Page 108 of Vicious Games

“What?”

“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “I’ll go find Anna or Stella for you. Lucky shouldn’t have left you alone in the first place.”

“Marcello, wait.”

But it’s no use. Before I can say anything else, he’s gone.

Chapter 17

Luciano

“The party really wore him out, huh?” I ask softly, watching Frankie sit on the edge of the bed, her hand gently smoothing Darius’s blanket, ensuring he’s tucked in for the night. I’m standing just behind her, close enough to catch the quiet reverence in her gaze.

“That, or all the gaming he did,” she replies with a tired grin, her eyes full of affection as she watches him sleep.

“You’re really attached to him.” It’s not a question, just stating an obvious fact. The love she has for Darius is plain as day. “Do you feel like that about all the kids back in the orphanage? Like they’re your extended family?”

“Not all of them, no,” she says, shaking her head, though her eyes never leave the sleeping boy. “You learn early on not to get too attached to anyone in the orphanage. Nuns come and go, transferring in and out all the time. And the kids… Well, if they’re lucky, they get adopted.”

“And if they’re unlucky?” I ask gently.

“They age out or run away.” Her smile fades. “Not everyone can handle the rules, the structure. Some just break.”

“I get that,” I murmur, running my fingers through the waves of her blonde hair. “I’m not sure I’d survive living a day under your precious Mother Superior. It’s bad enough I have to deal with her at school.”

“Don’t talk about her that way,” she chides quickly. “She’s saved me more than once.”

“How so?” I arch a brow, curious.

She turns slightly, craning her neck to glance up at me over her shoulder. Her eyes are soft but insistent.

“Well, for one, if it weren’t for her… I’m not sure I’d even be here… withyou.”

The timid look in her eyes has my chest tightening as if my heart were trying to claw its way out of my rib cage.

“And what a fucking tragedy that would be,” I whisper, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

She gives me a little, shy smile before turning her attention back to Darius.

“But you’re right. Darius is different. Special. We just… clicked, I guess. He was so little when he came to us, barely five. I still remember that day as if it were yesterday. He was so scared. So heartbreakingly terrified to be in a place where every face was a stranger to him. During the day, he would hide in a corner, hoping everyone would forget he was there.” Her voice drops as her fingers trace lightly across Darius’s cheek. “But at night, alone in his room, he wouldn’t stop crying for his mom. Every night for weeks, he’d cry himself to sleep, hollering out for her and keeping the rest of us up because of it.” She sighs in sadness. “One night, I just couldn’t take it anymore. His fear… his pain… It hurt too much. So I went to his room, crawled into bed beside him, hugged him with all my might before telling him the truth.”

“What truth?” I ask, already feeling the ache in her words.

“That his mom wasn’t coming back for him. That no one was. I told him I was sorry that life had been so cruel to him. That I knew what it felt like, because life had been cruel to me too. And then I told him he wasn’t alone anymore. From then on,I’dbe his family. That I wasn’t going anywhere. That I’d never abandon him.”

“Let me guess? That’s when he finally started sleeping?” I force a smile since each word that falls from her lips feels like they are tearing my heart apart.

“Like a baby,” she chuckles, then adds quietly, “But that’s not why I did it. It wasn’t just him who was struggling. I’d been lost long before Darius ever showed up. It does something to you… growing up with no one. No family. No one to love you for who you are. No one to protect you.” She pauses, her fingers still against Darius’s warm, brown skin. “He needed someone to love him unconditionally. I needed it, too. So we became that for one another. Family. And when you know there’s even one person in the world who loves you unconditionally like that… Suddenly, the bad days aren’t so bad anymore.”

I love you.

The words wedge themselves in my throat, heavy and unrelenting, but I swallow them down, pretending they aren’t suffocating me.

“Maybe,” I choke out, my voice raspier than intended, “it was fate that brought Darius to you.”

Her smile dims, sorrow clouding her eyes. “I don’t believe in fate. Not one that can be so unkind.”

I gently lift her chin, guiding her gaze to meet mine.

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