Page 84 of Beautiful Sinner

The memory of her standing at the end of an aisle about to marry Connor hits me. She hadn’t said ‘I do.’ She doesn’t’ hesitate to say it now.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest says. “You may kiss.”

I take Julia’s face into my hands and gently press my lips to hers. This is it. Now is our time to be together forever.

But then the large church doors burst open and someone comes running down the aisle. When I pull back from Julia, I see that it’s Connor fucking Barry himself.

He’s running right towards us with a gun in his hand. A gun that’s pointed at me.

He pulls the trigger.

I dive to the side but in the process, I accidently pull Julia down with me. She lands on top of me with a huff.

Inessa and Elena scream as they duck behind the pews. The priest takes off running. So much for being a hero.

“Don’t hide behind her,” Connor seethes. “Get up and fight me like a fucking man.”

I sit up, pulling Julia up with me. “Are you ok?”

“I think so,” she says.

“Good.” I turn to Connor. “I’ll fight. If you put your gun down. If you want a fight, let’s fight with our fucking fists.”

“Connor, put the gun down,” Inessa says.

He whips around to stare at her in shock. “You’re here? Does Viktor know that?”

“How did you even find this place?”

“I had some men follow you out of the house. You weren’t exactly secretive, Inessa. But they ended up losing you… until my men saw Matteo and Julia going wedding dress and ring shopping. This was the closest catholic church in the area. It wasn’t hard to figure it out.”

Inessa turns to me. “I didn’t know he followed me. I swear. I didn’t set this up.”

I believe Inessa. Unlike her husband, she doesn’t want me dead.

“Put the gun down,” Julia says. “Please, Connor. You might accidently kill me.”

“You’re marrying the fucking enemy!” His voice echoes through the large cathedral. “But that’s all right. Because once I kill Matteo, you’ll be mine again. Viktor will reward me for the death of your kidnapper.”

“Julia, run.” I try to push her towards the side door but she doesn’t move.

“I’m not leaving you.” She stands in front of me. “If you want to kill Matteo, then you have to kill me too. And if you kill me, then Viktor will never reward you.”

“Move out of the fucking way,” he seethes.

“No.”

I’m proud of Julia. My wife. But losing her is the last thing I can let happen. If Connor wants a fight, then he’ll have a fight.

Acting fast, I push Julia to the side and jump off the platform and run right into Connor before he gets the chance to shoot. His gun does go off but he misses me. I push the gun out of his hand and punch him square in the face. Connor only punches me in return.

I get on top of him and start raining down hits. His face becomes a bloody mess but he’s still alive. He needs to die. Die. Die.

“Matteo,” Inessa says, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me away. “Matteo!”

Her frantic voice makes me stop. When I look at her, she points to the altar where Julia is lying on the ground, bleeding.

She has a wound to her arm. The blood is seeping into her white wedding dress.

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