Page 6 of Alessio

Alessio turned on the stool to face his guest, coming face to face with Christopher. Before then, Alessio never looked at Corrado’s twin and first recognized all the similarities between them. He always found the differences first because that’s what he liked about Corrado.

All the things which made him different.

Today, the first thing he saw in Christopher’s features were all the things that made him and Corrado identical. Right down to the way his lips quirked up at the corner when he smirked, and the gold flakes in the browns of his irises.

All it did was hurt.

Just like that, the numbness left, and the pain was back. Alessio didn’t know which one he wanted more.

To feel everything.

Or nothing at all.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked.

Chris shrugged. “Dad.”

“What, worried I might do something rash because I left the mansion?”

“Who knows? You might want someone else to talk to.”

Alessio nodded. “Well, I don’t.”

“And I’m still here.”

Perfect.

The phone vibrated on the bar. Alessio’s gaze cut to the device at the same time Chris’s did, both seeing a familiar name flashing on the screen to say a text had come through.

Corrado.

“What’s that about?” Chris asked.

Alessio sucked air between his teeth, hating the taste of whiskey on his breath but needing the annoyance to help keep the numbness at bay for the moment. “I told him I’m fine … around, or whatever.”

“Ah.”

“And to leave me the fuck alone,” he added quieter, turning to stare out the window again. “Apparently, he didn’t get the memo.”

Chris sighed. “Or he’s ignoring it because he’s worried, and he cares.”

“Right.”

Cares.

A funny way to describe what Corrado had done.

“Do you want to talk about them—him and her, I mean?”

Alessio made a disgusted noise under his breath. “I don’t give a fuck about them, Chris.”

It was a lie.

He did.

He concerned himself with too much about them, what they were doing, and why. More than anything, he wanted to know why.

What was it about the woman that did it for Alessio and Corrado? Why her? Why was it her who finally broke them? After all these years, all this time, and every female the two of them had gone through over the years in their bed … why the fuck was it her?