Page 118 of Masked Hearts

A smirk edges onto his face. “I’ll email it over. See you next week.”

He exits, and Adriano bids him goodbye from where he was leaning against a wall, observing the check-up. “Well, aren’t you just a ball of sunshine today?”

“I’m not in the mood,” I snap back, lying down.

“I haven’t seen you this cranky since you found out about Valerie and Ambrose,” Augustus adds, moving to the bed from where he was mirroring his twin’s actions.

I shoot him a look. “Add to the mood, why don’t you? You two can leave now, the check-up is over.”

“What’s going on?” Gus lies down next to me.

I stare blankly ahead, not wanting to compartmentalise my emotions right now. Quite frankly, I’m content never thinking about it.

“Nothing.”

“And I’m Rapunzel,” Adriano quips. I fight back my laugh, not wanting him to know I found the comment funny, especially considering his buzz cut looks fresh. “Stop bottling it up; we’re here if you want to talk about it.”

“I don’t, because nothing is going on,” I reiterate.

“You two are idiots.” A voice from the doorway draws all our eyes up. “It’s so obvious our Nino is heartbroken.”

Enzo.

My entire body tenses, and Mattia appears at his side. His eyes are watching me cautiously. I feel like I have whiplash as memories of the time being held hostage by Kylian flash before my eyes.

Enzo was there.

Enzo was there and he did nothing.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” I ask, forcing myself to sit more upright. Enzo smirks and steps out of the way, revealing Ambrose.

“Family meeting time,” Augustus says under his breath as they all walk in. “It’s time we had a chat.”

“What is he doing here?” I ask again, this time meeting Ambrose’s eyes.

“You should be more grateful,cugino. I could’ve left you for dead back there,” Enzo says, but I refuse to look over at him.

“He’s right; you’re alive right now because of him,” Ambrose says.

“Can someone just fucking tell me what’s going on, because all I know is he was on their side before I died and came back to life.”

“Was I?” This time, I look over at him, but he’s watching Ambrose. So are Adriano, Gus, and Mattia.

“We needed you to believe he was on their side. We needed you in the dark for this to work.” Ambrose sighs, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

“You set me up?”I yell.

“Just let him explain before you jump to conclusions,” Mattia says this time, and I fall silent as I realise everyone in this room knew besides me.

“Enzo was always on our side, but we needed both you and Gabriel to believe he wasn’t. It was perfect considering our recent tension surrounding the insurance company. It was a simple plan: Enzo would infiltrate their systems, acting as a mole for more information about us and offering them secrets on you. Then he would offer up a particular detail that you were taking Theá out of the country, and the rest was history,” Adriano explains.

“But how? How did you know about the trip? I told no one.” I furrow my brows.

“You told me,” Mattia speaks up.

Motherfucker.

“We couldn’t count on you taking her on a trip, but with some extra pressure, we knew it would drive you both to the point of wanting to be hidden,” Augustus says.

---