Page 94 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“I killed… I killed a man.” I swallowed. “I killed Justin.”

“You what?”

“I killed Uncle Justin. He was going to hand me over to Derek McGovern… and he tried to r-r-r-ape me.”

There was no point beating around the bush. That was never me, anyway. I was honest to the point of blunt.

Dad jumped up from the sofa and paced the room.

“Oh my days. You killed Justin.Youkilled him.”

I put my mug down on the coffee table and watched him, hating myself for being the bearer of this news.

“Yes.”

“Where is he now? Where’s his body?”

“I don’t know.”

“What you mean, you don’t know?”

I fidgeted, curling my hands around my knees.

“A Fixer cleaned up the scene and disposed of his body.”

I genuinely didn’t know what Penn had done to Justin, nor did I care at this point.

Dad stopped his pacing and stared at me in disbelief.

“A Fixer? You shouldn’t know they exist, Ari.”

“I didn’t! I didn’t go to a Fixer. I went… I went to…”

He took a step towards me.

“Where the fuck did you go? You should’ve come to me, innit.” He slapped a hand on his chest. “Me.”

I dug my nails into my knees.

“I went to Desecration and made a deal with Zayn Villetti because I was scared you wouldn’t believe me if I told you Justin betrayed us. I didn’t know if you would trust me when I told you why I killed him to save myself.”

He took a step back like I’d slapped him. And in a way, I had by telling my father I didn’t trust him, but how could I lie about why I’d done it?

“You ran to the mafia? What the fuck were you thinking, Ari?”

“I was thinking I didn’t want to go down for murder, Dad.”

Dad let out a tsking sound and turned away from me, dragging his fingers along his forehead.

“You should’ve come home.”

“Would you have believed me? Would you have covered up Justin’s death? Because Zayn did and he made it go away. He kept me safe.”

His hands twitched as he dropped them to his sides. Like the mention of Zayn’s name bothered him.

“If you made a deal with him, why you back now?”

I didn’t want to answer his question. Didn’t want to tell him Gennaro had found out about my relationship with his son and made it very clear I couldn’t be with him.

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