Page 14 of Matteo
I scolded myself for letting my driving practice fall to the backburner.
“I’m scared,” Gianna whispered.
“Me too,” I said, my clammy hands trembling.
A car rammed into the back of my dad’s G-Benz and I heard my little sister’s screams first. Then, all I registered was my body flying as the car flipped.
A long, dark silence followed.
When I finally opened my eyes, the stench of blood was strong and screams rang out as bright red pooled on the ground, forming a canvas painted with sins.
My breaths came in ragged gasps as I crawled across shattered glass. Sticky blood stained every inch of my skin, coating my hands with it.
“Arianna!” Gianna’s panicked voice reached me.
My heart was pounding loudly in my chest, I looked up, searching for my sister, but all I could see was red. Fucking blood everywhere.
What have I done? What have I??—
“Noooo!”
I blinked and shook my head, desperate to clear it. Slowly, Gianna’s distorted form came into view, and I continued crawling through the debris of the wreckage, ignoring the pain.
“Blood… blood…” Every heartbeat felt like a ticking time bomb in the snowy night’s calm. “So much blood… Gianna…”
But the moment my fingers registered the warmth of her skin, everything turned black.
That familiar lump grew in my throat while a buzz ricocheted in my ears. I blinked, my eyes burning with desperation to erase the old and new images that morphed together while they played on repeat in my mind.
Peeling myself away from my parents, I stood up and turned my back to the room, discreetly wiping my eyes.
I paced over the plush oriental rug. I was tempted to leave the room and hide, but I knew that wouldn’t go unnoticed, so I made my way to the corner and slumped onto a loveseat. It didn’t take long for my twin to join me, although she had yet to say a single word to me.
We’d been at the Vitale residence for the past hour and the whole time had pretty much been spent like this—beingsuffocated by our family and Francesca convincing them I was a hero.
Not even close.
The fact of the matter was that I choked when faced with the barrel of the gun. The fear had paralyzed me, and no amount of my dad’s training could have prepared me for it.
“Why in the fuck would you play the hero, Arianna?” asked my sister, and I briefly wondered if this was the most she’d spoken since we found her waiting in Matteo’s Range Rover. Looking at her now, properly, she was furious. “Did you think of me at all? That I wouldn’t be able to live without you?”
My little sister glared at her and scolded, “Not everything is about you, Hannah.”
Every fiber of Hannah’s being vibrated with rage. Her fists clenched and unclenched, and some twin voodoo must’ve taken over because my chest throbbed with frustration. I found myself mirroring the pain in her eyes.
“I just… I don’t know.Reacted.” I looked away, not able to stand the vulnerability I saw on her features that were so like my own. “I’m sorry.”
My attention darted to Gianna, whose attention was on a nonexistent dot on the wall across from her, that old haunted look in her eyes I’d seen too often after her kidnapping. Today’s events took her back to that day, just as they did me.
“You’re everything to me.” Hannah’s voice shook, but she tried to keep her composure. “We always promised it’s us before the world. Us beforeanyone else. You and me.”
“And our siblings,” I reminded her sharply, annoyed at her self-centeredness at this moment.
“But not the Vitales.”
I shot her a reprimanding look. “Nobody should stand by and let someone get hurt. No matter who they are.”
“Exactly. Hence my point. I don’t want to see you hurt. Would you want to see me get hurt?”
