Page 14 of A Beautiful Crime

This. . .this is the man that people fear.

This face is the one who haunts people in their dreams and keeps them terrified when light breaks.

I swallow in fear and he smiles because of it.

“But you know all too well the consequences of a traitor, don’t you Carina?” I narrow my eyes at him questioningly. “Your fratellino, Elio, si?”

I stiffen in his hold. My bones turn to stone as dread hits hard and heavy in the pit of my stomach. My chest constricts and I find it hard to breathe.

Nobody and I meannobodyknows that I was the one who murdered my little brother in cold blood.

Everyone in The Fiore Famiglia, besides papa and Luca, think that Luca was the one who ended our brother’s life.

It’s only another reason for his men to fear him. To earn more of their respect. To always have their obedience and loyalty.

But the glint in Constantine’s eyes tells me differently. He seems to know the unspoken truth.

“You see, I know you, Carina Fiore. I remember the girl you once were. She had vibrancy in her eyes and a smile that lit up her entire face. You had an innocence so sweet that it could have caused a toothache. But now, Carina, now your taste is sharp on the tongue. And it leaves a bitter aftertaste that one can’t get rid of.”

My lungs feel as if they are shrinking inside the cavity of my ribs. Deflating like a balloon.

To be seen in full transparency has me shaken down to my very core.

“Tell me, Carina, how did it feel to submerge yourself in the darkness?”

“You act as if there was a choice,” I bite.

He smirks devilishly at me and it’s then that I realize my mistake.

I reacted.

“Your eyes, cara Carina, your eyes have been dead for months but would you look at that? They’re alive.”

I tear my eyes away from him and try to focus on anything other than all the emotions swelling inside of me at once. I’m a volcano about to erupt. A woman without her composure. My strings that papa and Luca control so beautifully are about to come undone.

All because of Constantine Donati.

There in the distance, on the outskirts of the dance floor, I see my brother with the same champagne flute in his hand. He stands beside a man, conversing with him. The man seems far more interested than Luca, for he is animated when he talks. However, my brother’s gaze lies solely on me. There’s a darkness there, a darkness that is different from the one I see in Constantine’s.

I can read my brother’s mind.

He’s secretly hoping that I fail.

If I do, I will no longer become the most important piece on the chess board.

I’ll no longer be the apple of papa’s eyes.

All the attention will fall solely on him once again.

Before my rebirth I’ve never known my brother to be so sinister.

And here I am in the clutches of the Devil but my body fears the man in the distance, for it knows what’s to come if I don’t succeed tonight.

They say you fear what you don’t understand but I have to disagree.

I fear what I know lies ahead.

I fear what I know one is capable of.

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