Page 116 of Sin & Secrets

Giuliano is gasping now, his breath ragged. His suit is torn, blood dribbling from his nose and staining the expensive fabric.

But his eyes are still wild, still hungry. “You’re nothing without me,” he hisses.

I kick him squarely in the chest. It’s the final blow needed for the door to crack completely. Glass rains down as my father falls back onto the balcony. Red gashes appear on his arms and face.

“I am everything I am today in spite of you.”

Giuliano picks himself up, suddenly, laughing hard. “Yet you’re still going to kill me? After five years of refusing to even consider it, wanting so desperately to set a new precedent. You’re going to kill me in the same room as your unborn child?”

I stride forward, stepping through the open door. “You threatened my family.”

“And now, one day, your son will know exactly who he needs to kill when he wants your job.”

I throw myself at him, realizing too late that he was goading me. Enticing me closer, pushing me to attack.

Quicker than I thought possible, he kicks out and pushes hard.

My trajectory shifts, and I find myself launched from the balcony.

“Rocco!”

Cas is all I can hear as I stare down at the fifty-three-storey drop.

My hands scrabble for purchase on anything within reach as I fly over the railing. My palms hit the metal bar running across the top, and I cling to it for dear life.

Giuliano is peering down at me a heartbeat later. He’s already laughing heartily, cruelly, as he assesses my predicament.

“I was prepared to wait years for this,” he declares. “But I’m glad I’m still young enough to enjoy this properly.”

Without warning, he pounds down on my left hand hard enough to break my fingers. I let go of the bar instinctively, the muscles in my right arm straining to hold on.

“You humiliated me for five years, shoved me in this prison in the sky while you ruined everything I had spent a lifetime building.”

“CAS!” I scream out. I’m desperate to see her, to hear her voice one last time, but there’s no response.

I try to hoist myself back up to grip the bar again with my left hand, but my broken fingers won’t respond to my command.

“But today, fate has granted me a reward for my suffering.” My father presses down on my remaining right hand. “Your death will be sweet, but not as good as raising my new heir myself.”

No. No.

“Don’t you dare fucking touch them.”

Giuliano merely smirks. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Miss Bellini is very comfortable when you’re gone.”

Time slows as three things happen simultaneously.

My father increases the weight on my hand, and my fingers begin to slip.

I have the sudden, terrible realization that I never told Cas that I love her.

And a pair of shears pierce through Giuliano’s neck.

Blood spurts from his mouth like a fountain of pure death. My brain barely registers what it’s seeing as he sags forward and topples head-first over the railing.

But as his body knocks into mine, my grip on the bar fails me.

This is it.

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