank for that. Oh man, when she found out the truth of whathappened to her son. Let’s just say, I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to deliver that news to her. But she was more than a little upset about some piece of trash mobster kid taking away her golden boy. And then come to find out the little details of exactlyhowyou ‘talked’ with him prior to doing him the kindness of snuffing out that worthless life? Well, let’s just say she has been fantasizing about this for a long time. Though, not nearly as long as I have.”

Without warning, he swipes at my arm, and a thin line of blood beads along the surface. Fuck. I grit my teeth, refusing to show him any signs of weakness.

“So, she was the blackmailer? Hired someone to track me, and take photos, send those threatening letters? Then what? How exactly do you play into all of this?”

If I can keep him talking, maybe that will buy me some time for help to come. I had been able to get a text off to Finn, for whatever good that is worth. I doubt my phone is still on me, but at least he knows to be looking into Roberts now. That should give him something to go off of.

He swipes again, slicing at my other arm, another thin line of blood trailing down to match the first.

“Diane’s finding me was just a happy accident, you see. I had been watching you for some time. Trying to figure out the best move, and the PI she had hired to follow you obviously found me, even though you were too distracted to notice. Naturally, she was curious about why I was so interested in you. Couldn’t have me catching on to the fact that she was harassing you, leaving threatening messages for you to find. No loose ends. She hired a man to take care of the problem, but I took care of him first. Diane, she is a brilliant woman, more so than that stupid husband of hers ever gave her credit for.” He slices slowly down one of my cheeks as he says this, and I bite back a curse, gritting my teeth as I fight against the stinging pain.

“After her little plan failed, I felt it was necessary to set up a meeting. You see, she may have been too caught up in her grief and need for revenge to properly vet me before sending her goon to try and get rid of me, but I was under no such handicap. I knew all about her, who she was, what her son had done. Having Dante be the leader of the merry band of misfits that had once been the greatest mafia family on the entire east coast had its advantages, opened doors that I was more than happy to walkthrough.”

Fisting my hair, he yanks my head back, tilting it up to look into his face. Though his methods in tormenting me were methodical, there was a crazed look in his eyes that couldn’t be ignored.

“So what?” I spit the words out. “You knew your father helped me deal with the Bradley problem, that I was working for him to repay the favor. I still don’t get why it was such a big deal. It’s not like I ever had any intention of replacing you as his heir.”

He punches me, and I feel the cartilage give before blood rushes down my face. Releasing my hair, he steps back several feet, smoothing down his shirt and swiping back his too-long hair out of his face. “That’s just it, don’t you see? You already did. From day one, you stole my life.Mine!”

I spit blood at his feet. “You’re crazy. I never took anything from you.”

“You stole my life! I was supposed to be heir, not you!” He rushes forward again, slicing at my other cheek and both arms before dropping the knife on the floor to punch me in the gut. I can’t help the grunt of pain as my breath is knocked out of me.

I shake my head, trying to clear away the pain, but he takes it as a sign of confusion, and continues without any prompting from me, “You see,Eduardowasmyfather first. Your legacy wasmineto claim and yet, it wasyouthat was raised to bear the title. . . brother.”

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Theo

Ireel, mind spinning a thousand miles a minute as he drops this bomb on me. Brother? What the actual fuck? I shake my head again, this time, truly out of confusion, and Tony laughs maniacally.

“Eduardo, well. He apparently hated his little brother. Tried every chance he could to knock him down a peg, show him who was in charge. But Dante remained the favorite one, the better man, in their father’s eyes. Dante was rewarded for his obedience with a beautiful bride, someone quiet and kind. My mother was never fit for the life she was born into.”

Tony’s voice quiets as if remembering the woman who raised him. “ButEduardo? Well, he had expectations set on him. He was the first born, meant to lead the family into another era of greatness. His marriage was less. . . satisfactory I guess?”

He laughs bitterly, beginning to pace agitatedly in front of me, waving the knife around in crazed circles as he continues to speak. “How could it not be when the woman he was tied to for the sake of familial alliances was in love with his younger brother?”

What? Shock hits me like a ton of bricks. Ma and Dante? “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, you pathetic bastard. You never understood. Never bothered to look past the surface. Just focused on your own perceived problems, ‘woe is me. Poor little prince, raised to take over a kingdom he never wanted.” He stops abruptly, turning on his heel and pointing at me with the knife.

“Dante was madly in love with your mother. Had been since they were children, but she was always intended to beEduardo’sbride. Their father thought that once the marriage was set, and Dante had a bride of his own that everyone could go on with their lives and everyone would fall into line in their predetermined ranks.”

“But Dante? That fucking bastard who promised to cherishmy motherand keep her safe?” He screams this, spittle flying with his words. “He just couldn’t leave your mother alone. And whenEduardofound out, boy did he see red. But he couldn’t kill your whore of a mother without risking the alliance, and he couldn’t kill his brother without risking the wrath of his father since he wasn’t fully in charge yet and men were still loyal to the Don. So, what did he do? He fucking raped my mother. And she became pregnant with me.”

His tone is bitter, resigned to the events that could never be changed, and through the pain, and blood dripping to the floor, his words register on a deep level that I never knew existed. It was all coming together, making sense where there had been only chaos in my past.Eduardoalways hated my mother, and treated me like shit as the child she birthed. But I was his heir and he couldn’t kill either one of us, because heneededus in his own sick way.

Tony continues, not caring if I am even paying attention, too lost in his own history and the torment it apparently caused him. “Dante, well, when he found out, he wanted to do right by my mother, he said. Didn’t want to riskEduardofinding out the truth, becauseEduardowould have killed me for being an unwanted complication, then killed my mother out of spite for the inconvenience she caused in getting pregnant after he raped her.

So, Dante did what he thought was best, and sent us away. And here we rotted in exile foryears. Only gracing us with the occasional visits and the annual birthday card filled with cash. Just what every little boy wants, right? Who needs a father when he can have a stupid little card?” He laughs bitterly.

“No, it wasn’t until my mother lay on her deathbed that I finally learned the truth. And it all made sense, why the man I had known to be my father couldn’t stand to look me in the eyes, why he wanted nothing to do with me growing up. Why I was meant to rot over here while you tookeverythingfrom me.” He screams again, making a wild swipe across my chest, and the pain is searing, the cut deeper than those previous.

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