Page 83 of Corrupted Deception

Aurelio nodded solemnly. “The medical records were quite clear. She was born prematurely while her mother had enough alcohol in her blood to fuel a frat party.”

I clenched my fists, anger that I usually kept so well-contained, bubbling up higher and higher. Anger at her mother for allowing this to happen. Anger at Charlotte, though I knew it was entirely unfair. Anger at Aurelio for prying into her private life and suggesting there was something wrong with her.

I took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts.

“This… it can’t be true,” I said, more to myself than to him. “She’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with her.”

Aurelio’s gaze held a mixture of understanding and concern. “It doesn’t change who she is,Signor.But it might help you understand why she sometimes acts the way she does. She’s a unique and remarkable woman. The difficulties she’s overcome are extraordinary.”

The way he spoke, it felt like there was an intimacy there I couldn’t explain.

“My father didn’t just have you look into her; he had you keep an eye on her—back then?” I asked, trying to make sense of it.

He nodded slowly—too slowly—while tension tautened his shoulders. It slipped that pivotal puzzle piece into place. While the puzzle wasn’t finished, there was always one piece, one moment when the picture became clear.

This wasn’t a conversation; it was a confession.

“For how longaftershe disappeared did you keep an eye on her?” I asked, every word filled with ice and accusation.

“I didn’t keep an eye on her, but I did look in on her every once in a while,” he admitted, and though his face was etched with emotion, he still spoke without equivocation.

He’d known. He’d known where Charlotte was all this time and hadn’t said a god damned word.

“Why?” I asked, my quiet tone at odds with the violence coursing through my veins.

“There was no way for me to get to her, not with her father in the picture. And I couldn’t dothat, Signor.I couldn’t take him from her. With him, she was… different. He arranged for her to see a therapist and employed a private tutor for her. He made sure she was fed and clothed and helped her establish routines that were good for her. Every time I went back, she was better—happier—than the last. She was thriving, Cielo. I could not take that from her,” he said as he put a hand on my shoulder. It wasn’t often he used my given name.

I looked at his hand, then back at him. “You kept it from me? You thought I wouldn’t want her to be happy?”

“I think you loved her and you wanted her for yourself, and at your age, in this life,” he said, motioning around us, “you were accustomed to getting what you wanted. But you couldn’t give her what she needed—not then.”

He was right. I was man enough to admit it, even if it didn’t do one fucking thing to cool the hot rage lurking beneath the ice.

“Why, Aurelio?—why did she matter so much to you?”

The corners of his lips curved up in a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You loved her. And what you care about, I do as well,Signor. I always will.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Cielo Luciano

I pulled off the highway and navigated the lamplit streets, the traffic sparse this far outside the city. The further I drove, the fewer lights shone down on the asphalt and the fewer cars passed in either direction until there was nothing but dark, empty streets ahead of me and behind. And a pair of ‘fuck you’ eyes that were following me everywhere.

It seemed Charlotte had taken up permanent residence in my head, stubbornly refusing to vacate. Her body, her laughter, the way she challenged me, all played on a loop. Not to mention Aurelio’s revelation, which I had no idea what to do with.

The turnoff up ahead signaled the last leg of my journey, and I clenched the steering wheel harder, trying to exorcise her presence from my thoughts.

Infiltrate, execute, and escape without leaving a trace—that was where my focus needed to be.

As I took the corner, a glint of silver in the bushes up ahead caught my eye, beyond the road’s shoulder. I slowed the car and narrowed my eyes for a better look as I approached, but surely, it wasn’t possible.

But the closer I got, the more my headlights glinted off the silver behind the bushes, illuminating the body of a silver car. A silver Audi, if I had to guess.

Fuck.

A wave of unease washed over me, making my heart beat faster as I pulled off to the side of the road next to the Audi.

She wasn’t in the car, and there was nothing to indicate it had been in an accident. No dents, no broken windows, no crushed bumpers.

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