Page 51 of Sinful Daughter (Dark Mafia Sins 2)

“Aria!” My father picks me up from Theo, leaving him unprotected. With all my might I kick and scream. I’m willing to lose it all including my life to protect Theo. No matter how hard I fight, my father’s hold is stronger than I am. I’m carried toward the exit, away from the danger. While I protest, the gruesome scene continues in front of me.

I watch Grant running toward us, and he shoots Marco. He gets Marco in the back, and he falls forward. I’m able to breathe out a sigh of relief. Then, to my horror, Grant fires the rest of his magazine into Theo’s chest. His body bounces with each bullet. I scream, my eyes filling with fat tears that can’t be kept in.

“Theo!” His name bellows from my lungs, praying for him to move. I become hysterical, fighting my father as he holds me tight, pulling me away as I struggle with him every inch of the way.

“Get her out of here, and I’ll cover your back,” Grant yells at my father. I want to vomit seeing Theo’s partner, someone he thought was his friend, shoot him.

“Who is Grant to you?” I ask between sobs. I fight harder, wanting to go to Theo. It’s unfair he has to die alone.

“Grant’s one of us. I’ve been paying him to watch over Theo.” My father grunts. I can no longer see Theo. The sound of guns still rings through my ears.

“You knew about us the whole time?” I realize out loud.

“I know everything, Aria. Let this be a lesson to you and everyone else.”

CHAPTER 32

My father triesto place me in a car to take me home, but I refuse. “I need to see him one more time,” I beg.

Standing on the other side of the street away from the commotion, I watch Grant walk with the paramedics with Theo on the stretcher. There’s no blanket covering his body, and it gives me hope maybe by some miracle he can survive. My tears are streaming down my face, and I watch in horror as the paramedics begin cutting off his clothing. His blood covers most of him before they close the door, leaving me on the sidewalk.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I ask Grant when he walks toward my father and me.

“No,” he grunts out as a car pulls up to us. I want to hit and yell at Grant for killing the man I love. But my body aches, and I have no fight left in me. It won’t change anything. People always do what my father wants. He needed Theo dead. I can never forgive him for this.

My father opens the door and ushers me inside. How could I not have known Grant was one of us? I should’ve had alarm bells going off when I first saw him at the poker game, then with Theo. Grant slips in behind me.

“Make sure she gets home safely.” He closes the door behind us, and the car drives away.

“Listen, Theo has never been popular. Everything he does gets under the wrong people’s skin. Your father has given him plenty of opportunities to join him. He can’t be walking into Nicoli’s daughter’s wedding and expect to live. Not that any of this matters.”

“You’re telling me even if he lives, he’ll be killed.”

“Yes.”

I hiccup at the same time I gasp. Theo must have known, and that’s why he gave me his vest. His vest still smells of him, and I never want to take it off.

“Think of the positive.” I turn to him, glaring when he speaks. “You don’t have to marry Marco now.”

The car stops, and I’m back at home. My white dress has smears of blood, and the bottom is black from dirt.

“Where are you going?” I ask when I step out and he doesn’t.

“I need to secure the church and make a police report.” He smirks, showing no sign of sadness that Theo is gone.

When I walk into my house, my mother wraps me in a hug. Katrina is crying like this was her wedding day that was ruined. Gia is sitting quietly with her silent tears dripping slowly down her face. Luna comes into the room strapped up with guns. “I’ll be back,” she tells us, walking out of the house.

“You’re just going to let Luna go?” I ask, stepping out of my mom’s hold.

“Aria, all of you girls are different. You each need different things from the family. Luna needs the wild lifestyle of the mafia.”

“What of Katrina?”

My mother sighs. “She needs her family more than ever. She’s lost. I’m afraid if we can’t bring her back….” My mother tries to swallow her cry, and it comes out half choked.

“I need to change.” I leave my family, going to wash the blood off me. I thought my heart broke when Theo ended things between us. I truly had no idea what true heartbreak was until now. It feels like my soul has been shredded into a million tiny pieces. My chest hurts, and each breath presses harder on my heart.

Turning on the shower, I fall to my knees. My head hangs as the warm spray hits my body. My hand tries to massage the hurt away, but it makes it worse.

---