Page 12 of Wrathful King
“Nothing,musuko.” I knew she was lying. My heart beat a fast rhythm.
“Nothing?” Father screamed. “She’s dead. Fucking dead, and it’s your fault.”
“Who’s dead?” Dante asked, his face pale.
Father ignored him, intent on hurting our mamma. “You never could stand being the second choice, could you, Hana?” He dug the metal into her head, like he wanted to rip right through her skull. His face was red with rage, but there was something else there too. Something I had never seen before. Terror. “You’re a fucking snake.”
Father’s finger curled around the trigger and I was certain this was it. He’d kill her this time. Mamma hadn’t moved a muscle, nor had she attempted to fight him, and I wondered how they’d gotten to this point.
“You can’t just kill her,” Dante tried to reason, looking back and forth between them, eyes wild. “Maybe you should just marry her, so Mamma won’t feel like the second choice.”
Despite our fucked-up upbringing, Dante was a romantic at heart. Father must have thought it too because he threw his head back and laughed. The unhinged, crazed laugh traveled through the cursed castle like the ghosts and memories that haunted it.
“Marry her,” he scoffed. “I don’t turn leftovers into my main course.” A wry laugh tumbled from his chest. “I don’t fucking worship a woman who costmywoman her life. Put her kids and mine in danger,” he shouted.
“She deserved to know the truth,” Mamma retorted coldly.
Maybe Mamma had had enough of Father’s mistresses? But that didn’t explain his comment about her seeking this one out in Venice.
Father smiled, pushing the muzzle of his gun into her mouth now. “Say another word, Hana, and I’ll pull the trigger.”
My eyes fell to the cabinet on the right, the one I knew he kept another weapon in. It was only three steps away. Dante’s eyes found mine, and I could see he had the same thought.
“What did she do?” Dante asked, moving into his line of sight. “Do we need to help some kids?”
That had Father’s attention. “We can’t. He knows now, and he won’t stop until he has her. Possibly both.”
“Who?” Dante asked. Something about the desperation in Father’s eyes didn’t sit well with me, but I shook it off. He was a bad man. He was the bad guy in every scenario. “Who?” he repeated.
Father pushed Mamma toward my brother, then waved the gun in their direction as if he intended to shoot them both.
“Which one is mine?” he screamed, his eyes locked on her.
Another step and I ripped open the drawer, pulling out the gun. I didn’t wait for his answer before I pointed it at him, hoping it was loaded.
“Put the gun down,” I said, my arm steady. “If you hurt them, I will pierce your fucking skull and watch you bleed out with a smile on my face.”
The pressure around my neck tightened and I lifted up so that I could knead it out. I now suspected I knew who Mother and Angelo were talking about. Slowly, every puzzle piece was shifting into place.
“Are you okay?” Dante asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Being shot twice might have something to do with that. I fucking feel like a ghost,” I said instead of answering his question. “How did it come to be that Reina was promised to you? And why is your signature on the agreement between Romero and Angelo?”
“Right before his death, Father switched the name to Reina, but he never made it official.” The news rocked me to my core. It was the last thing I expected. Reina and me. In an arranged marriage. “Father called Phoenix inadequate and crippled.”
“Don’t repeat those fucking words again,” I gritted. Angelo Leone was a piece of shit, but it could very well be that the old snake had used it as an excuse if he suspected Phoenix was his. After all, it was what he’d told Reina. “What happened to that agreement?”
Dante gave me that venomous smile that never amounted to anything good. “After Father died, Romero called me up. He wanted to formalize the agreement. Prior to his death, Father insisted that Phoenix’s name be switched with Reina’s.”
Angelo truly believed Phoenix was his, which led me to another conclusion. Reina’s mother must have had an affair with Angelo for a while if he was unsure which girl was his.
“Why did Romero change the names though?”
That unhinged look gleamed in Dante’s eyes. “Fuck if I know, but it worked for me. It was just about the time the videos started.”
“When did all this happen?”
“About a year ago.” He grinned. “My only caveat was that I sign as Father.”
