Page 56 of The Forbidden Husband

Her brows furrowed as if she didn’t understand what I was saying. “What are you talking about?”

Please, be honest. Please tell me that we got the wrong intel.

“You have been giving intel to your father, and you are part of whatever he is planning.”

The confusion in her gaze faded, and she shook her head slowly as fear settled across her expression. “I told you that I had to talk to you tomorrow. There are a lot of things I need to tell you.”

She wasn’t denying it.

She wasn’t saying that I had it all wrong.

“What thefuckdid you plan on doing to my family?” I asked, a cold calm filling my tone. “You did everything to convince me of your intentions. You made me trust you.”

“You can trust me, Enzo. There’s a lot of things I need to tell you. I thought you were a monster. I thought… I thought you were someone different when I agreed.”

I had heard enough. I didn’t need excuses. I didn’t need to hear her justify why she had lied and deceived me. She had told me that she loved me, and she had still gone behind my back.

I struck out with the needle, plunging it into her neck and dispensing the medication. Her eyes widened, and she reachedfor me with a shaking hand before her body collapsed on the bed between us.

I stared down at her naked body, still struggling with the thought of other people seeing her exposed body in such a way. Through my anger, I pulled her long shirt over her head and dressed her in it, wondering why I would bother doing something for a woman who had lied and deceived me in the worst of ways.

I didn’t allow myself to feel the betrayal. Not as I lifted her from the bed and carried her into the living room. I cradled her to my body, shocked at how lightweight she felt in my arms.

How could someone so small and seemingly innocent dothis?

I glanced down at her as I approached Owl. I knew the decision I should make. I should have her questioned and killed, the same way as my mother had been. It was a deserving fate.

“Put her in a private car with our most trusted driver,” I told Owl as I passed her body into his arms. “Take her as far away as possible. Get her the fuck away from me and my family.”

Owl opened his mouth as if he planned to question me, but he thought better of it. “Okay, Boss.” He paused, adjusting her weight in his arms. “Do you think she has anything valuable to tell us?”

Yes.

“No,” I lied.

I knew she would have plenty of valuable information. I would bet my life on it.

But I wasn’t my father. I had his temper, and I had the killer’s mentality. I had been told my entire life how similar we were, but I couldn’t have Aria killed. I couldn’t do it. Maybe it made me weaker than him. Maybe it had been foolish to ever allow myself to feel this way for a woman who was the daughter of my enemy.

But I couldn’t kill her.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but there will always be enough distance to separate the two.

Uncle Giovanni’s words had rung true about me, but they clearly didn’t apply to everyone.

Aria was Alonzo. It had been my biggest fear, and it had come true.

Owl walked out of the house with Aria in his arms, and I began pacing across the rug, considering my options. Uncle Giovanni was content to wait until the threat became palpable, but we couldn’t keep waiting for him to stake his territory.

I grabbed my phone and pulled it to my ear.

“What happened?” Uncle Giovanni answered on the first ring.

The emotionlessness I had forced onto myself began fading with his words, and the tightness in my chest threatened to strangle my words. I cleared my throat, and it was only partially effective.

“I am done taking Alonzo’s shit. We’re ending this.”

I told him everything that Owl had brought to me—all the information that had likely been sent to him to receive thenext morning. He hadn’t been the one sleeping with the enemy, though.

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