Page 42 of Vulnerate

Carly was pregnant.

With Valentin’s son.

Realization weakens my hand and the glass slips before it can touch my lips. It shatters on the floor between us along with my heart. He wouldn’t. No, I must have heard him wrong. He didn’t dothat.He wouldn’t let me sleep on his chest and kiss me while spinning a fairytale about marriage when he was sleeping with my sister.

But it’s written on his face as I look up and a pit opens up in my stomach as I beg him to lie.

“You didn’t get Carly pregnant?” He doesn’t answer, and I punch against his chest repeating myself louder. “Tell me you didn’t fuck my sister and have a child with her?!”

I believed him, laid on his fucking chest with hearts in my eyes while he was fucking my sister.

My fist flies out, hitting his jaw and rattling my hand. It doesn’t even make him flinch and I have to shake my hand with the pain radiating through it. I go to do it again until my hand is broken but he roughly grabs my arms and tries to turn it on me.

“I didn’t lie, you did. You left me, I would have given you everything.”

Disgust has my lips curling and a bitter laugh rips from my throat. “I may be the youngest, but I never took Carly’s hand me downs.”

Valentin flinches back like I’ve hit him, and I finally understand why he always smiled when hurting people. It’s satisfying.

The shards between us dig into my bare feet making me hiss and he loosens his hold on my arms as he looks down. He picks me up, ignoring my fight not to be touched.

“Get off me, I fucking hate you.”

He’s done the one thing I can’t get past. Every day I watched the same Valentin with a different girl, it was always some asshole that was trying to ruin my life. I let it go, forgot about it. Fucking forgave it because I was a dumb teenager and the Val in school wasn’t the Val at home.But this is different. He went too far and he’s done something irreversible. He’s forever bonded to my sister. They share a child together. A little boy. The first love of my life who I thought would be my only is the father of my nephew.

He tightens his hold on me as he steps over the glass crushing it under his shoes. Sitting on the sofa, he arranges me across his thighs and delicately holds my ankle, picking out the glass. My voice hardens as I kick into his filthy hands uncaring about the damage it’s doing to me.

“I want to see my nephew.”

His fingers tighten around the joint at my request. I won’t accept a no. I need to make sure he’s safe and hasn’t been fucked up by whatever shit his stupid, immature parents have put him through.

Val grits his teeth and attempts to threaten me as his fingers wrap around my ankles to stop my kicking.

“If you try to take my son away from me, I will burn your fucking world to ash. With you in it.”

Scrambling off his lap, I ignore the stinging in my soles and the pride in my chest. Some fucked up part of me is happy at his protectiveness, that my nephew is safe. If there’s one thing the Vartanov’s know how to do, it’s being there for each other.It’s my own fault for incorrectly thinking I was included in that. I never was because the dumb fuck in front of me only ever cares about his nasty dick.

I swallow around my fear as he raises to his full height and steel my spine.

“I will know my nephew, and I never want to see you or Carly again. You deserve each other.” Sadness has me deflating, robbing me of my prior strength. “You’re everything everyone always said you were Valentin, and now you are nothing to me.”

You broke the hope I was holding on to.

He grabs my throat and hauls me forward taking up my vision. His face is set in hard lines and menacing to match his tone.

“I’mnothing? You let me fuck you a few hours ago but I’m fucking nothing?!” My body shakes in his hold as he vibrates with rage and his hurt bleeds out. “You fucking left me!” His fingers tighten around my neck, and he leans into my face allowing me to see all his anger. “I lost you, but I still kept looking foryears!”

Our noses are nearly touching when he lets out his full cruelty and I fight before he can wreck me with his most weapon – his tongue.

Slapping at his arm my own hurt comes out louder and more pained.

“I lost everything! My family fuckingdied, then I lost the second one I chose!”

Fuck him for thinking he had it hard, he still had his brothers. I left everything I fucking knew because of other people’s lies. All because of money and manipulation to achieve what? Pain and more fucking heartache.

Tears mute my anger as I push at his chest to get him away from me. “I lost everything while you were raising your child with mysister.”

A bitter laugh leaves him as he shakes his head. He loosens his hold on my neck enough for me to step back. The need to inflict pain sits in my tongue stopping him from speaking.

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