Page 136 of Goldsin

Taking several steps back, I try to put some distance between us. The burning sensation spreading over my skin is enough—I can’t have his presence suffocating me too.

“She killed Victoria.”

“Damn it, Julian,” Adrian hisses, running his hand through his already disheveled hair. “You knew she was going to kill her?” His eyes are bulging out. “I— What the fuck! Why didn’t you tell us? We’re family. We could have helped you stop her!”

Maybe I should have. That would have prevented Victoria’s family from sending someone to kill Lucian and attempt to kill Mom in retaliation.

Aurelia isn’t the only one who follows the “an eye for an eye” motto. Every member of the Inferno Consortium does. We’ve been bathing in it for decades, generations.

“Family.” The word tastes like ash in my mouth. “And look where that got us.”

Adrian sighs, eating up the space between us with one long step. “We’ll figure this out, Julian. But we needto stick together. We can’t let whatever reason she had for doing this tear us apart.”

I scoff, a headache forming from the force I put into clenching my jaw. “I know exactly why she did this.”

Vincent DeMarco humiliated her mother. Made her feel like less of a person and more of an object.

Marcus Whitman played his filthy psychological games with her mother before using her worn-out body all night.

Lady Marlowe scarred her mother’s body, bruising it or burning it depending on what she was feeling that night.

And my father? Lucian imprisoned her, exploiting her sexually and mentally. Lavishing her in fake love. He stole her life in the name of greed.

“Is there something else you’re not telling me?”

So much more.

I glance at the closed doors separating me from our mother. “Does it matter?” I look back at him, reading every micro-expression. “What matters is that our mother almost died because Aurelia was too selfish, too blinded by the desire for revenge.”

The slight twitch in his eyes tells me he knows there is so much more I’m not telling him. And the smoothness in his forehead tells me he will seek to find out, with or without my help.

“We will get through this. We always do.”

I shake his hand off my shoulder. “You don’t understand, Adrian. This isn’t like before. This ...” I swallow to wet my dry throat. “This could break us.”

Break us. Tear apart what fragile strings remain between me and Aurelia.

“We won’t let it.” He places his hand back on my shoulder.He thinks I’m talking about our family.His grip is like steel on my skin. “We’ll find a way to make things right. I promise you that.”

Promise?

A numbness settles deep within me.

What good are promises when everything we thought we knew has been ripped away?

CHAPTER THIRTY

AURELIA

Ibite down on the cookie.

Chocolate crumbs fall on my pants as I swing my legs. My phone is beside me on the kitchen counter, and I peek at it every three seconds, waiting for the screen to light up and for Julian’s name to appear.

I haven’t heard from him since last week when ... everything changed.

Why hasn’t he called?At least to let me know how his mother is doing. Although I already know—Valentine told me. They brought her back home this morning. She still has a long way to go, but she’s alive.

He could have at least sent me a quick text.

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