Page 56 of The Sins of Saint (The Sins of Saint 3)

Elena’s eyes flashed a murderous glare. “That’s lies right from Lucifer’s mouth.”

“It’s the truth!”

“Shut up!” Saint yelled, his voice a sonic boom that slammed against the ceiling. “Both of you.” He let go of Elena, and she grabbed hold of the bedpost to steady herself. “I can’t fucking think straight. This is all—”

“The truth,” a voice said calmly from across the room.

Saint spun around, and we all stared at Mr. Russo standing in the doorway with Viktor a few feet behind him. “What Mila said, it’s the truth.” His gaze settled on Elena, but it wasn’t hate or resentment I saw in his eyes. It was almost like…compassion. As if he understood the root of her bittersweet obsession and jealousy. “Elena and I were in love once, before she married Alfonso.” He looked at Saint. “Before I fell in love with your mother.”

Saint pulled a palm down his face and leaned back against the wall as if his legs were about to give way beneath him. “I don’t…”

“Understand?” Elena snapped. “Of course you don’t. Your mother was so goddamn perfect in your eyes, it’s impossible for you to think your father could have had feelings for anyone but her.”

“Did you kill her, Elena?” Mr. Saint stepped into the room. “Did you kill my wife?”

My gaze bounced back and forth between him and Elena as I subtly moved to stand by Saint’s side.

“Did you?” he urged as he neared her.

Elena didn’t retreat. She stood her ground and squared her shoulders, refusing to be forced into a corner like prey. “She didn’t deserve you.”

I grabbed Saint’s hand, knowing that every word that was about to be spoken would crack him wide open.

“You were supposed to love me. I was supposed to be the one who would always have your heart.” Her gaze softened, unshed tears shimmering in the dim light of the bedroom.

Mr. Russo took one slow step at a time, moving toward her as she spoke to him with a sadness that was almost heartbreaking to hear.

“I had to sit on the side and watch you fall more and more in love with her. And then she gave you a son.” She looked at Saint. “And I knew after that, that I had lost you forever.”

I felt Saint’s fury roll off him in waves, and I saw the fire in his eyes. His chest rose and fell rapidly with every angered breath he took. He was barely holding on to the last shred of control he had.

Elena flipped her blonde hair over her shoulders, a desperate act to not show how intimidated she felt being bombarded by the truth. “The day I told my sister about us, I can still remember the look on her face. I had never felt so goddamn good as I did that day.” She snarled. “I was so convinced she’d leave you, divorce you after I told her about us. But she was so damn stubborn and refused to let her son grow up in a broken home.”

“So, you killed her?” Mr. Russo stood a few feet away from her, Viktor close by. “You killed your own sister?”

“She wasn’t the one for you.” Finally, her strength started to wither as a single tear slipped down her cheek. “And I could no longer stand by and watch you love another woman.” Her gaze dropped to the ground, a faraway look on her face. “It was so easy, slipping the pills in the red wine we drank that night. I pretended to want to talk things through with her, pleaded for her forgiveness while I watched her drink one glass after the other, slowly approaching her death without even knowing it.”

More tears streamed down her face, but there was no regret in her eyes as she looked at Saint. “It wasn’t my intention to become so close to you, Marcello. But when you ran into my arms that night, crying and searching for comfort in my embrace, I knew it was God’s way of giving me what I could never have of my own. A son.”

“All this time,” Saint started, his voice low with disbelief. “All this time, you kept feeding the hate I felt for my father, letting me believe he’s the monster who ruined my life when, in fact,” he paused and swallowed back tears which I could see shimmer in his eyes, “you were the monster all along.”

She smiled through the tears—a lonely, yet content smile. “I won’t apologize. I will never say I’m sorry for what I’ve done. But there is one thing I regret, one thing I would do differently.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks while staring at Saint from across the room, a smug smile on her lips, yet her eyes were vacant of emotion. “If I could do it all over again, I’d drive a stake through her heart so she could look me in the eye while she died, knowing that I was the one who killed her.”

Saint roared like a demon breaking free from the chains of hell, and I wasn’t fast enough to stop him. He reached for the gun behind his back, and I screamed for him to stop, but it was like someone had pressed the mute button as I watched Saint about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

Elena tried to move out of the way, her wounded leg causing her to fall forward, and Mr. Russo grabbed her.

A gunshot went off, the loud crack slicing my eardrums in half. I knew I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear a sound. I watched as Elena’s body went limp in Mr. Russo’s arms. Her lips parted, her big brown eyes wide, their light dimming.

All I could think was that Saint had killed Elena. He shot his aunt, the one woman who was the closest he had to a mother. It was all too surreal, and my vision tunneled as I witnessed Elena wither away.

Her head leaned on Mr. Russo’s shoulder, and her lips moved as she whispered something that made him close his eyes, a tear slipping down his face. He moved, and Elena gargled as blood spilled from her mouth. That was when I saw it. Mr. Russo’s hand holding the stem of a knife…a knife which had been driven deep into Elena’s stomach.

“Oh, my God.”

21

Saint

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