Page 119 of Deliria

More footsteps echo and I cast my eyes over Alex’s shoulder expecting to see Vincent, only it’s Irene standing there, looking just as sour-faced as usual.

I don’t know whether to feel honoured or repulsed by her presence. I knew she was in on all of this, I knew she was more than aware of what her husband and her son were doing. It was why she so conveniently slipped off whenever ‘those nights’ would happen. She didn’t want to see it firsthand, didn’t want to sully her head with the nastier details.

Fucking bitch. I’m looking forward to the moment I can claw at her powdered face. The moment I can rip her perfectly coiffed hair out by the roots.

“I told you I would deal with this.” Alex says stiffly to her.

She sniffs, meeting his gaze before she drops her eyes to her other son. The one chained up like a criminal.

“I can’t believe you…” She hisses before she lashes out, landing a nasty scratch across Rafe’s cheek.

“Get your fucking hands off him.” I scream before I can stop myself.

Alex laughs, squeezing my face so tightly tears well in my eyes. “Now, isn’t that sweet? You getting all protective. You know it’s pointless, right? You know that soon both of you will be dead?”

I snarl back, trying to get free from his grasp. My eyes land back on Rafe’s mother. On how she’s standing there, acting like she’s okay with that. Okay with seeing her child murdered.

“He’s your son.” I scream. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“He’s no son of mine.” She spits back. “As far as I’m concerned, he can rot in hell.”

What the fuck is she talking about? Does she really hate him that much? And for what?

“You don’t get it, do you, Scarlett?” Alex says, his voice dropping an octave, becoming that seductive lilt that sets my teeth on edge. “You don’t know what he’s done, do you?”

I shake my head before I can think not to.

He laughs again, turning my face to look at Rafe as if whatever it is, is so awful that even I will despise him for it.

“Look around the room, tell me who is missing from this scene?”

What? I frown glancing from Rafe back to his brother. And then it hits me. Who isnot here. Who is markedly absent.

Vincent. Where the fuck is Vincent? What God awful things is he up to right now?

“He’s dead, Scarlett.” Alex says pointedly. “My father is dead. And Rafferty is the one who did it.”

Jesus fucking Christ. He’s dead?

I let out a laugh, I practically sing with joy as those words hit me. Vincent is fucking dead!

And Alex responds immediately by slamming his fist hard into my rib cage. “You bitch.” He spits. “You think you’re laughing now, but you won’t be, not when you realise what it means for you.”

“What does it mean?” I gasp, choking on the little air that is left in my lungs.

He grips my hair, yanking my head at an impossible angle and I swear my neck might just snap from the force.

“It means, wife, that now I can do whatever I want to both of you. Now, there’s no one whispering in my ear to spare my poor little brother. No one telling me to play nice…”

Like he has been so far.

I stare back at Rafe, hating the way my body is trembling. Afterall, what do I have to fear? I’ve already faced every horrific thing imaginable. Whatever Alex does to me now, it can’t be worse than what I’ve already lived through.

“Make them pay.” Irene screams. “Make them both fucking pay.”

Her voice carries like a bad wind, echoing off the cold stone walls as she storms out.

As the heavy door slams behind her we all stay here, in that awful silence she leaves behind.

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