Page 13 of When Sinners Dare

With my bad mood overflowing, I down the rest of my wine and place a fifty on the bar.

On the way back to the car, I try calling one last time to reach Antony. It rings this time, which is better than going straight to voicemail, and I wait for him to answer.

“Hello?”

Only it’s not Antony’s voice.

“Hi, I’m trying to reach Antony.” There’s a pause on the end of the line as I open the car and close the door behind me.

“I’m his father. You’re Mariana?”

“Yes?” A curl of dread bubbles in my stomach. “Is everything alright?” Although, as I ask, I know it can’t be true. His dad wouldn’t be answering his phone if everything was fine.

“I …” he stops. “I’m sorry to say Antony is dead.”

My heart thuds in my chest, and blood rushes in my ears as the words sink in. “Dead?” I ask, needing to hear it again.

There’s another pause, and my heart aches for the pain his father must be going through.

“He was killed.”

Killed?

The word rings in my head, pounding with questions as they form and race through my mind. “How? I mean, how do you know? When?” I fixate on two points.

“He was shot. There’s an investigation.” His voice strains as if it’s physically hurting to speak. “They may want to talk to you.”

“I’m so sorry.” I’m not sure what else to say. “Thank you for speaking with me.” I imagine him nodding before the line disconnects.

The shock of the conversation soon morphs into suspicion and anger as I start making assumptions. They can be dangerous, but in this case, and with my family, it’s a healthy bet. Of course, bringing a boyfriend to dinner would warrant a warning. Here I am trying to push out the overbearing nature of their control, and the consequence is this?

No. I shake my head as I remain in the car.

They wouldn’t go this far.

I run a local news search, and sure enough, a few articles down is a brief story. Antony’s mentioned by name, but there’s little else to go on.

“Fuck this.” I start the ignition and head out of town.

The number plate recognition lets me in the gate, but that’s as far as I can go since Lexi reset the rest of the security settings preventing access. Leaving the car in the middle of the driveway, I go and bang on the front door.

Abel opens it with a steely look on his face, but if I’m not mistaken, an air of concern.

“Was it you?” I start.

“You’re going to have to be more specific if you’re throwing accusations around.”

I barge past him and down the stairs to his kitchen. “Antony. He’s dead.”

“And the first thing you do is accuse me?”

“You made it pretty fucking clear at dinner.”

“So because I don’t like or approve of whoever the fuck he was, that’s motive for me to kill him? That’s cold, Mariana.”

It is, and doesn’t that say something about my feelings towards them if that’s what I’m thinking? “It’s not a coincidence that he ends up dead two days after he met you.”

“I wasn’t the one threatening you both,” he points out.

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