A vein popped in Nicky’s forehead, her face crimson and murderous. She seemed to be about to attack him.
I stepped in between them. “Why don’t you take a walk, Nicky?”
She glared down at me. She was at about five inches taller than I was and much more athletic. In a physical fight, she’d easily take me. I’d take it. For him.
But what she did was walk past me and crouch down next to him, a sickening smile on her face. “Then why the fuck instead of killing him you shot her, you sick fucking coward?” She articulated every syllable, stressing at the end. “If she’d had any doubt about her feelings before you pulled that trigger, they had all gone. You practically threw your beloved wife into another man’s arms. It’s because of you she’s now insanely in love with him. It’s because of you, she lies in his bed every night, happily letting him do all kinds of dirty—”
“Enough!” he thundered, shaking, what was seen of his eyeballs red. “Fucking enough!”
“No, it’s not enough.”
“For God’s sake, why are you like this?” I had to intervene.
With a bad case of resting bitch face, she cocked a brow at me. “Excuse you?”
“The man has lost almost everything. Why kick him when he’s down?”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about so mind your own business, Doctor. I don’t need to hear any shit from another girl who can only get it wet for obsessive psycho fucks.”
My jaw dropped for a second, but then I scoffed. “You’re so narrow-minded. Your traumas have controlled all your capacity of understanding and destroyed your empathy. You see things from one perspective. Yours. Which, news flash, could be entirely wrong.”
“Wrong?!”
“Yes. About Leo and perhaps even about Don Bellomo. And don’t get me started about your sister.”
She shot to her feet, menace in her gaze. “My sister is just a kid who has been brainwashed. One word about her, and I wouldn’t mind smashing that not so smart mouth of yours, putting the cuffs back on your wrists and never taking them off all the time we have the pleasure of your company.”
In a situation such as this, I’d learned to shut the fuck up and do as I was told. But since I’d gotten here, since I’d seen the face of the one man I’d ever been passionate about, since I’d touched him and allowed myself to be vulnerable with him, many things changed inside me. It’d rekindled the virtue of defiance in me, even though I knew it came with a price.
For Leo, for my crime against him, for a chance to atone, for a chance at saving him, I was willing to pay.
“Your sister isn’t as innocent as you like to portray her, Nicky, and I think, deep down, you know that. She’s made her own share of mistakes. She’d vowed to give herself to Leo, yet she betrayed him and married another man. His own father. It’s devastating even for the sanest minds let alone the twisted ones.
“Despite your personal beliefs and your own interpretation of the situation, whether you think she’s been brainwashed into her choices or she’s too young to make any in the first place, your sister isn’t exactly the victim here. She must have been aware of Leo’s obsession and accepted it to agree to marry him. Perhaps even liked it. Needed it. Choosing Dom Bellomo, the man who has developed an even deeper obsession for her, and sharing a happy life by her standards with him confirm it.
“Let’s face it, doesn’t it have some sort of beauty to it to be the object of someone’s obsession? You get all the attention and affection and intensity of devoted passion. You become the center of this one person’s universe that they would do anything for you. Many girls would love to be a part of something that epic.” I knew I did.
“Oh my fucking God, even the shrink is a lost cause. What exactly do they teach you in therapy school?” she snapped. “No, Doctor Fucked Up. Obsession leads to manipulation, deceit and abuse. It doesn’t have any fucking sort of beauty to it. It’s pure fucking sickness that ruins a girl’s life.”
What’s going to happen if I just slap her?“Says the blonde girl with the full rack. You get too much attention to disdain it, I guess.”
Swearing, she clawed her fingers, but before she took her rage to the next level, Leo interrupted. “Is it true?”
“That being obsessed with a girl is sick? Fuck yes,” she huffed.
A deep scowl scarred his face. His chest rose and fell with accelerated breaths. Was he still agitated by her hurtful, provocative speech? “What she told me when she thought he was dead, was it only to hurt me, a way of getting back at me, or was it true?”
“I wasn’t there to know what fucked up shit you’re talking about now.”
“Was she pregnant?!”
Oh no. Please don’t answer the question. Not now, at least.But, of course, she would. As much as she wanted to hurt him, she wanted to fuel his fury to make sure he’d finish the task she’d freed him for.
“Yes, Leo. She was. And now they have a beautiful baby boy named Niccolino. The woman you were supposed to marry didn’t carry your babies. She carried your own brother in her womb. Tino’s son. Your replacement. The heir to—”
I punched her in the face. Someone had to.
She let out a chorus of curses. I was positive she was going to return the blow. I hadn’t been in several catfights, but even if I lost, as always, it’d be worth it this time.