Page 53 of His Ruthless Obsession

I hold my breath, my fingers hovering over the lid.

Killian rubs my shoulder gently.

I lift the lid and flick it away from me. Inside is a single finger nestled gently on top of light-colored tissue paper, like a gift. The nail is painted a familiar pink color that I know all too well. A gold wedding band rests at the base of where the digit has been cut and blood still pools from the wound, fresh from the looks of it and starting to brown the paper underneath.

I feel my stomach heave, and I quickly slap a hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up my dinner all over the table.

Killian pulls me to my feet immediately and races me out through the restaurant. I barely make it outside of the front patio before I’m bent over, heaving everything I’d just eaten. I gag, feeling the bile burn my throat. Tears sting my eyes, running down my cheeks as I struggle to pull in a solid breath while my stomach clenches.

He grabs my hair to pull it all away from my face while I continue to throw up. His other hand rubs gently along my spine, speaking quietly to me while I choke and spit out more bile.

“Why?” I sob. “Why would he do that?”

Killian doesn’t answer me, either not knowing what to say or knowing that if he did say anything, it’d only upset me further.

I choke out another sob. “His own wife. What the fuck is wrong with him? How could he do that to his own family?”

Killian leans over to kiss my shoulder gently.

“I’m sorry, Nella.”

What kind of monster harms their own wife? To get back at their daughter for something that isn’t even true? How could my father be so cruel towards the person that he’s spent a lifetime with?

I step back from the side of the restaurant and try to straighten myself up, coughing. Killian hands me the napkin that he’d been clutching in his hand before he’d pulled me outside. I take it and wipe my face clean and try to pull myself together.

“What are we going to do with it?”

“I’m going to call my men. They’ll get rid of it for us.”

I feel a pang of guilt at just throwing it away, but I never want to see that box or what was in it ever again. I think if I did, it would break me.

Killian folds me into his side, putting a protective arm around me while he puts his phone up to his ear and speaks in a low tone. It isn’t long before a few vans full of Irish mobsters arrive, all giving Killian a respectful nod before heading inside to take care of the mess we’ve left behind.

I press my face into Killian’s chest, listening to the steady sound of his heartbeat, hoping that it would calm my own racing one. It doesn’t. In fact, it only makes it worse now that I’ve come face to face with the cruelty that he had warned me about.

He’s been telling me about it this whole time. Had I listened? No. Stupidly, I thought my father was better than that. Stupidly, I thought that we weren’t anything like the Irish.

How naïve of me.

I pull away from him, not wanting to be around any of this right now. I just want to escape into the night and forget any of this ever happened. I don’t want to be involved in any more affairs, nor do I want to listen to people lecturing me about what I do and don’t know about the people around me.

I feel the tears welling up in me again, spilling down my cheeks as my mind races.

He tries to pull me away to a quieter location that is just outside of the front doors to the restaurant, but I slap his hands away.

“Don’t!”

“Nella—”

“I don’t want you touching me.” My shoulders shake as I talk. “You’re just like him!”

He shakes his head. “No. I’m not. Me and your father are nothing alike.”

“You both kill people! Torture! Every horrible thing you’ve told me that my father is capable of, so are you, Killian!”

“Nella, listen to me—”

“No…” I stumble back from him, putting my hands over my ears. “No, no, no,no!”

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