Page 57 of Stealing His Christmas Present

There were plenty of hugs, cries, and kisses.

One big happy family.

Well, it looked like Claudia had just shown me another thing I’d never seen.

A loving family.

I took a deep breath and got out of the car. Maybe they at least weren’t going to kill me in front of Claudia.

“You!” Dante narrowed his eyes at me, and a second later, pointed his gun at my face.

Lorenzo did the same thing.

The guards followed suit.

I lifted my hands up, waiting for someone to pull the trigger already.

“No!” Claudia shouted, pushing past them and rushing to me.

Was she crazy? Someone could get trigger-happy and shoot her because of me. Why was she even doing it?

Unless she wanted to shoot me herself.

I was about to tell her to stay back, but it was too late.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She stood right in front of me.

“That’s the guy who—” Lorenzo started.

“Lower your guns now! He saved me! He saved me and the twins from the traffickers!”

“What?” Lorenzo’s eyebrows shot up.

“He did?” Dante’s frown deepened.

“Yes!” Claudia waved her hands. “Are you going to keep pointing that shit in my face, brother?”

“Sorry, we didn’t know.” Lorenzo lowered his gun, and the others did the same.

I watched Claudia in shock.

She’d lied.

She could’ve been finally safe from me forever, and instead, she defended me.

She was protecting me.

Why?

I’d helped her get the twins, but they’d been kidnapped because of me. If I hadn’t set Benjamin up, the traffickers wouldn’t have gone after the twins.

“Thank you so much,” Stella said to me.

All of a sudden, everyone was thanking me, clapping me on the back, and even hugging me.

“You look like a deer caught in the headlights. It’s kind of funny,” Claudia whispered into my ear as she caught my arm and pressed herself close to me.

“Oh, honey,” Claudia’s mother said to her. “We knew you’d be back. We were expecting you. We decorated everything just how you like it.”

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