Page 110 of Luca
What? For a moment, my heart forgot to beat and the world stopped spinning.
Shock rolled through me, immediately followed by pain that slashed my heart into two pieces. Then four. Until it felt like a million knives plunged into my chest, cutting off my oxygen supply.
Luca killed Da. Luca killed Da. Oh my God, Luca killed Da.
I had told him what had happened that day, everything I remembered and he remained silent.
“I was a kid when that happened,” Luca hissed. “Following my father’s orders. A father who didn’t hesitate beating his sons within an inch of their life. What is your fucking excuse, Maeve?”
Mother took two steps towards my husband who remained immobile, his face a blank mask. No regret. No sorrow. Nothing.
“State what you want or I’ll finish you too,” he threatened in an impassive voice. But I could hear the cold tenor ringing through the air. A shiver ghosted through me.
Who was this man I’d slept next to every night? Who was this man that held our baby and rocked her to sleep?
Mother cackled. Just like the witch she was. A beautiful, but cold and mean witch.
“If her brothers get a wind of what you did to their father, they’ll tear you to pieces.” She tapped her fingers pensively against her chin. “There’d be no saving you. Margaret will always be their precious sister, but that bastard daughter of yours–”
She never got to finish her statement because Luca’s hand wrapped around my mother’s throat.
“She’s not a bastard,” he growled. “And anyone, fucking anyone, tries to take them from me,” he threatened, a dark expression on his face, “and I’ll end them. Brother or no brother. Mother or no mother. I’ll fucking kill you all if you lay a finger on my daughter or my wife.”
Luca had to be squeezing hard because Mother’s eyes bulged and her face turned red. But that didn’t stop her from curving her lips.
“But the icing on the cake is Marchetti,” she hissed, refusing to give up. My heart drummed in my ears, and I desperately tried to calm it down, scared I’d miss a single word. “You let the head of one of the largest criminal European organizations take the blame for my husband’s death.” God, I wasn’t sure who I hated more at this moment. Luca or my mother. “So Callahan killed Marchetti’s brother in order to avenge Margaret’s father. How do you think Marchetti will react when he finds out one of the families running his prime territory in his home country set him up?”
She paused for dramatics.
Luca’s fury burned my skin and he wasn’t even looking at me. My mother was stupid to ignore his anger. But then I was stupid to trust him.
“I’d consider your next words carefully, Maeve,” Luca said, his voice calm. Too calm. “Because they might be your last ones.”
Something shifted in the air, but my mother was too stupid to notice. She continued with her stupid, big mouth.
“You’re not worried about Marchetti, are you?” She kept cackling, getting on my nerves. “Because you already used Margaret to settle that betrayal. You sold your daughter to him.”
He what?
My eyes burned with anger and betrayal. And tears. “You promised your daughter for his son.”
God, this was how heartbreak and betrayal felt. So much for my second chance. My happily never after seemed to be my destiny. My heart ached and I bit into my lip to ensure no sobs slipped through my lips. I couldn’t let them see me.
Luca must have loosened his grip because Mother took a deep breath in, but she was too dumb to stop there.
“I can’t wait to see what my daughter thinks of the deal you’ve made.” Mother smiled self-satisfied, thinking she got one over on him. “You think she’ll despise you more than me?”
His jaw ticked. His expression turned murderous.
“Not to worry, handsome. Marchetti learned who set him up. He knows your family pulled one over on him and he decided to get even. Your daughter is no longer an adequate payment. Why do you think your shipments are missing? He wants life for a life. Your kid’s life perhaps. Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?”
My brain barely had time to register what happened next. Luca pulled a knife from his jacket. A door opened behind him, but Luca was too far gone. In one swift move, he sliced my mother’s throat. Everything but my heart went still. I stared through the crack as my mother slumped from his grip and onto the floor, blood pooling around her on the hardwood floor.
The silence that followed was ominous. Mother’s dead eyes stared at me, watching through the crack.
Drip… drip… drip.
A chill passed through me as Luca grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket and cleaned out his knife, then put it away without a flicker of emotion.
