Page 117 of Heir of Darkness

Valerio eyed his brother. Alec was someone Dante hardly ever brought up, but he remembered how his brother looked after he found the body. He didn’t sleep, he didn’t eat, he didn’t move; he was practically a zombie of a person. He was never the same after it. The smile never matched his eyes again. Valerio never even knew about the relationship until after Alec’s death, but he would have protected his brother and supported him one hundred percent, back then and now.

“You already know I did,” Cesare said. He held his bloody nose in his hand with a sickening grin.

“Why? He was innocent,” Dante growled.

“No son of mine, no matter how much of a disappointment, is going to ever be with a man. Not in this lifetime,” Cesare bit back. “You should be thankful. I saved your reputation.”

“You killed the man I loved,” Dante screamed. “But you don’t feel any remorse; you never did.”

“And I never will,” Cesare said.

Valerio took a deep breath, calming himself enough to get all the answers before he shot his father in the head. “Why did you try to kill me? Your own son, your fucking heir!”

Cesare’s eyes hardened. “I had no use for you. Your loyalties have shifted.”

“So I was better off dead?” he asked.

“As long as that girl carried your child, I had no use for you,” Cesare said.

“I am your son. Your blood. You were willing to kill me off just like that? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“The same thing that’s wrong with all of you. You know what comes along with this life. Don’t act so surprised now. I did what was right for the Vitali name,” Cesare said, standing up. He wiped the blood on his hand on his suit jacket. “Which is what the two of you should have done if you cared about this empire at all.”

“What about my mother? What did she do?” Dante asked.

“She killed herself,” Cesare said.

“Because of you,” Valerio told him.

“Because of all of us!” Cesare screamed, slamming his hand on the desk. “She wanted to leave, she wanted to run away. I wasn’t going to let her leave us.”

“So you enabled the same misery that killed her. You could have let her go,” Valerio hissed.

“See if you would ever let that Kingsley girl go,” Cesare said, his voice full of malice. “Tell me you wouldn’t keep her locked up.”

“I wouldn’t because I’m nothing like you,” he spit out.

“You fool! Have you learned nothing? You are me.” Cesare laughed hysterically.

“I will never become the man you are—willing to sacrifice my son, willing to kill someone he loved, willing to take an innocentgrandchild and manipulate it into a monster. You’re not powerful. You’re a coward,” Valerio screamed. “You’re nothing.”

“Fuck you,” Cesare bellowed. He reached for the gun on his desk, but Dante was quick with it, shooting him in the arm before he could.

“Enough!” he cried out. He rushed up to his father, forcing him onto his knees and pulling out one of the smaller guns he had stowed away. He shoved it into Cesare’s mouth, forcing him still as soon as he cocked the gun.

“I won’t shoot you in the back. I’ll look you dead in the eyes when I shoot you. I’ll make sure you remember the face of the bastard son you hated, remembering he was the one who took your life. You won’t get a tombstone, you won’t get buried six feet under. You’ll get thrown into some random body of water, a promise that no one will find you and no one will remember you,” Dante told him, his voice calm despite the situation. “See you in hell.”

Valerio watched his father’s wide eyes, his head shaking back and forth trying to spit out words but unable to do so. He expected to feel something, anything, but instead he felt nothing.

The shot rang out in the room, silence following afterward. Dante let the body fall forward, hiding behind the desk. His shoulders moved frantically before a sob tore through his chest.

Valerio pulled Dante over, wrapping his arms around him. He needed it more than he did. His entire life he had been made a spectacle, losing everyone he loved one by one. Almost losing Valerio was the last straw, it seemed.

He had made it his life’s mission to protect his younger brother. And today, it was Dante who protected him.

“You’re going to be okay,” Valerio promised him. “It’s all going to be okay.”

And finally, they both knew it would be.

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