Page 65 of The Killer Cupcake
“So much pressure at home. So much anger and pressure, and then the boxing, I carry it all. I was drinking heavily, drowning in booze after I lost my fight in Chicago. Maria said I came home stinking of liquor, and I forced her. I would never… but she said it happened, and I... I don't remember what happened that night," Carmelo said, his voice cracking.
"You’re a liar and half a man," Carmine seethed, his controlled facade finally cracking. "If you were a real man, you would never call your children a mistake!”
Carmelo's tears came hot and fast now. "You don't understand! It was a mistake—a fucking mistake! I was drowning in liquor, missing Kathy so bad I couldn't breathe, and Maria... she says I did it, says I forced her, but that's not me. I'd never—Christ, I don't even remember! Maybe I got confused, maybe I thought—" His voice cracked. "One night! One goddamn night I can't even remember, and I swear on my mother's grave—on her soul—I don't know what happened!"
Carmine turned for the door, disgust rolling off him in waves.
"Wait!" Carmelo lurched forward, desperate. "How? How the fuck did you find out? Was it my father?"
Carmine's eyes went cold as winter. "Met your bambini myself. Your pretty little wife brought them right into your father's office. Along with your new mother-in-law."
Carmelo's mind reeled. "She brought my children to a sit-down? To a closed meeting with made men?"
"What's it matter?" Carmine shrugged. "Your father's married to her mother now."
"That calculating bitch set me up!" The words exploded from Carmelo. "That fucking puttana played me!"
"Watch your mouth, boy." Carmine's voice turned dangerous. "That's your wife you're cursing. The mother of your children. She says you promised to bring her to New Orleans, introduce her to Kathy."
"Lies! All fucking lies!" Carmelo was spiraling now. "She knows everything—knows about Kathy, knows I won't touch her, knows I'm dying inside every day I'm not with Kathy. And she parades those kids in front of you?—"
"Your kids," Carmine cut him like a blade.
"—because she knew! She knew you'd run straight to Kathy. Calculated every goddamn move!"
"Only thing calculated here is your stupidity!" Carmine roared back. "You made this bed, now you're crying because you gotta lie in it? Be a man! Own your shit!"
"Please." Carmelo's rage crumbled into desperation. "Let me tell Kathy myself. Let me explain—I got a plan. Vegas, right? You and Matteo been talking Vegas? I'll fight whoever, whatever—just let me tell her first. We go to Vegas, start clean?—"
"With what? Your wife and babies in tow? You gonna juggle families like some two-bit player?"
"I don't want them!" The words tore from Carmelo's throat. "Never wanted them! Never asked for this!"
They faced off, two bulls ready to charge. Carmelo's whole body vibrated with fury, fists white-knuckled at his sides. Carmine just shook his head slowly, turned for the door again.
"You breathe one word—one fucking word to her—and I swear to God I'll kill you." Carmelo's voice dropped to a deadly quiet. "I'll burn this whole thing down. The fight, the deal, everything?—"
Carmine's hand stilled on the doorknob. "Warned you about Elliott women, didn't I? Told you their hearts don't forgive. You had the honey, boy. Now all that's left is the sting."
"I'll fucking kill you," Carmelo whispered.
"Nah." Carmine didn't even turn around. "You already dead, Carmelo. Been digging your own grave since the day you betrayed her. Now you get to lie in it—alone. Just like every other fool who crossed an Elliott woman."
The door closed soft as a coffin lid, leaving Carmelo drowning in the wreckage of his choices.
Janey peeledherself away from the door and hurried out of the poker room just as the argument between Carmine and Carmelo ended. She'd caught every word through the thin wood—every confession, every desperate plea, every damning detail.
The hot blood spreading through her veins now wasn't anger. Anger was too small, too simple for what moved inside her. This was older, darker—the kind of feeling that made men bleed for their sins against women. And keep bleeding until they were dead.
Matteo watched Janeyrush out of the poker room and head straight for the stairs to take her upstairs, where the rooms were. He leaned against the bar, observing as Carmine emerged moments later with his cane, walking slowly in the same direction with a deadly purpose.
His brows lowered with concern when his brother was the last to appear. He pushed off from the bar. Carmelo wiped away tears, his face and neck were both red as a beet. He headed for the hotel's front door. Matteo followed.
He found Carmelo outside by a large oak tree, retching violently into the bushes. He ran over as Carmelo pressed both hands flat against the bark and wept openly, his shoulders shaking with grief.
"Che cazzo è successo?" Matteo demanded in Italian.What the fuck happened?
Carmelo was so distraught that he didn't even notice his brother's presence.
