Page 70 of Corrupted Memories
“Capo, and you haven’t been meeting him since you were sixteen? And hasn’t he been the one paying for everything? The father we grew up with isn’t our father.”
Matt is tense as he continues to glare at Sebastian. “It’s not that simple.”
“Look at me!” I yell. When his head snaps to me, I clench my jaw and lower my voice while keeping it firm.“Then make it simple.”
My brother’s eyes drop, staring at the floor for a moment before he squeezes them shut and slumps into the chair. “It was after Mom and Dad died. That’s when he approached me.”
A flicker of a memory surfaces in my thoughts. How months after the funerals, Matt went from struggling to being more like the upbeat brother I had before their deaths.
I frown. “Is that how we got that new house? You said…” Everything he’s said has always come from our trust funds.
Matt looks up at me. “There was a whole legality thing. We would have been broke in less than a year if he hadn’t stepped in. Most of the money had been tied up in some probate shit.”
Sebastian scoffs. “He does nothing out of the kindnessof his heart.”
“No,” my brother says sadly. “He offered to help free up the money and then threw in extra, but he wanted me to start working for him.”
I blow out a breath. “How’d he even know Mom and Dad died? Do you think—is it possible he had anything to do with it?”
His mouth opens and closes a few times, his fingers twisting between his knees. “I’ve thought the same and I don’t know, Gianna. Is he capable of it? Yeah.”
“Then why are you working for him? You have your company!”
Sebastian squeezes my knee. “Please tell me he didn’t invest.”
Matt’s head drops into his hands, and he rubs his face aggressively. “I’ve paid him out, but sometimes, he—look, G. Everything I’ve done is to protect you.”
I huff out an unamused laugh. “Protect me? From what? You lied about everything. You—you. Ugh.” I take a deep breath and tilt my chin to the ceiling, willing the tears back before facing him again. “You sat there for years telling me over and over how dangerous Sebastian was. How his lifestyle could have killed me and I was lucky to get out when I did. You sat there and trained me to run from the very men you work with!”
“Exactly! I knew how they thought, how they worked, and I did it to protect you,” Matt shouts back, his face flushed with frustration. “You don’t get it because you still have those rose colored glasses on forhim. He’s no better than me. Hell, he’s worse.”
I shake my head. “He’s worse? How? Because I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think he ever lied to me. I think you twisted what I thought I knew and—and like corrupted it. Corrupted all my memories of my time with him.”
Sebastian squeezes me in support while Matt laughs.
“So now I’m the bad guy?”
Swallowing down the hurt and betrayal as he mocks me, I push through to get the answers I need. “Did you send men to kill Sebastian while I was in college?”
His lips thin as he stares at me. I take it for the answer it is.
“And that night I ran, terrified out of my mind, did you know Sebastian had killed a manyousent after him?”
Matt sits there, stubbornly silent.
I throw up my hands. “Nothing to say? I’m begging you to tell me the truth. To tell me that I didn’tspend six years running from a man who would have never hurt me because of the ideas you planted in my head over a circumstance you fucking orchestrated.”
His eyes flash. “Do you not remember the birth control pills you found? Don’t sit there and say he wouldn’t have hurt you.”
“He’s not perfect, not even close, but that’s between him and me,” I admit, my heart still breaking. I don’t appreciate him trying to throw us off the topic. “You told me over and over that loving him would bring my death. That loving a man in the mafia was a sure way to the grave, if not by his hands then by his enemies. All while… being the very man you condemned. I don’t understand, Matt.Help me understand.”
He sighs, pulling at his hair. “I can’t just stop, Gianna. Once you’re in, you’re in. If I do what he asks, he mostly just leaves me alone.”
“What does he want?” Sebastian asks.
Matt tenses, but glances at me and his shoulders slump in resignation. “He’s mostly sent me on tasks in Jersey or had me gather some information on men.”
“Do you still have the information about the men he wanted to know about?” Sebastian presses.
