Page 17 of Legacy

“Let’s not state the obvious. What led up to the incident?”

“The neighbors caught her giving my girls alcohol. All are under thirteen. I confronted her, and she laughed at me, saying I let my wife die, and this is what happens when other people have to raise my girls for me.”

I felt rage for him.

I knew the background of how he’d lost his wife. He was working for Ozias outside of town when the hit occurred. It was during school pickup. She’d lost her life in the crossfire between our men and a rival family.

I pushed Marcos onto a nearby chair.

“Bring Anna in. We need to have a chat with her.”

Marcos’s head snapped up. “Don’t punish her. She’s a young girl, too. Only nineteen. I was wrong for slapping her. She lost her mother too, and is lashing out.”

What the ever-loving fuck?

“That isn’t an excuse for her behavior. I will have a chat with her and make it clear to get her act in order, that is all.”

Marcos nodded, and a tear slipped down his cheek. “She’s right, I didn’t protect her.”

“You are not responsible for this. If anything, Ozias and I are. You were out on orders from us.”

He nodded, not saying anything more.

Was this what happened when a man lost his wife? I had never seen Ozias this way when my mother died, but then again, he never cared for her a single ounce.

How would I react if I were to lose Avra?—

What the hell?We weren’t even married yet, and here I was, projecting and thinking of what could happen if she died before me.

We lived a vicious, violent life. We protected our spouses and children by staying ahead of rivals, but there were occasions when we lost loved ones and suffered. Would Avra grieve me? Or would she scheme and plot to replace me with another?

For fuck’s sake.Thinking of what-ifs like a lovesick puppy was ridiculous. I hadn’t even married Avra yet.

But I couldn’t escape the thoughts. Was it the permanence of it all?

Marriage.

Avra would be mywife, not just another woman to warm my bed.

Christ. In a matter of weeks, I planned to tie the rest of my life to another.

If I were to marry Avra and lose her too soon?—

I’d be fucked in the head too.Husbands and wives were to grow old together, not die in their youth.

I studied Marcos. There wasn’t any way I could kill the sad fuck for this mistake.

Giving leeway wasn’t an option either. One lousy mistake could bring down the entire empire.

I wasn’t a saint or anything close. He’d get a good beating for this. He’d shamed the Xenos name in public. I would instill a hard-earned lesson by the end of his discipline. He lived today because I wasn’t a complete spawn from hell.

My men would make sure he cleaned up his act. If he didn’t, he knew what would happen.

“Theonlyreason I’m sparing your life this time is because your wife just died. Because you have innocent daughters waiting for you at home. But”—I leaned over him, gripped his bloody chin, and raised his face until he met my gaze—“you are never to put your hands on a woman again. I don’t care what they say or do. Shoot them before you touch them. Is that clear?”

He nodded, trembling with the effort to remain standing.

I released him, confident he understood there were no second chances.

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