AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eight days. Dio.
I've been out for eight fucking days?
"What…?" I pause when Rafe holds the cup out to me, allowing me to take a drink. The cool water feels like liquid gold sliding down my throat. Christ, it's good.
I drink until I can't breathe and then lean back, grimacing at the pain that courses through me with every movement.
"What happened?"
Concern flickers through Rafe's dark gaze. "You don't remember?"
I hesitate, trying to pull forward a memory…any memory. Everything is chaotic and jumbled, like shattered glass in my mind. But I sift through them anyway, trying to fit them into place.
"Brio stabbed me," I finally mutter, the fragmented memory surfacing like a phantom pain.
"Yeah," Rafe growls. "He nearly killed you." He swallows hard, as if the words are difficult for him to say. "No. He did kill you. For four minutes, you were dead."
"Jesus." The truth settles over me like a shroud. I almost broke my promise to Aurelia. I nearly left her behind, alone and unprotected.
"Don't ever fucking do that again, Agostino, do you hear me?" Rafe rasps, his eyes bright.
I nod, my chest pulsing with emotion as I glance at his sister. The last thing I intend to do is fucking die and leave her alone.
"I never should have kept the truth from you," I confess to Rafe. "You deserved to know about her from the beginning."
"Yeah, I did," he agrees, his voice steady. "But we're past that now, Mattia." I glance back over at him, his obsidian eyes fixed on mine. "She loves you."
"My heart beats for her," I say simply. It's nothing but the truth. I've spent a lifetime alone, accepted by the Valentino family, welcomed into it, but not really part of it—not entirely, anyway. I've always been an outsider looking in. My family was taken from me when I was seven. I've been on my own ever since, living half a life. Until Aurelia. With her, I feel alive. I have a purpose. My life has meaning. She's my family. She's my purpose. She's the meaning. Without her, my life is just blood and death and black and pain. I've had enough of that bullshit.
Rafe jerks his chin in a nod. "I know. The few times you've said anything over the last eight days, it's been her name. If anything kept you alive, it was her." He sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm mad as hell that you married her without even fucking telling us that she existed, but I know you did it for the right reasons. You've always put this family above everything. I can respect that."
"It's what I vowed to do, Rafe. Protect your family."
"Our family, Mattia. This is our family." He tilts his head to the side, his expression serious. "You still don't understand, do you?"
"Understand what?"
"I could have chosen anyone to be my consiglieri," he says. "Doesn't matter what my father wanted. I didn't have to choose you, Mattia. I chose you because I wasn't willing to lose another brother after Nico walked away. I was keeping my fucking family together, no matter what."
"Jesus," I whisper, swallowing hard.
"You've always been part of this fucking family." He narrows his eyes on me, the unspoken threat hanging heavy in the air. "But if you make her cry, you answer to me, motherfucker. Not as your Capo, not as your brother, but as her brother."
I smile, a feral, dangerous smile, pleased that she doesn't just have me looking out for her now. She has her brothers, too. She deserves nothing less than their loyalty. And I expect nothing less than to catch hell if I don't treat her like the queen she is.
My gaze drifts back to her, and I can't help but ask the question that's been gnawing at me. "What about her mother? Is she…?"
Rafe shakes his head sadly.
My heart clenches as I look up at the sterile hospital ceiling. "Fuck. That sorry motherfucker."
"Brio didn't kill her," Rafe says quietly. "He actually had a doctor looking after her, trying to keep her alive, but she was seriously ill. We talked to the doctor who was treating her. By the time they found the cancer, it had spread too far. There was nothing they could do."
I glance at Aurelia, my heart aching for her. She tried so fucking hard to save her mother. So hard.
I'm sorry, little mouse.
"How's she handling it?" I ask, fucking worried about her. Fucking hating that she's been grieving alone.
